Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve over at Grandma and Grandpa Dorene's house. We had dinner and then exchanged presents since we wouldn't be getting together on Christmas. Mikkele is old enough now that she knows that we always get new jammies on Christmas Eve. She had begged all night to be able to open hers so she could get a little more comfortable. She finally got her wish and immediately went in to change.

Hallie was a little disinterested in opening the presents. She would start helping, then get distracted and move on. Mikkele got to help open a lot of presents between Hallie and Grant.

Mikkele also go spoiled by her Grandma and her Aunts/Uncles/Cousins. I love her reactions to presents. She always has the best faces. She's still in love with Justin Bieber and is super excited about the puzzle and activity book, as well as the CD that has a JB song as well as many of her other current favorites.

Hallie loves "dodo's"! Grandma and Grandpa gave her a whole house of little dodo's. Her favorite game to play is take the dogs out and let mom put them back.

Grant always get lots of yummy treats for Christmas, since his favorite thing is FOOD!

After all the present opening we went home to get the kids in bed so Santa could come. We had one extra elf helper this year....Mikkele :)

Snow Days

School was canceled the Tuesday and Wednesday before Christmas because we had so much snow! Mikkele was super excited! She spent most of her break from school outside playing in the snow. We even got Grant and Hallie out in the action a few times.

We spent a good majority of the first day clearing driveways and sidewalks in the neighborhood. We would get a driveway cleared and move to another one and by the time we were done with that one we would need to do the previous one again. The pic above is one of our neighbors with his snow blower showering Mikkele with the snow.

Hallie all bundled up and ready to play in the snow.

Hallie thought it was fun to slide down the ramp. It makes a perfect little sledding hill. Our post man doesn't think it's as fun as the kids do though.

Catching snowflakes with her tongue.

Mikkele and Hallie at the top of the sledding hill, ready to go down.

Grant had a good time being pulled on the sled around the yard. There was a few times that Mikkele went around a corner a little too fast and dumped him into the snow. He just giggled and said "MORE"! He loved it, but got cold really fast. A slight disadvantage to not being able to be up and moving while playing in the snow.

Mikkele's Christmas Concert

Mikkele is in choir this year at school. The 5th-8th graders put on a Christmas concert on December 16, Jeremy's birthday. They sang a trio of songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas and then a couple other songs that were more native to different countries. The kids did a great job! Grant really enjoyed listening to the kids sing and kept saying "more" after each song was over. Mikkele got to stand next to 2 of her best friends, Rietta and Kensi.

I tried adding a video, twice, but it is being a pain. So no video...sorry.

Wax Museum

For Mikkele's book report for November and December she had to choose a biography on an influential person who is no longer living. During November she had to read the book, and during December she had to work on a speech and a poster to display at the wax museum they would have to show off which person they chose. The person she chose was Princess Diana. It was a lot of fun to go around to each of the kids and hear what they had prepared on their person. Each person would be in a pose until you pressed their button. At that time they would stand and recite their memorized speech.

Mikkele's friend Anna was the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
(I can't remember her name...whoops)

Her friends Kamrin and Gracie were Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller.

Levi was Elvis

Sophia was Amelia Earhart

There were many others, but I didn't take pics of everyone. It was fun to walk through all three 5th grade classes and listen to each of the kids. They all did a great job!

Grant's Christmas Concert

Grant's class put on a cute Christmas concert. They sang a couple of Christmas songs and then we watched a really cute slide show that had pics of the kids throughout the year so far. His teacher, Miss Ellinger, sang the song "Angels Among Us" during the slide show. Talk about tear jerker! The kids all did a really good job. Super cute!

Miss Jane helping Grant during the Jingle Bells song.

Gallier Family Christmas Party

We had the extended Gallier family Christmas party early on in December before it got too busy. We had dinner, a little talent show, and then had a nativity with the cousins. Mikkele was Mary, and Jaden was Joseph.

Jaxon was baby Jesus.

Mikkele sang the song "Mary's Lullaby"
All the other cousins were shepherds, wiseman and Hallie was an angel.

Well she was the naughty angel. LOL. She kept taking the straw out of the manger. Some of the other kids kept telling her no. At one point she hit Lane for telling her no. This child has an attitude problem. I need to get a copy of the video it was actually kinda funny. Sorry Lane!

The kids did a great job portraying the story of Jesus' birth!

Volleyball

Mikkele had the opportunity to try out volleyball for the first time this fall. The city starts offering it in 5th grade, so she's been anxious to get to the 5th grade so she can have her go at it. She has done many sports in the past, but they haven't really been up her alley. She's definitely not a tom boy like her mom was growing up. I do, however, think she needs to be introduced to all different kinds of sports so she at least knows the basics, even if she doesn't excel at them. And if she does well, great! If not, oh well. At least she tried and put forth her best effort. All that being said, she did great! I think this is one sport that is up her alley. She improved so much during the season. Her serve is getting stronger, and she is getting more and more aggressive as she goes toward the ball. We had a little joke toward the end of the season. I kept telling her the cheer "Be aggressive...be be aggressive". She hated it when I would chant it to her, but helped her to remember to go toward the ball. She is excited to play again in the spring after my volleyball season.

Some of her cheering section