Insanity Weekend: Yuletide Edition

What's up, fanbase.

It should go without saying that the Holiday Season can fill up quickly.  Weekends tend to be jam-packed with Holiday shopping, social events, obligations and more on top of the usual get-stuff-done-around-the-house, groceries, and social hangouts that usually comprise normal weekends.  This last weekend was just such a weekend, with us running a gauntlet of events that kept us busy from Friday afternoon until Monday evening. 

Check it out, folks. . .

After whipping together a quick dinner after work, we loaded up the girls - and their instruments - into the van and drove over to Central Elementary School (whatever the hell it's called these days, I forget) for their Winter Orchestra Concert.  After parking, we walked around the side of the school to the entrance and, along the way, I spotted this thug-as-f*** graffiti scrawled across the side of a dumpster.  You know the kids who did this are pretty hardcore.

We met up with the Johnsons shortly before the concert started - Abby and the 6th grade concert kicked things off at 7pm, following by Alayna and the combined 7th/8th grade orchestra at 8pm - and took our seats, which had to be purchased in advance this time around.

Abby tunes up on her cello (you can sorta see the top of Ella's head, hidden by a music stand, off to the left.)

Northeast's 6th Grade Orchestra

After the concert, we had about 45 minutes to kill before Alayna's started, so us and the Johnsons tried to get pics of our kids in front of a Christmas tree they had right outside the auditorium.  Of course Abby had ran to Kris' van right away to drop off her cello, so while the Johnsons got a cute pic of Ella in front of the tree with her viola, we had to twist Abby's arm in order for her to retrieve her instrument from the van so we could get the same.  Nothing comes easy with this frickin' child. . .

Enjoy the hell out of this picture, America - a lot of blood, sweat and tears went in to getting it.

The 7th/8th Grade Orchestra takes the stage

Alayna, 1st Violin

Taking a bow at the end of the show.

Getting Alayna to pose with her instrument in front of the tree was a hell of a lot easier, rest assured.

Sister pic.

The following morning, we had to drop Abby off at Bullock Creek High School so that she could get one last practice in with her Northeast Pom squad before their big recital later at 1pm.

Dad was able to swing out and check it out, which was cool.

Earlier that morning, our Internet was knocked out by Winter Storm Atticus (yes, they named the storm.)  High winds took out power all over town, but fortunately ours never once went out (hallelujah.)  Still, with no internet, our family had to resort to circa 1993 living, which meant watching Blu-Rays and DVDs and playing the Wii U (which I relocated upstairs so the girls could play it in the living room) for entertainment.

MarioKart is a go-to in this house.

Around 6pm, Alayna and the girls met up with the Larson fam (Jackson pictured here) at the Midland Center for the Arts for our buddy Steven's stage adaptation of You've Got Mail (you know, that cheesy 90s chick flick with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.)  I obviously passed on this outing.

(The Bardens showed up, too.)

The next morning, our family had to participate in Kris' church's service - she signed us up to participate in the weekly lighting of an Advent candle.  Kris did all the reading for the call-and-response stuff, so all I had to do is light a candle (which I think I kicked ass at.)  This here was the image on the front of the service programs they passed out - couldn't help but turning it upside down and bringing it to Kris' attention.  She wasn't too impressed, though. . . mainly because the sermon was about the Virgin Mary and so the 'hoe' thing was sorta sacrilegious.  Whatever.

After doing a bunch of Christmas shopping in the afternoon, Kris took the girls (along with Cristina and Ella) back to the church to paint some of the glass panels as part of a Christmas party sorta thing.

Abby, hard at work.

Abby and Ella loading back up in the van at the end of one busy-ass weekend. . .

- Brian