It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Fall is definitely my favorite season. I love the cooler weather, especially welcome after a hot summer, and all the cheerful spirit in the air. We had a busy first week of December welcoming in the Christmas season. On Friday, Anna's children's chorus had their first performance. If I haven't mentioned it before, she is in a children's chorus. The chorus is affiliated with an overarching Choral Arts program in our community. The adult singers are very talented and recognized a need to give children the opportunity to learn more about music. It is lead by two amazing singers. Practices are held once a week for 90 minutes. It is my favorite of my children's activities for several reasons: 1) it is cheap (I think it was $75 for the semester, which pays for music and building costs, it is non-profit  run by volunteers; 2) it is easy--the practices are held a mile from our house and we can just drop Anna off and return home; and 3) I love music and wish I knew how to read music and sing along to actual notes in harmony, so I'm glad Anna is learning.

Anyway, their first performance was on Friday night at the Calvert Marine Museum. We enjoyed her performance and then did the lantern walk down Solomon's Island. The next day, Saturday, we went to a craft show where the kids made gingerbread men cookies. We enjoyed seeing all the interesting crafts and left impressed by all the talent in our local community. That night, we did the lighted walk at Ann Marie Gardens. Sunday, we were kind of worn out and enjoyed a relaxing day at home watching Elf.

Other fun Christmas things we have done so far: decorate our house. Thomas changed it up a little this year and actually put lights on the roof. I thought I was going to have a heart attack (I am being somewhere between literal and figurative here, I was legitimately terrified). He put the ladder on the second floor landing, which is not a flat surface, and then climbed onto our very steep roof. I was forced to hold the ladder, as thoughts of it slipping and taking both us to the ground pranced through my head. Thomas always says that he is conscious of risk and wouldn't do anything he felt was too risky, so I tried to trust. But, the combination of ladder climbing and roof walking was NOT the highlight of my day. So, why am I listing this under "fun," because the end result is pretty nice. The house looks really good and every time we come home after dark, I really enjoy seeing the fruits of his efforts (not that I want to repeat the experience next year!).

We didn't use the garland outside like we normally do, which opened up an opportunity indoors.

The right corner of the house, our first year adding lights to this area.

We also went to the Six Flags Christmas event. It is not as elaborate as the one at Busch Gardens, but we were impressed. The lights were beautiful and the atmosphere was fun. A lot of rides were open and we saw a couple of shows. Everyone had a great time and almost daily, Luke asks to go back. In fact, yesterday when I told him it was time for school he said, "I not go to school today, I'm going Six Flags!" Wishful thinking at its finest! I hope to go back one or two more times before the season ends. My one regret was not buying the Santa photos. They had a cute Santa area and a very good looking Santa. Speaking of which, when asked what they wanted, Jack said the game Risk; Anna said a desk, chair and boots; Kara said Shopkins and LPS; and Luke said presents!

I only took a couple of pictures, which were terrible, but you can kind of see the lights of the "North Pole" section behind them.

The girls really like making silly faces at the camera lately.

Speaking of presents, we bought Anna a desk, which Fedex delivered right as the kids were getting off the school bus. Kara lingered outside and asked what it was. I replied that it was probably a small bookshelf I ordered for Daddy. The Fedex driver replied, "no, this is a desk," as she pointed at the picture. Ugh! We tried to cover it up by saying that a friend ordered it and had it shipped to our house, but the next day a desk chair appeared in the garage in plain view. I did not notice it until we all went outside. So, one surprise is ruined.

Anna had her second concert on Thursday. This one was just the kids singing all their songs. The Marine Museum was just a few songs and they will sing as one "act" at the Choral Arts concert next week. But, this one was just them. I got there early with Jack and Kara so we could get front row seats. They brought their Kindles and I brought a book and a good time was had by all. And, the concert was really good! My favorite song was probably "Various Themes on Fa-La-La" where a traditional carol was randomly interrupted by "Fa La La" sung to various tunes, like the William Tell Overture. It was a really cute number. They also sand Holiday Road, of National Lampoon's Vacation fame. All the songs were entertaining and fun. Although, for some reason, Luke kept shouting out "three more songs" after each number, which was funny the first time (and for us, continued being funny, but probably not so much for those sitting around us, fortunately, he was quiet during the singing).

Last weekend, we also went to Mount Vernon. We always go between Thanksgiving and New Years because they have the third floor open. Well, they used to have the third floor open. This year it was closed because they said crowds have increased. We were disappointed, but still had a good visit. Aladdin the Christmas camel was present and we enjoyed spending time in the museum. They also had a fun craft where the kids got to make an ornament using a puck from a tree cut down on the property.

This post is pretty sparse on pictures, I will try and remember to take one of the house tonight, but here is a bonus picture of Baby Bear taken by Anna practicing her photography skills.

And, that concludes the first week(ish) of December. Stay tuned to find out what happens next week at Tales From my House!