Grant and friends, Kaylee, Abby, Bailey, and Aria, went to the CMS Christmas Dance and had a fun time!
Danny, Katherine, Grant, and I drove the truck pulling the theater trailer to Charlottesville early on Saturday morning to the State VHSL theater competition.
The team quickly unloaded and prepped their supplies backstage.
Culpeper, Staunton, Lafayette, and Magna Vista competed and were all REALLY good!
Christian shook hands with the judges after they announced his name as an all-state actor! They mentioned and commended him specifically in their comments earlier too, so that was really encouraging!
C and the other 3 best actors at the state level! What an honor for all of them!
C thought he would experiment with a new look between his performance and awards (he shaved off part of his beard.)
V with his proud family! (V was working, but was able to see it in November and was also proud).
Christian and his beloved drama teacher, Mrs. Mitchell. She is amazing at teaching, casting, and directing! She is also so kind and is fantastic mentor and example for her students. We are very thankful for her and for the role that she has played and continues to play in Christian's high school experience.
VHSL state champion!
2nd Place at States is amazing! What talent!
They had a fun stop at Cookout on the way home.
Katherine is the one in the middle of the back row holding the inflatable teal bat.
Katherine and Danny rode/walked in the Christmas parade with Culpeper Little League.
Moonshiners are a staple in every parade around here.
Grant was with a friend and C was with Mia, so it was really nice of V to come meet me there after church. It was a really cute parade and we had fun people watching and admiring the floats.
CCHS band performed well too.
I was able to sub a lot this month. I enjoyed subbing in library.
I also enjoyed bringing minute to win it Christmas games and a hot chocolate bar to a a few wards' YW activities. I love getting to know the leaders and youth. Gabriella and Julie shared beautiful spiritual thoughts and testimonies after the games at these activities.
G, Dawson, and Austin after another wrestling match. This time Grant won by a forfeit. We were sad not to get to see him wrestle this time vs Binns.
Katherine won a star stallion award for the month of November! We are proud of her for making good choices and being kind at school.
Our ward had a really nice Christmas party and Katherine was the narrator for the Children's nativity!
My fun shopping buddies! (V liked these glasses and now has them because Grant bought them for her as a Christmas present. Sweet brother.)
Kate wasn't feeling well one day and stayed home from school. She wasn't feeling too badly in the afternoon so we went on a walk at Cedar Mountain Battlefield. Our friend, Sam Pruitt, was there and took us on a tour and taught us a lot of history! He is an expert on that Civil War battle and is an important volunteer there. He even wrote the brochure there.
We made a few Christmas goodies.
I love being able to help with things like this breakfast for the staff at CMS from the PTO.
Katherine made this cute angel at a primary activity.
Danny and I had fun watching these cute kids and their teammates compete at an indoor track meet at Liberty University.
Despite never having a fever and having a negative covid test, I had been coughing and not feeling too well for over a week. My breathing and O2 was getting worse instead of better, so I finally went to the doctor. I actually did test positive for covid there. Oops! False negative before! We are presuming that Kate probably had it too when she was sick the week before, but it was only for a day or two for her, so who knows. I had been subbing and going about normal life, but must have had it for at least 7 days by the time I tested. I had to stay home or mask for the next 3.
I didn't feel right about going to the hospital, even in a mask, knowing that I had covid, so Danny went with V to her surger. A week prior, V had another appointment regarding the mass in her neck. Danny and I went with her to that one. They (two doctors at UVA) were able to rule out several of the worse case synarios like Lymphoma and Luekemia, but they didn't know what kind of tumor it was so decided to remove it, rather than biopsy it and then remove it later. So, brave girl just went for it, the Monday before Christmas.
She hates needles and IVs, so this wasn't her idea of fun, but she did a good job. Danny tried to keep her entertained and happy when they had a difficult time getting the needle in.
