Pat got Amelia a new dress for her concert, she was very excited to try it on and model it with Marley. Marley was not so willing.

 This year's group PreK-8th grade group art project was a Maverick puzzle mural.

 During the Christmas business open houses downtown, Amelia wanted to get a little cross stitch from Starla's. It is a little magnet and I thought it would be a good one for her to give it a try. She's starting to figure it out and has a couple of rows done.

 For art at school this month, we did salt and watercolor ornament drawings/paintings.

 Last week the Twilight Theatre hosted actress Eugenie Bondurant who played Tigris in Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. It was so cool to have her in our little town and to hear about her career and role in the movie.

 Last Friday Ashley and the kids came up and we all went to the Peanuts movie. Jaide was being uncharacteristically friendly. Usually she doesn't care much for anyone except Ashley. But when we showed up, she ran up to me for a hug and to be picked up. And spent quite awhile on Uncle Trav's lap.

Helping Gigi with the pie.

 The kids have said and done so many cute, funny, smart, witty things over the last few weeks that now I can't remember. I've got to remember to stop in those moments and either write it down or post it to this blog. Yesterday I received in the mail the first 3 years of my blog printed out into books. I have been putting off ordering them because of the cost, but now that I have them, I'm really glad I got them. Even though it was just a couple of years ago, it is so nice to go back and read and look at the pictures of what has happened in our lives. I can only imagine how much I'll appreciate having the books 20 years from now. A photographer from Lewis that I met the other day said that this is the most photographed generation, but we have nothing to show for it because it all exists digitally. On our phones, social media, blogs, etc. I am glad I have printed the books to have hard copies to look at.

We've had lots of fun Christmas activities the last couple of weeks. We had the community Christmas program at the Methodist Church where Pat played in the bell choir.

 The kids had their school music program. Truman is on the back row in the middle.

 The K-4th graders did a performance of parts of the Nutcracker. Amelia was a fairy princess. They did a little dance.

 The annual lighted Christmas parade, with the Artbulance of course.

 Santa (not the real Santa, but his special helper Santa Shawn) came to BTI to meet with kids. As we were standing in line, Truman says, "that santa sounds like Shawn." Even though they were pretty sure it was Shawn, who they know well, they were shy. Amelia was very prepared with a list of what she wanted. She read him her list. Truman just asked for 2 things. Amelia left her list with Santa so he could reference it later.

 Truman has been asking me the last few days to make gingerbread houses. So, as he says, we took a shortcut and used graham crackers.

Thanksgiving weekend was another great one with all of our family together. Ashley took our annual family pics.

We got our first wintry weather over Thanksgiving. It was mostly ice, but the kids wanted to go outside in it anyway.

Watching tv with papa bob, raku firing,  cocktails and canvas class.

Jaide is 2! We went to the Petty ranch for dinner and cake and a fun time with all the cousins.

Watching tv.

More Halloween...