Yes, I realize it has been over
a month since I last posted. A lot has
happened since then so I’ll give you the quick rundown.
First, and most important, Ella
sang her first solo. I must also add
that she beat her Paw Paw by a few years in the solo department (I think he was
around 9) so this was quite a big deal on many levels. What makes it funny, though, is that Ella
didn’t think it was a big deal at all.
In fact, she didn’t even tell me about it until after the event.
Ella’s teacher plans special
activities every month for the class to do.
Some of these events parents are invited to, and others are just special
things for the class to do together. In
December Ella’s class went caroling around the school. I’m still not sure who all they sang to, but
it was not an event where parents were invited, so I didn’t get to actually see
it take place.
I picked Ella up after school
and asked her how her day was, etc. Then
I asked her how the sing-along went. She
said her typical vague, “Fine.” So I
prodded more. She had told me earlier
that one of her friends was leading the song “Feliz Navidad” because he knows Spanish,
so I asked her how that went and if her friend did a good job. She assured me he did fine. The conversation continued:
Me: Ella, did you get to lead
any of the songs?
Ella: Yes.
Me: You did? You got to lead all of your friends in a
song?
Ella: Yes. Wait, is leading a song when you sing by
yourself?
Me: Leading is when you tell
everyone when to start singing. When you
sing by yourself it’s called a solo.
Ella: Oh, then I had a solo.
Insert me freaking out and
asking a million questions to verify that she did, in fact, sing a solo, then
texting her aide to confirm that Ella had a solo. Joe and I were (and still are) beyond proud
of Ella. How incredible that a little
girl who is so shy can put it all aside and stand in front of strangers and sing
a solo. What a brave girl! She sang “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”
We of course had her repeat her
performance for us, as well as several members of the family. She even stood up in front of Joe’s entire
family and sang for everyone. She said, “Mommy,
I get a little nervous to sing for other people, but I just do it anyway.” (I do have a video of her singing but unfortunately I took it with my camera and uploaded it to my facebook page, so I can't share it on here. I'll see if I can figure that out because I know you all are just itching to see it.)
Second, we had Christmas. It was awesome. Santa brought Ella a karaoke machine, which
she loved (obviously) and sings with almost every day after school.
Third, we headed to South
Carolina to spend a week with Joe’s family.
Joe and I were really excited to visit South Carolina because neither of
us had ever been before. Let me say we
loved it and are already planning to go back.
Of course Joe loved all of the history Charleston had to offer and loved
visiting Fort Sumter.
And as always, it was so much
fun to see the family. Since we only get
to see them once every 2 years, we really cherish these vacations. The kids are all growing so fast and I almost
had a melt down when our oldest niece reminded me that she’ll be getting ready
for college during the next Murray Christmas.
We also got to celebrate Grammy
Janet’s 70th birthday with a big birthday bash complete with
slideshow and voice quilt (people from Janet’s life called in and left special
messages for her). It was a wonderful
celebration and we are all so blessed to have her in our lives.
For the occasion, one of Janet’s
favorite daughter-in-laws wrote a special song.
Janet’s favorite Christmas song is the 12 Days of Christmas, and she forces
encourages us to sing it every Murray Christmas, so this year it got a
special spin. Here are the 12 Murray
Christmas’. (I realize that 99% of you
won’t get any of these jokes, but I assure you, they are funny.)
On the First Murray Christmas we celebrated with…
1.
Awesome Murray Mom
2.
Wimpy Brothers
3.
Gluten Free pizzas
4.
Great Vacations
5.
Sausage Bakes
6.
Smiling Sisters
7.
Blocks of cheese
8.
Perfect In-Laws
9.
Artichokes
10.
Family Pictures
11.
Poker Games
12.
Basketballs
What was even better was that
she had 11 of her 13 grandchildren present, so they all sang #1, and after that
each child got 1 day. Ella was #10.
We had a wonderful time and are
already looking forward to the next Murray Christmas.
After leaving South Carolina we
made a stop in North Carolina to visit my cousin and her kids. We don’t get to see them nearly as often as
we’d like, and lucky for us their house is half way between our house and our
Christmas destination. We spent a great
2 days with them before heading home on New Years day.
Not much has happened since
getting home. Ella is back in the swing
of school and Joe is back in the swing of work.
I promise to try and post more
often. Maybe I should make that my New Year’s
resolution (although I’m not really into resolutions).
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