Delightful December so far..........

Wow, have we been busy! How is it possible that Christmas is NEXT WEEK?!
We started the month doing our annual Christmas ritual of each selecting a new ornament. The store we go to always has such cute displays that we couldn't resist posing for a photo.

We came home and unloaded all the Christmas decorations and began to decorate the tree. :)


Next day was another field trip for Ryan, which Daddy HAPPILY tagged along for! It was a complete tour of Yankee Stadium! (yeah, I didn't mind sitting this one out! ;)





Then it was Kelsey Concert Week! First night was the Chorus Concert. Our girl shined as usual!

And was lucky enough to have both of her grandmothers attend! :)

The next evening was her band concert and she seriously rocked the house!

We are all so proud of her and her awesome musical talents!

The following day was Special Person day in Mackie's class so she invited Grammy to come and help her build a Gingerbread House. Grammy said she ended up with so much vanilla frosting on her that she was only able to take this one picture!

Good Job Grammy Micki and Mackie! :)
Then just this past Sunday was my company's Holiday celebration. Instead of the usual lovely luncheon at the local Country Club, my bosses opted for something different this year. They invited all of us and our families (and sweetly included Grammy in my invitation) to go see WINTUK in NYC.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/wintuk/default.aspx
The only problem with this plan, was that we had to be up and out to catch an 8:45 AM train about a half an hour away from home on a SUNDAY morning. Yikes! Somehow (must have been a Christmas miracle!) we made it!
The girls though were not too pleased to be out and about at that hour on a cold, rainy winter morning! LOL

Ryan, on the other hand, was elated that my boss brought bagels and juice for all of us to enjoy breakfast on the train! :)

We arrived at Madison Square Garden early enough to enjoy the preshow face painting! Kelsey chose a snowflake and Mack picked a snowman. Ryan opted to forgo the paint! Everyone was much happier after Daddy splurged on licorice. Sure why not, it was already like 10:30 in the morning at that point! ;) We had been up for hours!



Random sighting of the day - Matt Lauer was sitting about 4 rows in front of us, although I found him to be quite glib! LOL

After the show, we all enjoyed a lovely late lunch together. So much fun!

We arrived home around 5:30ish, and after spending about 10 hours during our excursion, we decided the rest of the evening would be spent huddled on the couch together watching old Christmas TV specials!

I mean, REALLY? Who DOESN'T love "Santa Claus is coming to Town"?
What a wonderful day!
And then yesterday both of our girls recieved the "TERRIFIC KID" award at their school. It was such a lovely morning!


And then, as if our pride couldn't get any greater, our awesome son came home with these test results! Yep, he's a Terrific Kid too! :) Never EVER underestimate the ability of a child with Down Syndrome - they are capable of SO MUCH MORE than people expect of them! I've learned that since the day Ryan was born! Reach for the stars Baby! :)


And now, as I sit here listening to Christmas music on the radio, and wondering how to end this post - I sadly remember that in only a few short days, it will be the third anniversary of my dad's death. Feels like just yesterday, as we all still think about/talk about him daily. He was a wonderful man and a big part of our life.
http://nowimamom.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-dad.html

Well, forget about being sad anymore - the next song that just came on the radio was FELIZ NAVIDAD! Truly a sign from heaven! :) Thanks Daddy, for sharing your favorite Christmas song with me right now! Feliz Navidad in Heaven!!!