November started off “routine” but there were lots of holiday festivities for the second half as we headed into Thanksgiving break. The gap in sports for Cordelia let to a much easier transition to soccer in the evenings. Natalie had two Thanksgiving events, Lydia had a class Pilgrim reenactment (she was Squanto!), and Anthony had a Thanksgiving class lunch. We had a pretty relaxing Thanksgiving week. Alicia took the kids (and Aunt Kelly) up to see her Grandparents, which was really fun. We had a very festive Thanksgiving hosting and eating Brisket, along with “southern style” sides.
Cordelia is having a good time at school and is finally starting to make some good friends. She enjoyed her teammates on the volleyball team so much we decided to sign her up for the soccer team so she could keep her friendships growing. They just started practicing, but so far, the coach has been very impressed with her skills. They will have a few games in December and the majority of the games in January. Cordelia is ice skating once a week on Saturday mornings as part of the synchro team. We’ll keep with skating through the end of the season in March. Cordelia participated in a piano recital. She’s also practicing her clarinet in preparation for the middle school band Christmas recital. She played the clarinet at her Great-Grandparents’ house, which was warmly received.
Anthony seems to have figured out how to navigate school days. For November and December, his class is taking a break from Ukulele to work on their Christmas show. He had a fun time playing at the piano recital. He also played several of his songs at his Great-Grandparents’ house and they were impressed at his musical talent. Soccer continued with two practices a week but took a break week for Thanksgiving. But he’ll be starting back up right away in December and also getting back to weekly games in addition to the two practices.
Lydia is having fun in her school and continues to do well in all her work. Lydia enjoyed playing her piano songs for the recital. She wrote some words to a song, which Grandma and Grandpa put to music. She played her song at her Great-Grandparent’s house, and had a fun time visiting. At AWANA, Lydia completed her main handbook and is working through the first extra credit book. For swim class, Lydia leveled up at the end of the month to level 11. She worked very hard and we’re very proud of her accomplishment. We’ll probably stick with swimming through the end of December but may drop it starting in January.
Natalie has been starting to do some harder works at school. She had a very cute Thanksgiving performance (see videos). She had made some nice friends and we were able to meet up with one of them during the Thanksgiving break. We’re continuing to have her do extra reading and writing, which is really paying off. Natalie sang one of her Thanksgiving songs at her Great-Grandparents’ house, which was very cute. Natalie is still continuing in swimming but it’s mostly stroke refinement and endurance. We don’t expect her to level up for a while given her age and current instructor. Natalie really has picked up her enthusiasm for soccer. She completed the current session this month and will be leveling up to a bit more organized play starting in December.
Alicia is keeping things afloat at work. Unfortunately, the co-worker who was supposed to start taking over some of the tasks decided she’s going to be leaving the company sometime in the next three months. So, Alicia is back to being point with minimal backup from her management chain. She’s trying to prioritize the most important things and hope nothing major slips her notice until it’s an emergency. At home, the time management system for helping the kids and getting dinner has been very successful. The kids are working through their school work and balancing the on-the-go days. AWANA continues to be a very successful club year. It’s been great doing it as a team with Tim.
At work, Tim’s major presentation was well received by the customer in the middle of the month. Since then, Tim has been taking some days off work to focus on our camping trailer. He’s been going into work as he gets called on to support the next milestone. Tim has been making good use of the 3D printer. He has also been making good progress on the trailer. All the wiring is redone and he installed new side panels for the interior. He has crack patching and roof repairs to do next.
December is bound to be busy with all the standard activities plus holiday activities. All the kids are preparing for Christmas performances at school. We have a tentative plan to do some camping over the Christmas break, but that is subject to the trailer being winter-weather worthy. Either way, we’ll plan to spend a few days with Mimi and Papa in Arizona.
