Christmas Time is Here!

Regardless of the fact that they have been playing Christmas music in the stores since about Halloween, Christmas time has officially arrived this weekend. The girls are thrilled to be allowed to sing Christmas songs in the house. We had made a rule no singing Christmas songs until after Thanksgiving. Now we have changed it until the week of Thanksgiving. It just gets longer every year. Anyway....we had a great Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Essex, MA. I forgot my camera so I have no pictures from that day. But....we had a nice round of singing there and Emily performed some Christmas songs on her flute. We even sang along to one. It was a very nice day with great food, great company and some wonderful conversations!! I have a new opinion of Queen Latifah now!!

Friday morning I got up early and decided I would try the early bird shopping. I made it to Kohls and after being there about an hour, half of that in line to check out, I decided it was time to go home. Too many people, too many cars on the road and I just wanted a cup of coffee. I did manage to get a few deals though. Later in the day we headed over to the ski swap. We found a great deal on a pair of snowboard boots for Callie. Callie has decided to snowboard this year instead of ski. Makes me a bit nervous since she is the daredevil of the family. But good for her for trying something new.

Last night, Saturday, Callie and the rest of the third grade from our school sang at the tree lighting ceremony here in Merrimack. They were invited to join the upper elementary and middle school choirs. It was fun and a nice way to get us in the spirit of Christmas. Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance and Mrs. Claus read a story.

Here is Callie and some of her friends getting ready to sing. From left to right - Kate, Alex, Callie and Sabrina. Ya think green might be a favorite color amongst the third grade??

Here we are after the singing. You might think, why isn't Todd smiling?? Well, my friend who took the picture was having trouble and took awhile to take the pic. His smile didn't hold.

After the tree lighting, we headed down to Nashua for the Holiday stroll. This is where they close off Main St. and all the shops are open. They have all sorts of performances and ice sculpting, etc. We rushed down to watch the Merrimack Valley Flute Choir. Emily's friend's sister is in the choir. It was amazing and in a warm church so we enjoyed a half an hour of warmth and some awesome music. There were flutes there I had never seen before. Long and fat flutes, curvy flutes and of course the piccolo. Emily was amazed and really enjoyed it.

Here is Emily and her friend Morgan.

That is all for now. I will try and keep this more updated for the Christmas season. You might wonder why I have a picture of the ocean up top. Well, this is the time of year I really miss the beach. So until I get a nice Christmas shot enjoy the waves. All I need is some sound on this blog of the waves rolling. Have a great Christmas season!!