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?

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a great week here at the Scott house, having Drew home all week on fall break! With his trip to China taking up 6 weeks last summer, it just felt like he had been gone forever. You can see a full size version of the pic if you click on it.

Here's the crew getting ready for the Thanksgiving feast! And then there is TJ, who does like a little pumpkin pie with his whipped cream!

Next weekend I'm headed to Carthage College for Drew's choir Christmas Festival and to get the holiday shopping started. It's always a fun trip and great to have that one-on-one time with him, where I don't have to share him with Abby! haha

Happy Thanksgiving!

Basketball Time!

Lots of basketball being played around here this time of year! TJ is on the 7th grade team and practicing 6 days a week (12 hours a week!) and now Abby has started a 6 week skills clinic. She has spent so much time in the bleachers watching TJ's games that she definitely thinks it is HER turn to play!

Drew is home for Thanksgiving week and it is so great to have everyone under the same roof! We'll be spending the holiday at home and I'm cooking the full meal, pretty much as I've done for most all of the past 28 years. Mitch's family doesn't have a get together and my family is pretty non-existent ... so we don't really have family to spend the time with, and it's up to me to get the meal together and be sure my kids have traditions to remember it by. Even though it's a lot of work, it's definitely a holiday time of good memories!!

Pumpkin Carving

Two posts in one weekend ... don't faint!

I wish I could find (make) the time to post as often as I used to, because I love going back through old posts and seeing the activities and faces! Maybe I can get better at that again ...


We carved pumpkins yesterday and had a great time. Abby LOVES reaching in and getting the slimy pumpkin guts out, haha. Last night was trick-or-treating here, as we always do that on a Saturday night when Halloween falls on Sunday to accommodate a couple of groups in the area who don't like those activities on a Sunday. In the end, I think it works out better anyway to not go out on a school night, regardless of the other ideas about why not to do it on a Sunday.

I'm sure we'll still see a few little goblins at our door tonight, those who missed the memo! :-)

Halloween Parade

Abby had a great time at the Halloween parade last night, and even was one of the winners in her age group for the costume contest! She wore her tumbling recital costume and when it was her turn to cross the stage in front of the judges, she did the splits and all the kids went "ooooohhh" haha. I think I see a performer in our future! :-)

Ready, Set ... Dodgeball!

Friday night was the Tremont Middle School dodgeball tournament, and it is always a great event for the kids. A good mixture of exercise, fun and competition! TJ's team made it into the semi-finals, finally losing out to an 8th grade team. Action shots are tough in the gym, but you can see they had fun.

TJ is also deep into practice for the 7th grade basketball team ... and looking forward to games in Nov/Dec/Jan. Right now they are practicing 6x a week for 2 hours (12 hours a week!) so we told him that he will be all fit and ready for track season when he's done, haha