Final days before Christmas break

All the school recitals/programs are OFFICIALLY over! Whew!

It has been a busy time between 'Thanksgiving' (US point of reference) and Christmas break. We went to the last school performance last night, the Middle School's Winter Arts Festival, and all I have left in the way of 'mom' duties is to help with science experiments Friday morning in Kendra's class and then show up early before school is out to join in her class party. Tidy up the house, make sure the bags are packed and we are OFF!

We enjoyed both the girls Winter concert's and their recitals. I can only show the pic of Kendra at her piano recital:
The other pic's, including Rachel's, have too many other kids in it - not going to post them for all to see as the faces are too clear and I don't have signed releases. :) Don't want to get in any trouble in cyberland.

Kendra's concert was full of fun holiday songs. She loved doing her choir concert and smiled the whole way through. Rachel (violin) did a great job introducing the first number at their Strings concert last night and played with a smile on her face - especially on "Curse of the Resin-eating Zombies" which seemed to be an orchestra favorite. The pictures show smiles on all their faces as they played this 'horror' sounding string piece. Kind of takes away from the 'horror' aspect.

We have snow but it's the best kind - light, fluffy and DRY. I just sweep it away with my hard-bristle 'snow' broom. I don't know what the broom is really called but I have one and it's great for light snow. Much easier than a shovel.

I'm seeing a lot of pic's on other Blogs of christmas decorations, etc... so thought I'd share ours before we fly away and leave them for me to clean up after the New Year. We are very happy to be going to family for the holidays but we miss our own home at this time as well.

I hang these over a dining room window - half of the window, in fact. I keep the other half clear because the window's slant open from the top as well as side and I pop the one side open once in a while to air the room out - not convenient with balls hanging in front.
This was the first Christmas item on display this year. Kendra begged and begged for me to get the tree up the week of Thanksgiving. What she really wanted was access to her little snowman (Scholastic order - from a couple years ago) which is stored in the ornament boxes. Once I realized that, I let her sift through the boxes while we 'fluffed' the tree.

I bought a star at the store, the girls added sparkly, red berries and I attached some ribbons - Voila! - our door decoration.

I've showed pic's of our funky fireplace with all the hanging Christmas cards before. This year they're not hanging - I just didn't feel like it. So they're all sitting there and, no pressure, but there are fewer so I'm not too worried about running out of space.

Lovely ladies in front of the tree. We will miss our own tree for Christmas but we're looking forward to Kris & Jason's!

It has been 4 years since my immediate family has been all together - I think. If not 4 years, then longer. New Years - Tavanni was 5 months old - but I can't remember if K & J were there - my memory is going.....

So Ohana Tafisi, the Swiss Family Olson and Grandparents will descend on Southern CA to meet up at Kris and Jason's. We are soooo excited. There have been two babies added who are now toddlers and Rachel and Kendra can't wait to "babysit" their cousins. We will also have the opportunity to spend some time with other special friends, go to Disneyland with family, a Lakers game (it's been about 16 years since Bart & I have been to a Laker game - those were "date" nights before we moved to Northern CA), the American Girl Doll store in LA (girls have plans too) and enjoy foods we miss that can't be found in Switzerland.

What I will NOT be packing: wool socks, down jacket, gloves (well maybe a small pair), a 'heavy' scarf, hat, long-johns, heavy sweaters or snow/ice worthy boots. We will bring small umbrellas - just in case. The Hawaiian side will be complaining about the 'cold' while the Swiss side will be luxuriating in the 'warmth.' And we're all hoping for good weather because as my sister Debbie so graciously put it "I don't think any of us want to sit around staring at each other for 4 days in Mansion B with 6 kids running around." Too true, too true. So here's to good weather, good times to come and celebrating the birth of the Savior as a family.

Our biggest prayers are for traveling mercies and God's hand in our health. Kendra and I are getting over sinus colds, Rachel and Bart are well! And for all of our other family members traveling and being together - there are a lot of things going around and we pray they don't directly interfere with our ability to visit with one another.

Enjoy your Thursday. I am preparing a funny post - re: life in Switzerland. Stay tuned.....