December so far, (or, "Good lord how is it only 10 days til Christmas...)

We launched into December on November 25th, with our newly-traditional visit to Manner's Tree Farm. A lovely day to cut down a tree...

Then just for a minute it was summer again the next day.  When you have a 56 degree day at the end of November, you kayak.  For a brief moment I considered keeping Betty out in the hopes of a December trip, but decided to retire her for the season with honors. 

A balmy night for Winterfest.

Also teenagers just don't get as excited about festivals as they used to.

But they are stuck with me and I will keep trying!

The fireworks were amazing, at least.

A lovely, normal Sunday before holiday concert madness begins. First Sunday of Advent, with amazing music by these Heights High grads...

... and a birthday party for Kirk!  

A chance for the girls to ride at the indoor barn...

...and for Jack to golf at Proximity (it turns out I like golf lounges a lot more than I ever thought I would!)

A busy week of rehearsals and work and madly creating our annual photo book (will I EVER learn to start this thing earlier??)...

My birthday fell on a Wednesday and I go to celebrate by going to my boy's first swim meet of the regular season.  It was a great birthday treat, actually, watching this kid win all of his races and get two PR's, chatting with my parent friends, and even meeting a girl whose friend described her as "Jack's boo-thang" (!). 

We had late dinner and cake and my loves gave me sweet and thoughtful gifts, including matching jammy pants from that boy of mine.  Here's hoping the rest of 46 is as good as that first night...

(also when did my kid start looking like a 20 year old??)

In lieu of a party, I treated myself to a girl's weekend in Columbus with a couple of my new Chorus friends. This idea was hatched in September as a trip to Vegas for Claudia's 50th... and turned into just COlumbus and just for my 46th... but it was still grand.  I just love these people, and it was so fun to absolutely get away from responsibility for like 36 hours. 

We checked out "Otherworld" and it was a hoot.  Will definitely be bringing the fam back for this. 

Then we watched musicals and drank wine for quite a long time... and slept in and had brunch and even shopped at IKEA.  Happy momma right here. 

Home again home again....My sweet hubby put up our Christmas lights while I was away and it was so lovely to have them greet me ...

I got a swim meet for my birthday... Nat got patrol hut cleaning day at Alpine Valley!  It was actually a fun way to spend a morning- got to see lots of our OEC class friends.. and the first vestiges of snow!

We also celebrated with special day brunch and freezing at the lake before this wonderful man closed his birthday by working the ticket sales table at my West Shore concert...

And then- it was go time for COC!  Three nights of rehearsals, followed by 4 days of concerts....

It's a good thing I like these people and this place, because this is where I live now..

(and sometimes here, late at night... no presents wrapped yet but we're getting there...)

Time for baby girl's first middle school meet!  A huge invitational at Lakewood high... where this kid got 10th place overall for her 50 backstroke, after not being in the water for 2 weeks (thanks illness followed by period...)

A farewell run for my friend Charly, who is off to California.  The thing that has really dropped off during this crazy fall is regular running.  Without Charly at the helm of this group I will probably be even less motivated to get up on Sunday mornings... but I will try!  Vowing in the new year to be more consciously active.  If I'm going to keep up this frenetic pace of life I need to keep myself in good working order...

Monday... a night off from choir for me, yet somehow it was still 8pm before all 4 of us were in the same room together. First time that'd happened in over a week, though, so we took advantage of it and decorated the tree. 

Ivy's first concert with her tuba! (chornicled more fully in the "these kids" post below...)

And here we are back to the weekend... 4 more concerts to sing, cards to get out, cookies to frost, a party to host, a full day meet for a boy of Saturday...  This December is something else.  Going to try my best to go easy on myself and soak up what I can of these ten days til Christmas....