Another Christmas season has come and gone even quicker than the last, but like all the others for our family, it was a great one. The pictures below will commemorate this holiday season well, but I’ll do my best to fill in the gaps. It was a relatively quiet season for us; no traveling, no visitors, but still plenty of joy. There were school concerts, lots of decorating, some expected gifts, and even a few surprises.
Having kids involved in music means no holiday season is complete without a winter concert, or in our case, three of them. The first concert was performed by the school band, which Ava is a proud member of, then the next night was the orchestra performance, hopefully the first of many for Elise, and then things wrapped up on a Friday morning with Enzo and the school choir. This is Ava’s second year in her middle school’s band and she is thriving there. She loves playing her trumpet and the improvement since getting started a little over a year ago has been incredible to watch. Not only did she perform in this year’s winter band concert, but she also got a chance to participate in the school’s first appearance in the Henderson WinterFest Electric Light Parade. This was her first experience performing in a marching band, so our whole family, including Nana, came out to support her. We enjoyed the parade, cheered way too loud when Ava marched by, and even ran into some friends from her softball team. Here’s a video of the school band’s Winter concert.
Elise was beyond excited to perform in her first school orchestra performance for the Winter Concert Series. She started playing violin a few months ago and is loving it. For weeks leading up to the concert, she would go over to her friend’s house, who also plays violin in the school orchestra, to practice their material. Watching her perform made me so proud, and luckily, Nana was able to join us. The following morning, Enzo’s school choir did their holiday performance, and although I wasn’t able to attend due to work meetings, Nana and Jessica were there to cheer him on. Here’s the video of Elise’s first school orchestra performance.
In addition to attending school holiday performances with Nana, we also had a memorable evening with her looking at Christmas lights and decorations. The original plan was to visit a house in Henderson which had been featured in the news for their over-the-top lights and decorations. They open up their house on six nights in December for people to tour, and the price of admission is a food or clothing donation for charity. We drove to the house and then our jaws dropped when we saw the line to get in. It must have been a 90-minute wait and we simply weren’t prepared for that. We decided to call an audible and Jessica got on her text messages thread with several moms in the neighborhood to see if anyone recommended a neighborhood to check out.
As luck would have it, there was a neighborhood about 5 minutes from our own that goes huge with the holiday decorations. One entire street is covered with lights running from house to house, while another has hundreds of holiday inflatables all over their house and yard. We even found a house that created a photo scene in their front yard with an actual sleigh! First, we drove up and down each street taking it all in, then we got out to walk around and take a closer look. Here are a couple of photos from the sleigh house.
The kids hadn’t had a visit with Santa Claus since moving to Nevada in 2021, so we tried to make up for that by scheduling two visits with the old man this year. Here’s a photo of each one.
In addition to doing all the things for our own family, as usual, Jessica did a great deed this holiday season by helping to coordinate a large donation of gifts for a local family in need. This family doesn’t normally celebrate Christmas because they can’t afford to, so Jessica took it upon herself to collect donations and gifts from friends in our neighborhood, then got a group together to deliver them during the first weekend of the holiday break. As you might expect, they were so appreciative, but one could argue that Jessica and her friends who made this happen received the greatest gift of all. It’s truly what the holiday season is all about and I loved the message it sent to our kids.
A couple nights before Christmas, a bunch of our neighbors got together for an evening of Christmas caroling. We originally thought it was just going to be kids doing the singing, but several entire families showed up, and we even had three drummers from the marching band at a local school. I’m not sure how they were related to our group but they were really good and set the tone for the whole evening. It felt like a college football game as we all marched around the neighborhood singing to the people who stepped outside to see what was going on. I think it’s safe to say it was more fun than anyone expected and we now have a new tradition on our hands. We’ll be more prepared next year with a specific setlist. I’m going to learn the material on guitar and bring out an acoustic, plus I think Ava and Elise want to do the same with the trumpet and violin. I’m already looking forward to our big holiday “gig.” Here’s a video I took of our first annual performance.
https://www.facebook.com/100077397105819/videos/996422079186905
Christmas morning started early, as usual, but for the first time ever, Jessica and I were up before the kids. They all slept in the same room that night and when I walked in to wake them up, Elise said “I’ve been waiting since 3:00 am.” I’m not sure if I believe that, but either way, they were very excited to come downstairs and open their gifts. Here they are at the top of the stairs before heading down.
We have a tradition where the kids have to find a pickle ornament on our tree, and whoever finds it gets to open the first present. Jessica did a good job of hiding the pickle this year so it took a couple minutes before the gift opening commenced, but then it was on. I won’t go through every present, but some of the highlights included at least one new pair of shoes for each kid, lots of clothes, Enzo got a cool pair of sunglasses and a new iPad since his old one was pretty busted up, Elise got a new bed and vanity for her room, and Ava got lots of anime stuff, plus a new bookshelf for her room where she could display all her anime collectables. Everyone was very happy and I think the smiles on their faces say it all.
Tomorrow, Elise will receive her final present, which is getting her ears pierced. Ava received the same gift last Christmas and Elise really wanted to do the same thing this year, so we’re taking her to the same piercing specialist at a local tattoo shop that Ava went to last year. Tomorrow night we’ll be ringing in the new year with friends at a neighborhood party.
2024 has been another great year for our family and it’s hard to believe that Jessica and the kids are already half-way through the school year. Jessica’s masters program at UNLV is continuing to go very well and I’m loving my new job. Cappers has experienced a lot of growth this year and we’re hoping for that trend to continue in 2025. We’re now less than a month away from Enzo turning 10 years old, which is an exciting milestone for our family that I look forward to writing about. It’s crazy to think that our kids will now all be in double-digits!
That’s all for now. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here’s the rest of my favorite photos from Christmas morning.
