Eliza's Actual Birthday

Eliza turned 18 on December 6, 2025, but this post is not about her birthday celebration.  That's because she did not have time that day to have a birthday celebration.  Instead, she had an orchestra cluster concert.  We had a ward Christmas dinner.  And she had a combined choir, orchestra, and band concert.  Corey and I were supposed to go to the In-N-Out Christmas party, but we decided to skip it this year in favor of these other events, especially since it was in Fort Worth.  

I caught this picture of Jonah and Nathan being silly with the fox hats we have.  Had to get the picture of them matching with the hats because who knows when it will happen again?

The ward Christmas dinner was really good and we had some fun games they had planned.  Nathan got to be decorated as a Christmas tree.  Unfortunately, our group did not finish first.  The theme was Luau so we all wore our Hawaiian shirts.  I wore my Hawaiian shirt, which is white with red and yellow flowers and green stems and I won an award for the most "Christmas-y Hawaiian outfit".  I really just wore the only Hawaiian shirt I have!

We left the ward dinner early to go to the other concert.  It was a busy day!  

 

Wylie High Choir Concert

Right after Nathan's Fourth Grade program, we hurried over to the Cross Church for Eliza's winter choir concert. The music was beautiful as always. It was Eliza's last winer concert for choir.

 

Fourth Grade Program

Nathan had his fourth grade program, his final  elementary music program ever.  He got a speaking part.  The story was about some sailors and some pirates and having to save a ship.  Compared to a lot of programs my other kids were in, this one was well written and put together.  I was very pleased.  I was also sad that it was the last one of my kids to have an elementary music program.  
 

Cooper Choir Concert, Christmas Edition

Annmarie had her winter choir concert.  She is really loving junior high choir, especially her choir teacher Mrs. Edwards, who is new to Cooper Junior High this year.  Annmarie really lucked out getting her as a teacher!

Giving Machine

The Giving Machine was in McKinney from the week before Thanksgiving until December 4th.  It was a busy week for us and with the Eliza and Corey's work schedules opposite, we had trouble finding a time we could all go.  We ended up settling on going the first day of December, Monday night, after Eliza was done with her musical rehearsal.  It was really, really cold.  We also stopped in at this pie shop in McKinney and bought a "Father Christmas" pie, which was basically a peppermint pie with a base of white chocolate and a chocolate cookie crust.  It was really good, but it cost like $50, and I don't think I ever want to pay that much for a pie again.  

Opry and Talking with Travis

Eliza sang at the Opry the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She keeps getting better and better! I think in the future I'm going to start writing in these books the songs they sing so we can remember. I took a screenshot of us talking with Travis to show how we can all get on the call and we can see and talk to him weekly, a far cry from when Corey and my brothers were on missions.  Here, Corey is downstairs and I'm in the guest room and Westley is in Utah.

 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was just us, Austin and Paige's family, and Grandpa and Grandma.  Paige and Austin hosted.  We went over early and helped get it all set up.  The dinner was really good and then we played some games.  Grandma brought a version of "Guess Who" that she had recreated using pictures of family members.  It was a fun way to get to know the names and faces of cousins.  We all had fun playing with it.