Meyer Christmas!

We had a bigger crowd for our Meyer Christmas this year with Pat's siblings and Lauren's husband in town! We started our celebration off with a late lunch. We made two soups this year, Cheesy Vegetable Chowder and Slow Cooker Chicken with Wild Rice and both were great although I put a little too much chicken into the second one! Then we moved onto presents, dessert (Pat's family brought apple cake, fudge and cookies!) and hanging out before we had to rush to get ready for church at 6pm!

Gingerbread...Houses?

Time for the holiday wrap-up posts that always ends up extending into the new year. Our elf on the shelf (Jingle Bell Elfington) brought us a gingerbread house kit with four tiny houses to build and decorate! You'd think smaller would be easier but they were just as difficult to put together as a bigger size. Maybe more so? Technically the directions say to glue the pieces together, wait a few hours and then decorate but none of us were feeling that patient. We all struggled and most of us made it through:) Owen got 3/4 of the way through when his collapsed and he gave up and started eating it. Paige, Pat and I finished but I accidentally caused Pat's to collapse when I attempted to move it. He had done a pretty impressive job too!

Baking/Birthday Party

It sometimes gets tricky fitting in our tradition of baking a Christmas dessert but I'm always glad we make time for it. We made snowman cake pops this year and they didn't quite come out how we wanted but if we ever made them again we'd know what to do a little differently! We didn't freeze them long enough and should have but a bit of frosting on the stick so it wouldn't come out when we tried to dip them in the white coating. Paige did all the decorating though and they were adorable! I wish I had gotten a big group picture of everyone who came later. We ate a good meal of pizza and salad and had plenty of cookies and desserts to go around. Then we gave out birthday gifts and Christmas gifts and played a fun game called Things in a Box, in which I lost horribly.

Ugly Sweater Party

Saturday, after Paige had performed the nutcracker twice and Owen had a soccer game, we went home for about an hour and then headed out to Owen's soccer teams Ugly Sweater Christmas party! We were all kind of exhausted and not so much in the party mood but once we got there and were surrounded by friends and good food we changed our minds:) We had planned to stay about an hour but ended up staying until 11:30! So much fun!

Nutcracker!

Nutcracker time again! The studio took the year off from staging the production last year so Paige was excited to get back into it again this year. She still had the option too, next year (or whenever they do it again) she'll be required to participate because of the level of ballet she is at. She was cast as an angel and a polichinelle again, and is really hoping she gets something else next time. This was the third time she's had those roles. They did switch up the polichinelle dance though and it was more of an acro dance, which she loved! Here are a billion pictures in no particular order. 

Paige and Adri, the snow queen

Paige and her faces:)

Hanging out before they had to get dressed

With grandma and grandpa

3 little polichinelles

Paige had everyone fooled as an angel;)

Ready to perform but not on until Act 2!

Still hanging out

With Aunt Jamie

Saturday morning came very early after performing Friday night

With the Meyers!

It took the girls 3 or 4 tries to coordinate this one

Still ready!

Goofball

On stage

Representing three different roles

Concert

This concert was awhile back and I'm just getting around to posting it! I have a few things to catch up on actually! Owen was excited about this concert and pretty happy that he got to sit next to his good friend, TJ. They did a great job! After, we went for ice cream at Igloos and the kids ate their ice cream and then spent a bunch of time running around outside while the adults caught up with each other. 

More Randomness

Can't tell if Griffin loved or hated this!

Cupcake Day and also the girls are wearing all of Paiges scrunchies:)

Our once a year Christmas shopping get-together!

I captured this at the right moment because it did not last long!

Paige couldn't find the elf, can you?

Convention!

First dance weekend of the season! Paige didn't have any dances in the competition but spent hours and hours taking convention classes. We arrived 6:45 am on Saturday and she didn't finish dancing until 2:15! This was her first year in the junior room so she was one of the youngest ones in a room that went through age 12. So much talent in there! After the classes she watched and supported her friends who were taking their solos to the stage for the first time. Then there was dinner, awards and swimming before we all went to bed.

Sunday started just as early and Paige danced until about 4 with a couple breaks in between. I could tell energy was running low but she persevered and I was so proud of how much she put into her classes. She worked so hard! She took jazz, ballet, hip hop (both days), jazz/funk, musical theater, tap, lyrical, contemporary and ballet. The day ended with all of the attendees performing on stage and then awards before we left home and ended our day with some ice cream!!

Day one! Ready to start with hip hop!

These four stuck together all weekend

Junior room!

Backstage with friends who were about to perform

Paige's friend took this picture of her!

Day two!

Junior room ATB kids ready for the stage

All ATB attendees!

Ready to go home!