Third Week of December...

Monday, December 12th, found us traveling to LaGrange in the evening for the Oldham County High School Holiday Band Concert. This year Hayden and Bailey are both in the symphonic band. Bailey is playing the French Horn and Hayden is playing the euphonium. This is Hayden's last high school holiday band concert. A lot of lasts for this Senior before he starts his firsts in college. Having Hayden and Bailey in the same band puts them in basically the same seating section. Hayden is on the last row 2nd from the end. Bailey is on the next to last row 5th from the end. However, I couldn't ever get a clear shot of them for pictures. Andie snagged some good pictures of them performing. I opted to record the five songs the symphonic band played and then get still shots of the kids after. 

These are candid shots of Hayden and Bailey while the band was performing or between numbers. 

This is the program. 

After the concert, they took the official photo of all the kids. The photographer was in the balcony. This is the concert band and the symphonic band together. Look at the next to last row starting on the right end, Bailey is 6th from the end and is leaning forward a bit. Her hair was in pigtail braids. Hayden is on the same row but in 14th from the end. You can tell him by all the hair. Mr. Centers, the Band Director is sitting center stage with all the flutes pointing to him. This group of kids are all very close. They cheer and support each other very well. Happy our grandmonsters are participating in something that good and that supportive.

These are my still shots after the concert. 

Wonderful evening of great music.

Tuesday, December 13th, we opted to spend the day mostly at home. Claude had an appointment with the dermatologist regarding a place he is concerned about on his ear. He returned home with three places where Dr. Wilson burned potential cancers off his ear and face. Poor guy! 

Wednesday, December 14th, we worked through the morning with the plan to leave for Shaker Village Trustee's Table for dinner at about 4:30pm for a 5:30pm dinner reservation. As I left our bedroom and headed to the garage, I took this picture.

I sent this picture with a text message to Andie, our daughter, asking if she would like to have this Kohl's cash as I had nothing I wanted to purchase. She assured me they would love to have it. I then responded with another text saying I would bring it to her Thursday evening when we attended Hayden's Showcase performance. Now, mind you, we were in the Jeep and turning onto Payne's Depot when I received a message from Andie explaining Hayden's Showcase performance was Wednesday evening and not Thursday evening. Ugh!! I told Claude the dilemma and then I checked past text messages. I did have one from Hayden stating Wednesday evening and one from Andie stating Thursday evening. I quickly called the Trustee's Table at Shaker Village and explained we now needed to attend a program for one of our grandmonsters and needed to cancel our reservation. The nice man understood. Then I asked him if they had the same time available on Thursday evening. He check and they did. We simply moved the reservation to Thursday at Trustee's Table. Then Claude turned the Jeep around and we headed back to our home to pick up the Kohl's cash. We now headed to LaGrange instead. Goodness. 

Showcase is where all the theater students pick something they want to perform. It ranged from solos to duets to scenes from plays. Hayden's choice was to quote from Macbeth. Knowing precious little about Macbeth, I sent a text to Jake, our son, who knows a lot about and really appreciates Shakespeare. His request for a Christmas present one of his high school years was a book of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. He wore that book out and had to purchase another. Jake was able to give me a concise, easily understood explanation of Macbeth. We were ready to hear Hayden. 

Hayden did an excellent job. We were very happy we didn't miss this performance. I recorded it and Jake was able to enjoy it as well. 

Thursday, December 15th, we again left our home headed to the Trustee's Table at Shaker Village for Christmas date #8. Ironically, we went in the Jeep and its odometer turned to 88,888 miles while we drove! A momentous occasion for my Big Guy. 

When we arrived we asked the lady that takes you to your table if she would take a picture of us in their lobby. This little space has a spiral staircase on each side. At the base of each of these staircases is a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. She clearly does this a lot and knew exactly where we should stand and took a picture of the full tree as well as a picture of us close up. 

We only had one other couple in our dining room. This is really an older building in Shaker Village so it is like using different rooms in an older home as dining rooms. I ordered salmon and Claude had the fried chicken. Fried chicken is a dish they are known for and a much requested order. We also each ordered a dessert at the end of our meal. It was a lovely evening out and a nice drive through the countryside getting their and returning home.

Friday, December 16th, would be date #9. This would be a morning date. It would begin with a biscuit and soda run to Bojangles in Georgetown. As we sat in the ordering spot, I took this picture of what used to be a big Burley Barn. This is a big barn that is painted black with the side slats that open to let air through. Burley tobacco is cut and the stem in run through a wooden stake. These are hung in the Burley Barn and the side slates of the barn are raised so the tobacco can air dry. Also in this spot on the left was a white stucco building that always housed at least two businesses. One was originally Bevin's Motors where Claude purchased his tractor when we moved to Sadieville. There was also a white house and a brick craftsman house on the far left corner. The craftsman house was the law office of Carolyn Carroway. She was the attorney that helped me with getting Papa's social security straight when Mimi was in the nursing home. There has also been a plant selling business in the empty lot between the two houses. Other businesses have used these spaces through our 18 years in Kentucky. Now, they are leveled and what appears to be a building of the Georgetown Stonehenge is going up. It will eventually be an Aldi's store and other businesses. The corner will be very different and I am sure the investors hope busy. 

