The 2018 Holidays have arrived!

Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Geertsen's will kick off the holidays this year, then my birthday just the day after.

Here's to 44!

Sweet card from my Paisley

Concentrating on a Birthday wish.

Sure love being surrounded by my wonderful family. It's the best!

And on to more fun~ Jon got us tickets to Jim Gaffigan (again). He was real funny!
And we had great seats!

But there sure is nothing better than coming home, getting into my warm bed and having all the kids around, telling me about their day and doing their thing.

What would December be without the many, many, many, many concerts. So many:

Paisley and Zeke joined choir - first time for Zeke. This meant they had to be at the school at 7am twice a week for practice, and they did it! They sang for the school and a retirement home. I think it was a great time for them, and I am so glad they did it together.

Then Adren had his first guitar concert. He's been taking guitar lessons for about three years now! Wow. He is the longest-enrolled student Stan has, and really shined with his skills at the concert. He even played Back In Black by AC/DC upon request ~ he did a great job!

I like that the concert was a sing-along, with different students playing different Christmas songs for the rest of us to sing along to. Made it quite enjoyable.

And then another one of Eli's band concerts. He's still playing the saxophone.
We still don't hear him practice.

Speaking of Eli, we let him know he would be playing basketball this season. I don't think he was giddy to do it, but he needed to have something to keep him busy. And it has! So many practices, games a couple times a week- and you know what? He likes it! I think it's been a good learning experience for him.

His team rarely wins- so I was happy to text this score to Jon from one of his games:

And the final score- they won at the last second with a 3-pointer and it was a glorious moment! They needed that boost!

The last 4th grade Christmas Program I will attend at Lakeview Elementary. I have these songs memorized... "Memories of Christmas time... Last the whole year through..." Zeke was so insistent on needing a Christmas sweater that he could wear to the program and all throughout the holiday season. We found this one in the women's section at Walmart the night before his concert and he loved it. I eventually took the neck in (to make it less feminine) and he wore that every day until the break started. What a cutie!

One chilly evening I dropped Zeke off to scouts- He was heading out with his den to sing at the Old Folk's Home. I thought he looked so cute in his now-staple Christmas sweater with his scout shirt over it. I called out the window, "Knock em' dead!" Eli guffawed from the back seat and likes to repeat that story.

Then he got to participate in the big 4th Grade Snow/ Ski Day at Sundance!

An exciting item of note for me, is I got a new job! I've been feeling strongly that I'm ready to do something, but I realize it needs to be with the school district so I'm off when my babies are. So, I work at Provo Peaks Elementary as the Lunch Clerk. It is the perfect job for me at this time. The ladies I work with are the sweetest, it is only three hours a day, and that nagging feeling in my gut went away!

I texted this thank-you pic to my friend who dropped by this yummy smelling Christmas gift. Soooooo gooooood! Christmas is definitely in the air!