Christmas Eve 2024

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house with my brother & his family.  Hooray for cousin time!  We played board games, watched Christmas movies, ate a big Christmas dinner, reenacted the nativity story, & just enjoyed being together as a family.

As the day passed quite quickly & it was soon time for our final Christmas movie of the night: The Polar Express.  As we were watching, Canyon heard some sleigh bells in the back of the house & everybody ran to see what it was.  In the office was a pile of presents to all the family members from Santa to open right away.  We all know what they were. . . PAJAMAS.

Our family all got Emperor's New Groove themed pajamas.  We were laughing so hard at the quotes on the shirts.  I love that movie so much.

Even my mom & dad got some cute new pajamas to wear.

We got into our new pajamas, & settled down to finish our movie.  Then it was time for bed!

 

Family Cookies & Caroling

One of my kids' favorite Christmas traditions is baking a ton of goodies, then taking them to friends & neighbors while we carol to them.  We had ALL 6 of our kids this year so we made a lot of yummy treats.

And of course had some crazy family time too (which usually involves some sort of wrestling to prove who is the strongest Potter)

Then we went on our way & caroled to all of our friends & neighbors who we love so very much.

I love that my kids love this tradition.  It's a special one to me & I love doing this together as a family.

 

Craiger's Winter Band Concert - French Horn

And finally, rounding off a bazillion concerts & performances for Christmas, Craiger performed in his winter band concert.  He is really excelling at French Horn right now.  He's incredible.  I'm going to have him audition for the higher level bands at the high school next year.  He loves it & he's good at it.  I love to see my kids do hard things, & find happiness in what they accomplish.

Great job Craiger!  We are so proud of you.

 

Canyon's Winter Concert - String Bass

This is Canyon's first year playing the String Bass.  I always laugh when I see him playing because it's literally twice the size he is.  But he is AMAZING.  His orchestra teacher tells me all time, "Please don't let him quit!  He's amazing & we need him!"  He loves it & won't be quitting anytime soon.

For this concert, they needed a piano player to play the piano solo with the Samba Labamba song, but couldn't find anyone to play it.  Canyon (sweet boy) told his teacher his mom could "play anything" on the piano.  (FYI, I can't, but my heart melts knowing that my little guy things I'm amazing).  His teacher called me begging me to play for the concert so I told him I would.  It turned out to be REALLY easy music so we had fun playing in a concert together.  It made it extra special for both of us.

Great job Canyon.  We are so proud of you.

 

Taya's Christmas Dance

Taya took Jay to the Christmas dance at the high school this year.  It's a fun dance because they get to wear matching pajamas & just have a great time.

They did a fun little day date of making gingerbread houses, then went out to dinner, & then played at the dance.  They had a lot of fun together.

 

Taya's Winter Orchestra Concert

Taya has grown leaps & bounds this year playing viola in the chamber orchestra at high school.

She loves it & is doing so very well.

I loved watching her play at her winter concert in December.  She's always hard to see (violas like to hide behind the conductor), but I could hear the viola parts & she made me proud.

 

Bladen's Winter Percussion Concert

Bladen's winter percussion concert was amazing.  His group played 2 songs & he played mallets on both of them.  I love seeing him learn & grow in band.

Great job Bladen!