Colorado Christmas

 Ellie had her first middle school choir concert.

 She was nervous but did great.

 She also had a few clogging Christmas performances.

 It has been so much fun to see how good she has become since she started.

 At one of the performances Santa was there to talk to the kids.

 Brookie and Mia love to show off their jumping skills.

 The kids love that every year they get three Christmases.  The first on is at home before we go to Canada.  Then they have one in Vulcan and one in Mountain View or Lethbridge.

 For our Colorado Christmas we make hot chocolate,

 make gingerbread houses,

 and open presents.  This year we gave our kids a trip in February.

 Mia opened the first clue, which was an airplane.

 Brookie opened the second clue, which was a map of where we are going.  They saw it was an island and excitedly said "we are going to Hawaii".  Um, no.  Then they realized that Florida was part of the map and they excitedly said "we are going to Disneyworld"  Um, no.  When we told them we are going to Key West they said "What's that?".  Their enthusiasm was a little underwhelming at first but they got more excited.

 Especially when they learned the dates and realized that they get to miss a week of school (hence, Emma's reaction)

 After we showed them pictures and explained what it would be like they all seemed pretty happy.

 Brooklyn had her preschool Christmas concert.

  She attends a Christian pre-school where they are very enthusiastic about praising the Lord.  She gets right into it and is very cute to watch.