Hanging with the Hoffmans: Wow... I can't believe its 2009 already....!!

Well here goes... I hope you are ready....

November

I think I have to start back in November to catch everyone up. We spent our Thanksgiving this year at our house. Tyler's sister and Brother in law came down with their 2 children. We alternate every other year between my family and his family. This is the first year that it was his families year since his mom has passed away so we tried to change things up a bit and have them come down here. She has never been down to South Carolina so it was nice to have them visit. They arrived late Wednesday night/Thursday morning... We had the typical Thanksgiving food and ate way to much.

Friday morning Tyler's sister Angie and I decided that the sales were not good enough to drag us out of the bed too early, but by 9 we were out the door and on our way. We had a fun time of shopping and sisterly fellowship. That evening Tyler took his sister's family, Hannah, and Jonathan to the Dorman - Byrnes playoff game.... it was a really good game but unfortunately Dorman lost. Abigail, Sarah and I opted for going to Haywood Mall in Greenville to see if we could find any more deals. We found a few, but most of all we just enjoyed some "Girl" time.

On to December... wow we did a lot in December.

Our first big event in December was Hannah's Christmas Chorus Concert on December 9th. They did a great job, to bad this is the best picture I got of her. The battery to my camera died right after this picture, so we didn't get any of her after.

Thanks Hannah for a great night of music!

Our next event was our church children's ministry banquet on Friday December 12th. We had great fun and watched a great video of the kids.

Sarah is in the video behind a child that is being interviewed eating a lollipop and and acting silly!

The best part of the video is when one of my weekday preschool students says that I am his favorite teachers.

Interviewer: Who is your favorite Teacher

Student: Ms. Barbara

Interviewer: Why?

Student: cuz I love her!

Wow it melted my heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4nM3OaVSFk

On December 13th we decided to go to Asheville to go to the Biltmore house to get our Christmas picture for our cards. We got some great pictures of all the kids. Here are some of them.

The next big event was Jonathan's play at church.

Bethlehem Gulch

Jonathan had a small part this year, but he loved it just the same. He loves to perform. Here are some shots of him from the night.

My next big event for the month was our 4K Christmas program at church. We worked so hard the last few months learning all our songs and it was wonderful... The kids did a great job.

I came in on a rehearsal one morning after they were already on stage and it gave me chill bumps to see them all on the stage in their costumes.

Here are some shots of Ms. Catherine and her girls and one of me and Ms. Catherine.

The next event for us was on December 17th, Sarah's Christmas program "Candy Cane Lane" and the gingerbread house craft after the program.

Sarah did a great job as an evergreen pine tree, hence the green table cloth around her.

After the program we went back to her class to make gingerbread houses and take some pictures. Tyler and I both took the day off so we could spend it with her in the morning and then finish up all our shopping for Christmas in the afternoon. Here are some shot of her with her Daddy and her with her class.

In case you were wondering why she looks different than all the kids, let me explain. They all had to wear red for their program because they were the red candy canes. Well as a teacher I know how frustrating it is to tell parents one thing and to have them not listen and do their own thing, and though it almost killed me to send her for a program in just a red shirt and a bow, I knew that at least after the program we could fix her up some. Well she wore the red shirt for the program, but when they went back to their room to make gingerbread houses I couldn't resist slipping her gingerbread dress/shirt over top of her red shirt. It was too perfect for her to build a gingerbread house with her gingerbread dress on!

The next day was a special day for Sarah also. Mrs. Sutton the music teacher at Westview asked me several weeks before if Sarah would help her to lead the sing along for the Kindergartners - second graders. Wow what an honor. She said since Sarah sang so well in class and that she was so spunky that she would do a great job if it was okay with me. Well of course it was. She loves to do stuff like that. Here are some shots of her during the sing along.