Sophie's World

12/17/2011, 12:00 Mountain time: It's Christmas-time, and things are hectic in our household, as usual. The girls had their last day of school for a couple of weeks on Friday, and they are looking forward to the break. I'm not sure we're looking forward to having them here 24/7, but we'll see how it goes. At least we don't have to get up so early to get a walk in before getting them off to school.

Elisabeth is dancing in the Nutcracker, and she is one of the Big Mice. She's also an understudy for the party scene children, and we got a call late yesterday afternoon that one of the girls was sick and Elisabeth would be taking her place. (I think they knew earlier in the day but no one remembered to call us until it was time for Elisabeth to be there and they saw she wasn't there.) She was in the shower at the time, so that her hair would be wet for french braiding. But with the party scene, that meant I had to blow-dry her hair as quickly as possible so they could curl it when she got there. The best part is that our whole family had tickets to the show last night (there are four shows total), so we got to see her, and she did so well! Her "family" was the "naughty" one, so she and her "brother" bickered and fought much of the time (she certainly has experience to draw on with her little sister), and she did great with that. She couldn't have been more excited. Now it's going to be hard for her to go back to being just a mouse. After complaining about all of the rehearsals the last few months, now she definitely wants to do Nutcracker again next year.

In addition to the Nutcracker, this weekend our church has what we call "Advent Journey", which involves a visit through various scenes, leading to the nativity, where Randall gives a speech as Joseph. Sophie is one of the water maids (and Elisabeth will also be one tomorrow night after her matinee Nutcracker). I will be on the last stop, thanking people for coming, giving them information about the church and ushering them out. Next weekend, we'll have three services on Christmas Eve (Happy birthday to Randall!) and two services on Christmas Day.

Randall's mom will be arriving on Thursday, so we'll have both moms with us this year. Luckily, we all get along well, so I'm really looking forward to it. Now, here's hoping I can find the motivation to put ornaments on the tree and decide how much Christmas decorating I feel like doing!

Merry Christmas, and thank you for keeping up with our family!