After having our breakfast, we were off to Lexington to the Regal Cinemas. There was a movie playing at the Cinemark where Hayden works that we wanted to see. I kept watching for it to show when Hayden would be at work. We wanted to come in and surprise him. However, that timing never worked. We didn't want to miss this movie and it was also playing in Lexington. We opted to take the opportunity to go ahead and see it in Lexington. The movie was "I Heard the Bells" and is the true story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his writing of that beloved Christmas carol. This turned out to be an excellent movie. We both really enjoyed the story and the way it was portrayed. At the end, they had the director and actors speak with pictures of the filming of the movie. Really a delightful morning date.

We finished in time to get lunch at Chipotle's. Then make a quick stop at Michael's for me to buy a huge ball of crochet thread. I found a Filet Crochet pattern that I had saved from my Mother's patterns for a placemat. I wanted to crochet six of them for our table. Back to our home we went for the remainder of the day. 

In the evening, we got this picture from Andie. It seems Hayden performed in an impromptu Tuba Concert at Mall St. Matthews in Louisville. Hayden is the second from the right end with his euphonium and all that hair. This was pulled together by their section leader who also directed the group. It consisted of students from several schools. They gathered for an hour before the performance to run through some music. Then into the mall they went and performed for a good while. The Oldham County High School Band Director also participated. He is the last person on the left in the Santa hat. His name is Mr. Centers. He is a great band teacher. Andie included clips of them playing several songs. Evidently this impromptu tuba concert things is something done all over the United States. Cool.

Saturday, December 17th, was an at home day. I baked cookies for a Primary meeting on Sunday. I opted to use my Mary's Sugar Cookie recipe and make cutout cookies of Christmas trees. I had red sprinkle sugar I put on top. They turned out really nice. We did things in our home and enjoyed a day together. 

Sunday, December 18th, we attended Church at 11am. Claude is over music and had prepared a beautiful Christmas program. 

After that, Primary was in motion. This Sunday we would move all the kids up to their new class with their new teachers. We also held the Temple & Priesthood Meeting for the kids in Primary who will move into Young Men/Young Women in January. Jessie Rayburn, our Primary president, handled this meeting. It is what the cookies were for. Janick Stephenson, our secretary was at home finishing her last day of Covid confinement. This left Christian Cash, our 1st counselor, and me to cover Primary. The other thing we did in Primary this day was combine all the kids into one group for the opening. In the past, we have separated them into Junior Primary and Senior Primary. Junior Primary would go to class while Senior Primary had opening and singing time. Then they would flip and Senior Primary would use the class rooms while Junior primary came to singing time. Now, with fewer children this year, we are combining both groups. This meant we needed to be sure the kids were not going to classrooms first but all coming to the Primary room. We also had no pianist, so I was supposed to play the piano. We had Christmas gifts for each child and also a different gift for each teacher. These were all to be given out. And, our Bishopric counselor brought us the new manuals for 2023. These needed to be disbursed. It was a lot to be done but we covered it and it all went smoothly. We are now ready for 2023!

Our substitute chorister this day did a wonderful thing with the kids. We had a slight bit of snow Sunday morning. He had the kids sing a song about rain but substituted the word snow in its place. Then he gave each child a piece of paper and had them write their favorite Primary song on the piece of paper. He took their pencils, which was a wise move based on the rest of his singing time. The kids were asked to wad their paper into a ball shape. He would draw one of the kids names and that child would try and pummel him with his 'snowball'. Rick would pick up the snowball after it was thrown and open it up. Then the kids would sing that song. It was a great activity.

After Church, Claude and I attended a choir practice. On the 25th, Christmas Day, we would have a combined Sacrament meeting with the Georgetown Ward. They would be lead in this meeting. They have a ward choir and invited us to quickly learn their music and participate with them. One piece was fairly easy as we have done it many times over the years. It was "Still, Still, Still". The other was quite difficult. It was by John Rutter and is entitled "Angels' Carol". We struggled through it and agreed to intersperse ourselves with the Georgetown Ward choir who had been practicing for months. Good plan. 

Then we went to our old favorite Mexican Restaurant which is under new management but still makes a good meal. It is now Cinco de Mayo.

In the evening we watch a Tabernacle Choir Christmas broadcast.

We made it through week 3 in December. By now Claude has counted 10 dates for us. We have enjoyed some fun things we probably wouldn't have done had we done been on this 12 Dates of Christmas quest. Happy we did this.

I'll finish with some Christmas memes I enjoyed.