Out-Takes from the Nutcracker

Last night, we went to the Nutcracker Ballet.  I got 6 tickets in the balcony, so we dropped off Matt at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the evening, and set off for the theater.  Half way there, we had to turn around and go home so Andrew could put his contacts in.  I told him there was no way he would be able to see the stage from way up there.  And it was a lot of money, so I would prefer that he could see.

We did make it to the performance in plenty of time.  During the ballet, Joey kept turning to me and saying, "this is weird." He also let a loud toot during a quiet part. I turned and looked at him to see if it was really him that had offended, but he just kept looking right ahead and didn't acknowledge me at all.  He admitted it with pride later, though.

Grace noticed the big stage lights attached to the ceiling and asked Ben what the cannons were for.

When the sheep came on to dance, she told Ben they were guinnea pigs.

Ben asked her if she liked the guy dancer's tights.  She said "no".

After intermission, the dancers started to come back onstage.  Grace rolled her eyes and said, "He's back.  With the pants."

Everybody was happy to leave at the end, and then declared that they liked it.  (Except for Joey, who still said it was weird.)

Cutting Down the Tree

This year, I had a bright idea: let's go up to the mountains, and cut down our own Christmas Tree!  So, with our $5 permit in hand, off we went to the Custer National Forest.  The very second we passed into the border of the forest, it started snowing.  The weather otherwise was pretty good, so we pulled onto a few roads and kept our eyes peeled for a nice, fat tree.

On about the 3rd or 4th road, Ben got out and went scouting for a tree.  When he came back and said that a few looked promising, we all got out, suited up, and went to find the one.

It was super fun to walk through the forest, and in a lot of spots we found deep snow with a hard crust on top.  We could walk on the surface, and every once in awhile we would fall through.  The kids thought it was hilarious.  We had a few snow fights, and discussed the possibilities of a few trees.  Finally, we picked the one that we had found first.

We had our lunch (sandwiches from the cooler) while Ben and Andrew cut that thing down, hauled it over to the car, wrapped it up (twice) and secured it to the top of the Pilot.

 (Haley was super happy, having been up all night shopping Black Friday sales with Brianna)

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The next day, while the boys took care of our lighting needs outside, the girls and Matt and I decorated the tree.  We had pulled it out to go all the way around, and when we were done, I decided to pull it back all by myself.  I was pretty proud of my muscles until I realized I was stuck, and I had to pee.  So I shouted for help, and Ben grabbed the camera.

The raggedy tree turned out better than I thought it would. If it just had one more branch in that bare spot, it would be perfect!

2 Random Pictures

I found a couple of random pictures I wanted to put on the blog.

The first one is of Zach and Matthew playing together.  You almost never see that, because for half of their lives, Zach has been afraid of Matt (for good reason -- he's completely wild). Now they tolerate each other every once in awhile, so we have to document it when it happens.

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We walked in to Thanksgiving lunch at the Kazmierski's, and Grace and Emily were wearing the same thing.  Cute!

Family Pictures

We took advantage of some of the last good weather we'll see for awhile, and went up to the Rims to take family photos.  All the Kazmierski grandchildren were in town, so in addition to our own family pictures, we got some of the whole group!

Here's my five:

And the whole bunch:

 Another of the whole crew. Boy was it windy up there!

 Mr. Joey, age 6:

 Mr. Matthew, age 3:

 Mr. Andrew, age 10:

 My little group of five:

 We even managed a family shot!

 And now, for the girls: Miss Grace, age 5:

 And Miss Haley, age 15:

It's been awhile since both Ben and I were on the other side of the camera, so we had Haley snap a few just of us:

Skate World

As if sledding weren't enough, we decided to go roller skating, too! Everybody got on skates, except for Haley and Dad. They were big chickens. I haven't been roller skating since college, and that was actually roller blading, but still.  The last time we went as a family, I was super pregnant, so I couldn't participate. But I'm not now, so I did!

Andrew and Joey were whizzing around the place with no problem.  After awhile, I helped Grace get her balance, and pulled her along right beside me.  The hardest was trying to keep Matt upright between my legs and skate at the same time.  After one lap, I was sweating like a pig. But he had a great old time, so around and around we went.

Lindsey brought her family, and she and I took turns taking our kids around the rink.  We looked just like we did in elementary school!  Although I didn't try going backwards this time, but boy were we good, back in the day -- skating to Bon Jovi!

Some things that are EXACTLY the same at the skating rink since I was in 5th grade:

The rink

The carpet

The skates

The disco balls

The bathrooms

The male workers (long, greasy hair - with nowhere else to go)

Wow.

Snowstorm #2

Last Saturday we woke up to a little more snow.  We got a call from the Shimamotos to go sledding, so off we went! The hill was half snow and half mud, but who knew that mud slides just as fast?  We were filthy, and it was only 5 degrees, but we had a blast and were out there for an hour.

Ben took Matthew down that hill I don't know how many times, but they always ended up like this for several minutes before Ben could get up:

But they kept going!

Ben and Grace taking the hill:

Ben and Joey:

Even I was convinced to go down the hill at the end.  It really warmed me up, although my butt hurt -- it was NOT a smooth ride.