The surgery took a bit longer than expected and she took a while to come off of anesthesia, but they got it all out and she woke up happy and friendly! They would be able to give us some answers after Christmas. The scar and stitches were a little bigger than she had hoped, but not terrible either. She was bummed to hear that she couldn't put bandages on it and rock life as normal. Instead, she was instructed to not get it wet and to keep it covered with antibiotic ointment for the first week. She rocked a bun for the week. Overall, she felt relieved that it was out!
Look how cute Yowell was at arrival and dismissal on the last day of school before break! So fun!
Also, this was so cute! A boy from Katherine's class, Greyson, brought a special Chrismas present for Katherine! They are good friends and it was so kind of him!
She got to work right away and isn't it beautiful?!
Christian had a huge group of his guy friends over for a white elephant gift exchange and party! I love to see, or in this case hear, them having fun! I feel so blessed that they have good people in their lives!
We didn't send out Christmas cards, but sent a virtual one instead!
The kids went to Grantma's for Cookies and Crafts. This year's theme was A Christmas Story. As always they ate good food, played fun games, and made cool crafts and treats. They had fun. I need to add some more pictures or Victoria's reel. This year was especially helpful because I was feeling pretty sick. Danny and I didn't have an especially eventful anniversary because I still felt exhausted. We ran a couple errands and had takeout for dinner. We also completed a puzzle. We can try again another time. I hate that covid kicked my booty, but it really wiped me out. Even with prednisone and an inhaler I struggled to keep up my oxygen and felt extremely tired and my coughing and voice were nasty.
Christmas Eve at Grandma's went well! All of the normal East coast family was there except for Mary who has been tending to Jim after his stroke. We had a pizza and shrimp year. The kids acted out the nativity, opened cousin gifts, and their fun gifts from grandma.
We put out treats and milk for Santa, and threw carrots in the yard for the reindeer before the kids and my mom went to the basement for their sleepover.
In the morning, we found that Santa had come!
(Insert pictures from early Christmas morning and write about that!)
Christian finally felt well and spent the evening with Mia and her family.
Our missionary friends came over for breakfast and stockings and a couple games. We loved having them. Elder Harper and Elder Wolf are serving in our ward and Elder Parada, Stong, Robison, and Curtis are serving in the Mountain Run Spanish Branch that covers our area. We also invited the YSA sisters from V's ward, but they were unable to make it because they are also serving in Chancellor ward and had early church.
We went to Culpeper ward for their Christmas service at 10:00 and really enjoyed their musical program. Attending their ward should have enabled us to bring mom back to Richmond in time for her to go to Craig and Lorel's that afternoon, but unfortunately she started feeling sick at church.
We headed to Bob and Susan's house from there. I don't have too many pictures on my phone, so please have me add them if you have others, Danny.
We enjoyed a meal, reenacting the nativity, opening presents and playing games there as well.
Lots of excitement as the cousins exchange presents!
Katherine enjoys having some younger cousins.
Giant Jenga was a hit.
It was a good Christmas!
The next week was pretty chill as I was still recovering and still coughing a lot. Also, on Christmas evening Christian got sick. He was sick for a few days and thought it best to stay home since it was likely covid. I can't remember if he tested, but my mom did and she had covid. So, we must have had a silent/assymptomatic carrier, we are thinking Katherine or Grant. Looking back we think Danny had it earlier in November because he had a cough that lasted forever then.
Katherine had fun with some of her new things like a detective kit. Here she and Danny are looking for lines in money.
It is a real one.
We also played Stallion YES ZEE, watched movies, played her new math games, Adsumudi and Proof, and more. It was so kind that Katherine's school gave every child a present with brownie, popcorn, and activities!
The kids had fun with friends too.
V went to a New Years Dance in NoVA with AnneGreyson and Andrew.
And the rest of us crashed a party for Culpeper Ward youth and their families at the Genhos. It was a lot of fun.
Did you know that Kristie and Lynnie are two of my favorite friends around here?
It was a fun way to ring in the new year!
