December was a really great month for us, with a lot of fun
activities. Unfortunately, we were slackers and didn't take a lot of
pictures, but here are a few.
Two Tails Ranch-Elephant Farm/Preserve
Jared
is lucky to work with a really great mentor at UF, and she was nice
enough to host a holiday lab party at an elephant preserve. It was fun
to get up close and personal with a few elephants. They also had a
toirtoise, zebras, an emu, a donkey, and a very loud goose.
Visitors
We were thrilled to have Jared's parents make the trip from Arizona to
come visit. We spent a great day at Sea World and enjoyed all of the
amazing shows, rides, and sea creatures.
(I
am really wishing now that we had taken more pictures, but it's really
hard to stop for a photo op with so much to see and do!)
The next day we took a rainy walk down the Devil's Millhopper.
Piano Recital
I
hosted a piano recital for my 13 piano students. This year I tried
something a little different and made it a more of a program (with
narration and duets and a few other instruments in addition to piano
solos) and it turned out really nice. Anwyn played Ding, Dong, Merrily
on High for her solo piece. (She has her song memorized, the sheet music
you see on the piano was left there by another student).
Christmas
On Christmas morning Anwyn was awake early (normal for her, she is
usually pretty quiet and just reads until everyone else wakes up), but
we woke up Zach and Lily at 7:30 a.m. The children opened their
stockings, we had
butterscotch caramel pull aparts for breakfast, and we
got ready and out the door for 9 a.m. Sacrament meeting. Our meeting
was really nice, all musical numbers and then the Bishop spoke for a few
minutes. Jared and I were pretty involved (I accompanied the Primary
and another musical number and sang in the choir, Jared played a piano
solo and accompanied the choir). I thought going to church was a really
nice way to start the Christmas day--wish we could do it every year!
After church we opened our presents and then spent the rest of the day
relaxing and playing with new things. We added a few new pieces to our
Geo Trax train set so Jared built a pretty
impressive track that filled up our living room. All three kids enjoy it
and have spent a lot of time playing trains, especially Zach. Anwyn
enjoyed building with legos (our first foray into that world--Jared is
having as much fun with them as she is), and Lily has been having a
grand time her Disney princess dolls. After Christmas dinner we drove around and looked at neighborhood
Christmas lights.
2011 was a great year for us. We are looking forward to new adventures in 2012!
