We are finally more prepared for Christmas.  A couple of days ago, the boys were so helpful stuffing our holiday cards in envelopes and putting stamps on them.  They loved to help out, and kept bragging how much work they had to do and how important their work was.  Today we went out to do some gift shopping.  The boys were more interested to find something for themselves and later switched gears to play at the video game display, but overall we ended up doing fine checking somethings off our gift list.

    Stuart had gone out to get us a tree before the storm earlier this week, and we just finally had time to decorate it this afternoon.  Connor was so eager that he got me out of bed after our nap to get started.  We put up the lights, then when Logan finished tossing a football with Stuart, he came in to join us too.  The boys were good putting up the ornaments, and basically hung most of them except the high ones which I did.  We listened to Christmas music while we worked.  The holiday spirits is finally spreading.

   Connor’s Christmas program was on Wednesday.  The class had been practicing for it and Connor was excited to count down to the day as usual.  When we asked him on Tuesday if they practiced, his response was that everyone knew the songs very well and they did not need any more practices.  He sounded so confident and he told us that he would sing and would follow the teachers’ instruction. 

   I took some time off from work on Wednesday morning, so I dropped both boys off to school.  Before the scheduled show time, Stuart and I arrived at school.  We waited outside Connor’s classroom for a little bit, then all the children came out to let the parents into the classroom.  Stuart and I decided to go for a standing spot to video and take pictures.  The show began as the class marched back into the classroom.  Connor had a great smile and waved back to me.  Connor and the whole class did very well; they did around 7 songs and a poem.  They all sang and did their hand gestures right on beats.  They moved around to different positions without any issues.  Connor stared and sang to Stuart and I majority of the times, and he often wore a smile on his face.  He put his hands in the pant pockets, and wiggled the pants sometimes, but he always took his hands back out for the hand movements.  What a great performance it was and the parents were entertained well by this short program!  Afterward they had a visit by Santa Claus.  Each kid got up to Santa to say hello, take a photo and receive a candy cane.  Connor was so happy with the candy cane and immediately walked it to store it in his cubby.  After saying bye to Santa, the teachers instructed the children to say goodbye to the parents too and they quickly resumed their regular class routine.

    Logan had a chance to watch Connor’s performance on video today; we all got to re-live the moment again.

     Christmas is coming soon.  With Connor’s hardwork, the preparation has started after Thanksgiving was over.  Connor has been learning how to draw many Christmas related objects.  He sometimes draws in the morning as soon as he wakes up and in the evening after dinner.  He creates more of those beautiful drawings during free time at school too.  He has declared to us: “I am going to keep drawing Christmas things until Christmas”.  Connor has been decorating his room too.  He started by putting up some gel window stickers few weeks ago.  Last week he removed all the old photos from his magnetic board, and replaced with some ornaments and the photos strips we received from the holiday party.  He was so proud to tell us “My room has the most Christmas decorations!”

 
     We almost forgot to take Elfie out until last week when Logan suddenly asked “Where is that little guy?  What’s his name?”  Connor did not quite remember about the elf initially but quickly got reminded.  Since then Stuart and I try our best moving him every night and we have not failed yet.  The boys are excited and look for Elfie in a new location every morning.  However the boys seem to be convinced that we are the ones indeed moving Elfie rather than magic as they had said “Daddy is tall enough to put him up there”.  Elfie had a casualty one day.  I put him on top of the canvas and apparently it was a not safe place.  As Connor and I came home from school one day, Connor yelled “Elfie is down!  Elfie is down!”  Poor Elfie was down on his tummy on the counter.  For the rest of the night, we had to tell the boys that we could not touch him and that Elfie could not move himself either as to not show his magic.  Fortunately Elfie has found more stable positions since then.

    I had the third art lesson at Logan’s class today.  This hands-on project was more messy, so I recruited one more mom this morning to help out.  I arrived at school while the children were at lunch; I said hello to Logan along with some of his classmates as I wheeled my cart by.  I set up the supplies, then my helpers joined me.  The regular teacher was out today and I was a bit nervous how well the class would be with a substitute teacher.  The class returned from lunch, and I asked them to sit down with me on the rug.  We reviewed our last lesson briefly, then began the new topic “colors” for the day.  We used a color wheel to discuss primary vs secondary colors, and we learned about complementary colors and analogous colors.  We also talked about warm vs cool colors and I utilized a few famous paintings for discussion.  The kids were engaged and eager to answer questions as usual. 

    Next, we moved on to the hands-on project.  I demonstrated a “wet-on-wet” technique using primary colors (watercolors) on a dampened coffee filter to show how colors diffused together.  Then it was time for the kids to try it out; I sent few kids at a time to the four parents at the paint table to make their artwork.  I had the rest of the class coloring in a color wheel and making another color drawing while they waited for their turn.  The flow worked quite well.  The kids cooperated and listen very well.  Before the end of the hour, all the kids made their beautiful artwork.  The parents and I quickly cleaned up and wrapped up a successful lesson.

     We attended my work holiday party on Saturday.  We dressed up and took a few photos at home before leaving for the hotel.  When we arrived, there were not too many guests yet.  We said hi to some people and I got introduced to some other people in different departments.  Then we settled in and shared a table with the Changs.  The boys were happy to start drawings with the supplies we brought.  Shortly after, we were told to start the buffet line.  The food was decent and all four of us ate well.  Connor had fun using the knife cutting the bread and cucumber, and later Logan followed his lead cutting their food up before eating.  All four of us enjoyed a slice of chocolate cake as well.  We chatted with the Changs while we ate, then afterward, we checked out the photo booth.  It took us a couple of tries to figure out how to use the self service photo machine, then we finally did our first session.  Connor was hooked and kept wanting to return for another shoot.  He was happy holding on to the photo strips while he followed me to mingle with my coworkers.  He also played with Stacy for a little bit and enjoyed the nifty photo app she had on her phone.  All this time Logan preferred drawing some cool tanks and Minecraft, so he and Stuart just hung out at the table most of the time.  Connor and I checked out the dance floor, however Connor was more interested in watching the DJ operating his equipment. 

    While some guests had left, the remaining guests gathered to start the white elephant gift exchange.  Since we opted out on this activity this year, we used this time to have the boys taken their last photo shoot.  We left the party shortly after 9pm, so it was a late night for us.  Logan was definitely quite exhausted while we read our bedtime stories.

   We received Connor’s report card last week.  He is doing well at school.  Connor is very eager to learn.  He loves reading the mini book assignments from school to us.  He even has the “written by” and “illustrated by” memorized and reads those as well.