First, there was a Girl Scout ceremony that included a flag play that Lamb had a part in:
Then there was an Academic Society ceremony for Mister:
Then, his school had an orchestra, which Mister plays in:
A bit late, I also put up Christmas decorations and lights, and had the children hang the bulbs and candy canes on the tree. I have good luck with my lights, they've lasted up to a decade with my only new purchases being additions and not replacements. Even the candle bulbs on the electric candle sticks still work after a year in storage! (I do have replacement bulbs for those, however, since one year one bulb died)
To avoid battles over the tree ornaments, I have the kids take turns picking them out before the hanging begins. They are allowed to trade. The round solid-colored ornaments always go last as they scoop up the unique ornaments. One of those, one that I got at one of my Guard unit's annual Christmas parties, died this year, cracked under the pressure of ornaments stacked above it. Lamb really liked that one. The only exception to the picking rule is that each gets their own "baby's first Christmas" ornament by default:
This keeps the tree decorating from breaking down into a mad rush to make sure you aren't cheated by throwing bulbs up nilly willy. At one point, Lamb exclaimed, "This is fun!" Well, good. Mission accomplished.
Mister noted that the tree seems to be getting smaller. I've had the same one the last decade, so he's grown up quite a bit from the days when I lifted him to put the star on top. He's also grown beyond liking the wildly flashing setting on the tree lights in favor of the steady or slow-changing glows that I've always preferred. Lamb still tends toward the seizure-inducing flashes--but she doesn't insist.
And Mister and I also went to the Big Chill hockey game at Michigan Stadium where we joined over 110,000 people who watched Michigan defeat Michigan State University 5-0 in the largest hockey game crowd, ever.
The B-2 bomber (!) flyover was cool. It was surprisingly quiet:
I was cold. I didn't dare wear contact lenses lest they freeze to my eyeballs. Excuse me--I hadn't shaved in a bit:
We won:
And there were fireworks after the game, which ended after sunset:
For the kids, it was a bonus day yesterday of a snow day.
Lamb enjoyed her hot chocolate and both kids celebrated stolen time playing with the Wii and basically not being students.
How can time be going by this fast? I still haven't sent out Christmas cards!!
