We were hurrying not to be late, so we took some pictures after we got back home! After such a fun festive evening we HAD to turn on the fire place and have some hot chocolate!

The "lady in red" is Mrs. Davis, the kids' principal at Spring Creek. She has been so warm and welcoming this past month that our children have been going there! Thank you!!

Ni'ke's Solo! (the first 5 seconds...)

"On this night, let us light, 6 little candle fires."

Good job, Ni'ke!! We are so proud of you!!

Ni'ke Takes the Stage!

Ni'ke's Christmas Program Story

So we moved on to Day 2 of Christmas programming....

Ni'ke and Ya'shar's programs were last night, and boy were they excited. They had seen Rea in her program the night before, so now it was their turn to shine! To my surprise, I saw Ni'ke walking forward to the front of the stage, and she had a little solo to sing! HOW did I not know this?! For 3 weeks, she's been saying, "Do you want to hear the song that I'm going to sing?" and I thought she just meant "the song that WE are going to sing!

She did sooooo great, and no, no stage fright for this one.... NONE. She sang about 8 little Hanukkah candles, and we were sooooo bummed because as Daryle was video taping her, the memory card on our camera filled up half way through her solo!! Well we got the first 6 words though....

Ya'shar, My Shining Star

Ya'shar's Christmas Program Story

My littlest baby as well had apparently been trying to tell his mother for 9 days (according to Rea) that he too had a part in the school Christmas program. I'm sure I don't remember that conversation happening, but nonetheless, I was thrilled to see this little guy dressed up like a shining star for one of the songs!! He was so very cute and we were so proud of our shining star.... (Please, video, please cooperate and load!) I got a picture of his very kind teacher, Mrs. Mortenson, or "Ms. M" as he calls her!

Things That Make Me Happy

Well, there are lots of things that make me happy, and most of them far more important than a shiny new green tea kettle that perfectly matches my green and yellow kitchen, but gee, isn't it pretty??!!

It made me so happy that I couldn't wait to serve the little Smiths hot chocolate yesterday morning after heating the water in the shiny new green tea kettle, thus resurrecting "Hot Chocolate Fridays". Hot Chocolate Fridays has been missed tremendously since the children started their new school across town, but I think we did a pretty good job with our own version! :)

And you can't serve hot chocolate in anything ordinary, especially this time of year, so it was time to break out the holiday mugs!! (Those make me happy, too...)

As Rea said, "It was a very fancy and good breakfast."

Most happy thing of all? Watching my sweetie pies giggle at each others' cool whip noses over breakfast.

I'm very happy.

Asante Children's Choir!

Last evening I took the little people to see a concert at Redwood Covenant Church. All I can say is "WOW!!"

These 23 amazing children are from Rwanda, and many of them are orphan's or lost loved ones in the genocide. I've never seen such joy emanate from a person or group of people!! It's just such an amazing testimony of how God turns our mourning into dancing and we can overcome the worst of atrocities. "Asante" is Swahili for "thank you" - it seems backward for them to be thanking US, because we received such a blessing from them!

The kids were really excited - Rea was pretty much riveted and on the edge of her seat. Ma-lak liked the drums but got a little bored toward the end. Ni'ke talked and asked questions the ENTIRE time - "How old are those girls? Where do they live? Aren't they tired from all that dancing?" And Ya'shar was baffled by the whole experience. He couldn't figure out how they all knew what to do at the same time! "How did they know they were all supposed to dance like that?!" He couldn't comprehend the concept of group practice and memorization!! Love that little dude....

And to top off a wonderful evening, I was called off work last night and got to stay home and sleep in my warm and cozy bed with my warm and cozy husband!

Before the Concert!