Abby's Christmas Program

For weeks on end, Abby has talked and talked about December 20th ... the date of her first big grade school Christmas program! She had a program in K&1st, but it was a morning program at the grade school. Starting with 2nd grade, the kids get to perform in an evening program at the high school, on the big stage and under the lights. She just could not wait! Click the pics for a larger view.

Last night marked the 13th grade school program Mitch and I have been part of, haha. That happens when you have kids spread out over so many years and no two kids are in the program at the same time! That's ok, she has only 2 grade school years to go ... and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! I will miss the joy that you feel when watching them be so excited, and so I'm in no hurry to get through these years!

Christmas Tree Adventure

Yesterday was our big adventure out to the frozen tundra to get our Christmas tree! We have always gone at least one week earlier than this, but the weather last weekend was iffy ... and if we waited, we could include Drew and Beverly. So that's what we did, and here are some pics from our day!

CLICK HERE

The trip is the same each year ... except for varying weather ... walk out into the fields, look at many trees until finding the right one, ride the tractor back in to watch it be bundled, enjoy some hot cider, and head on home! It is a 28 year tradition for us, and something that I hope will always be as special to our kids as it is to us.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from The Tremont Scotts! We're starting to feel a little more in the holiday season ... our exchange student from the 2008-09 school year, Beverly, arrived in Tremont this week and will be here through the holidays ... and Drew gets home from college tomorrow. Once the whole gang is under one roof, it's time to get festive! We will make our annual trek to cut a live Christmas tree this coming weekend, which should be a very winter wonderland experience with several inches of snow covering the ground. Merry Christmas!

Weekend in WI

Friday night I was in Kenosha to enjoy the Carthage College Christmas Festival. It's always a great event and so special to see Drew be part of it. The picture here is from the final song, which becomes a candle light rendition of "Silent Night" ... and is very moving.

The top picture shows half of the chapel, at best. There are 3 sections of the main floor, and 3 sections of balcony. I think about 2,000 people are seated in the chapel at capacity, and for 2 of their 3 performances, guests were also seated in an overflow room watching the program on large screens.

The music department at Carthage is amazing, and I'm so glad Drew is there experiencing all of this! Drew is about in the middle of the bottom picture, with a mixture of the 5 vocal ensembles.

Saturday we did some power shopping at the outlet mall, and I put a pretty good dent in the Christmas list. It was great to spend the time with Drew, and now he has 2 weeks of classes and finals left, and will be home December 18!

Carthage Christmas Festival

I'm heading to Kenosha tomorrow for the Christmas Festival at Carthage ... it has been a favorite event of mine for the past two years, and I can't believe there is only one more year to take it in after this one, as Drew will be a senior next year. Time flies, gotta do this stuff and enjoy it before it's too late!

Drew is in the 2nd row up in this picture, just to the right of center. You can see a little larger version by clicking on the pic.

Sounds like it will be a snowy visit, with as much as 6 inches of snow on Saturday. That should get me in the holiday spirit?