Christmas 2008

This was such a wonderful Christmas!! Chelsea went to her father's for Christmas Eve. Now that she is older, she spends the night there for Christmas Eve so that she can be there for her brothers when they wake up to Santa's presents. Then she spends the rest of the time with me. Since she was gone Christmas Eve, I had little to do...so my family and I went to Chili's for dinner. That doesn't sound very Christmasy..but you couldn't imagine how packed that place was! Then we went home and played games. I think Chelsea had a really good Christmas. She got lots of great gifts from her dad and stepmom. She even got 2 frogs from them...though those have to stay at daddy's! All she really wanted was a juicy purse...which she got. She is actually hugging it in one of those pictures!! My favorite gift of all time was from Chelsea. She made me a scrapbook. She spent hours on it all by herself. She found all of the pictures and put it together. The only help she got was from my mom...and that was just to buy the scrapbook! It was so touching that I cried the entire way through it!! I'll never cherish anything more! After presents, we went to the movies. All in all, we had a wonderful day. It was a great way to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!

DC Skate Party

Every Christmas, Chelsea's dance studio hosts a party at the Brentwood Skate Center. This is only for the company kids. They get to hang out with all of their friends, which is always lots of fun. Each company also performs a Christmas routine. They all dress up differently, according to their company's dance. This year, Chelsea's team, the Juniors, danced to Santa Baby. They were to wear anything red & green and a Santa hat. My personal favorite were the Seniors who dressed in footed pajamas!! They looked soo funny! After the big finale, they find their big/little sisters and exchange presents. My Chelsea's sister, Chelsie, gave her a stocking full of goodies. My Chelsea gave a build a bear reindeer with light up antlers and her voice saying "I love you, Chelsie." We had a really fun time. DC is like our second family, so we always love getting together with everyone.

Family Christmas Dinner

After the skate party, we went to our aunt's house for our family Christmas dinner. I think the total was around 30 people!! That's a lot of relatives under one roof! We had a really good time seeing all of our out-of-town cousins. Plus, the food was amazing! Chelsea, Little Kayla (we have 2 Kayla's in the family!!), & Morgan all did a little skit for the true meaning of Christmas. They told what each tradition stands for...like the Christmas tree & the star or angle on the tree. It was really sweet. Little Kayla even dressed the part of Santa! We had a great time with our family and it got us all in the Christmas spirit!

Ballet Dance

Last night, Chelsea's ballet class performed a routine from the Nutcracker. They just dressed up in pajamas to represent being Asian. Apparently they were supposed to be men...which totally freaked Chelsea out! They did a really good job and had a lot of fun. This wasn't meant to be a very technical routine for them...they were simply supposed to act silly and have fun. They all laughed through the whole thing!! The pictures didn't turn out very good, though. They are far away and a little blurry...but you get the idea. Chelsea is in the white top and green pajama pants. The woman with her is her ballet teacher, Mrs. Jennifer. She does work with the Nashville Ballet as well as Chelsea's studio...so she always teaches them a part of the Nutcracker at Christmas.

Christmas Dance

Chelsea helps teach a 5 year old combo class at DC Dance Factory on Wednesday nights. This is a huge honor for her because usually only the older girls get to help teach. Plus, you have to be invited to do it by the teacher. Chelsea enjoys this class so much. She has really gotten to love the kids and they love her too. Last night they had a little Christmas dance they performed for their parents. Chelsea has to do the routines with them so they know what to do. Here are pictures of Chelsea dancing with her class. She had to dress up "Christmasy" too!

Christmas Band Concert

Last night, Chelsea's band held their Christmas dinner/concert. It was a really fun night. During dinner, the children were able to perform for the parents. In order to do this, they had to audition for the band directors. Some children danced with their friends, others played their instruments. Chelsea and her best friend Terah made the cut to perform a duet with their flutes! They did an amazing job and I was so proud. Then we went to the gym for the concert. All three levels of the band performed. Since Chelsea is only a 5th grader, she is still in beginning band. However, she and Terah do share the honor of first chair!! To those of you who are familiar with bands, first chair is a huge honor. It means you are the best player of that instrument in the band!! Here are some pictures from last night...enjoy!

Snow day

Well, Chelsea finally got her first snow day of the year!! Of course, there really wasn't much snow...but we tried to make the best of what there was. We went for a walk around the neighborhood & played on the playground for a little while. Chelsea spun around on the tire swing forEVER!! It made me sick just watching her. Hopefully the next snow will be a really good one...but this was a good starter!

The Grinch on ICE

After the convention and pool party on Saturday, we went with 2 of Chelsea's friends to see the Grinch on ICE. It was really fun. The Kennedis...as we like to call them...had never been before. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes. To keep the girls entertained, I took pictures of them "begging"! haha, they had fun acting silly. It was incredibly cold in the building, so we didn't stay for too long. Everything in the building is sculpted out of ice! There are even ice slides that are really fun...but cold on the bottom!! The girls went down the ice slide 2 times each. They couldn't go more than that because the line was too long and they got too cold! But, it was a really fun night.

NYCDA

This weekend was EXTREMELY busy! Chelsea had a dance convention called NYCDA, New York City Dance Alliance. It was held at Opryland Hotel. This is a two day convention. Chelsea danced all day Saturday and Sunday! Needless to say she was exhausted when she got home last night! She did a really great job, though. She really worked hard to learn each routine. I think she learned a lot. I'm proud of her hard work this weekend! Here are some pictures from the convention. Saturday, one of the other girls had a pool party for her birthday! That was a fun way for them to all relax after a busy day.