"what time is it?"

It's time to prepare for the next week of school! It's really a good thing I didn't wait to start on this giant clock until Saturday, because I know now that I never would have gotten it finished in time for class on Monday! Here it is in it's nearly finished state... And here it is practically ready to go! I need Dad to load it up and take it to the church tonight so I can set it up and see if it actually will stay standing... It's too tall to stand up in the house, and too COLD to try it outside, so the church is the next best place that I can think of! All it needs to make it complete is the "Griffitts Clock Works" logo on the clock face. Then it will be all done!
Oh, yeah - I made this for the kids at school to dance to a piece of 'clock music' that has at least 4 different sections, (like section 'A', 'B', 'C', and 'D') so they can learn about form in music. I thought this would make it more fun - but the tall kids are going to have to really scrunch down to fit through those doors! It's been fun to make it, though. It really ended up coming out pretty much how I imagined it! That's a first!

It's also 'time' that gramma got some new jammies! Grampa thought it would be fun to open these for a Christmas Eve present in Pennsylvania so the girls would be happy that I got some
jammies. Well, we weren't there, so I just opened them on Christmas and wore them to Alan and Sandy's for dinner! They sure are cosy!

and, last, but not least, icicles!

These pictures speak for themselves. Icicles all over the place.

Oh, yeah...Darbye came home!

We were not technically late to the airport, but Darbye was already there, so we WERE late to greet here. Thankfully, Jeremy and Amy were there to greet her! But, we do have pictures to prove that we did get to the airport to pick her up! Here are Ramona, Caleb and Alyssa at the airport to greet Darbye.

Dad was happy to see his youngest daughter home safe and sound!

Another Ramona and Cousins picture!

It's been good to have Darbye home for the last couple of weeks. She is working hard and we are especially happy to have her here for Christmas! Woo-hoo!

Baby, it's cold outside!

The view from the front door - even deeper than last year! And it's STILL SNOWING! The only bad part was that we couldn't fly out on Monday, so we aren't in Philly right now.... Oh, well. It was a white Christmas, and we have had a nice, quiet time together with Darbye. The view from the back door...

I got a couple of musical gifts from Dad - this is my new guitar strap. And Darbye printed off some easy guitar carols for me to practice!

AND! I got two sets of really nice marimba mallets! REALLY nice ones! I've already used them to figure out how to play Silent Night - WITH harmony! They really sound great, so it's fun to use them.

Christmas Eve

Mom and Dad (aka Gramma and Grampa) at Suzie's house for the annual Christmas party. With jingle bell earrings, jingle bells on my shirt AND jingle bell slippers, I was jingling all the way! Grandma Shar read a story about Candy Canes, and then gave everyone a candy cane at the end!

The cousins all sang a pretty song. It was so fun to watch them all together.

One of the highlights was Tytan reciting his lines in the christmas program: "Fear not! Jesus is born. There's the star. Go find him!" It was SO CUTE!!!

It was a house full of people, but it was sure fun!

Special Chorus: Festival of the Trees

Blitzen's Boogie - THE favorite song of all time! Aren't they cute? Their parents all thing so, so it was all good!

Bishop got a really nice picture of one of his 'flock' - Katheryne!

I can even look like a choir director when I try hard! It was lots of fun, and I got to watch the programs of several of the other Special Chorus leaders in town - most of them new friends of mine...

Thanksgiving

The Crebs family visited for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see them all! Ava discovered how to play the recorder. She's going to be quite the musician.

This is a cute picture, but Ava didn't like the looks of the Elf behind us, so she wasn't happy about sitting so close to him! We were lucky to get the picture.

The last 3 months: First, Coeurimba Bunco Party!

Sometime in October or November (it's been so long I can't remember exactly...) we hosted a Coeurimba Bunco party at our home for the members of 'the band' and their families. It was so much fun we kept talking about it for weeks! Dan Powel is showing off his prize globe.... Tina was hoping Bob would pick this fancy 'head scratcher' as his prize, but I think she had to take it back home with her and save it for the next Bunco party.

We had a house full, but we had a bunch of fun, too! Behind me is Bob, Eileen, Garrett, Garrett's Dad and sister, and Tina. What a fun time!

Dan, Lincoln and Bailey Powell posing with their 'v' is for victory sign!