Happy DecemBear!

Don't look now, but it's DECEMBER! Seems like it hasn't been that long since we hung the ol' "Beary Merry Christmas" calendar on the door last year.

(Here are the 2007 and 2006 versions of our DecemBear tradition.)

The German Club hasn't sold Adventskalenders yet, so we enjoyed only half of our countdown ritual tonight. You might also notice that just one Dub was willing to move our little bear to his appointed spot for day 1. Still, we're glad to hold on to this tradition.

By the way, I'm extra happy we were able to find most of our Christmas boxes in our storage unit! Since there's still a slight possibility that our would-be buyers will get approved, we entertained the idea of leaving those boxes in storage and NOT decorating for Christmas. Then we realized it'd be foolish to let someone else's credit issues determine how we celebrate this holiday! So out the boxes came!

We also ended up with THREE Christmas trees in our house this year, but that story will have to wait for another day.

P.S. - Every now and then I check Sitemeter to see how people came across this blog. This time of year we get several hits from people Googling "DecemBear"! In case that's what brought you here, let me just say I don't know where you can find a calendar like ours. My mom found this one in some store's fabric department 20-plus years ago. Sorry!

Post-show tradition.

After Saturday's musical performance, we joined a couple of families for a post-show tradition: dinner at IHOP!

Here's one booth:
And here's another:
Notice how there are no parents at those tables? Yep, we had our own booths with a blessed glass partition between us and the young-uns. Sweet!

Now and then and ice cream again.

Tonight was the big spring band concert, so we loaded up and headed to our local high school auditorium.

Ryan warms up on the way

This particular high school just happens to be Brett's alma mater. As soon as he walked into the lobby outside the auditorium, he had a "severe flashback" to people and moments he hadn't really thought about in 20-plus years. Before the concert started, he and Katie wandered on over to the gym, and he couldn't get over how that place smells exactly the same as it did back in the day. He said that being there, he could easily recall the "mean coaches, good friends and big games."

Back in the auditorium, we got to hear Ryan perform. (We certainly couldn't see him and other other trumpets back there in the fourth row!)

As is our tradition, we stopped at Baskin-Robbins for a post-concert treat.

Mmmm... vanilla!

Great job, Ryan! Way to go, band!

Choir Festival.

Katie and her choir buddies performed for the school district's choir festival. They sang "Together (Wherever We Go)"—you know, the song Carol and Marcia sing for the Westdale Family Frolics!
Choirs from all of the district's elementary schools performed, so there was a big crowd!

I ended up moving to a different seat in the coliseum about halfway through the program. Two talkative moms didn't quite understand that we were there to hear the kids sing and not to listen to their conversation!

Afterwards, Katie and I honored a long-standing (well, two years in a row, at least!) tradition of stopping at Baskin-Robbins on the way home.

Katie opted for the pink bubblegum ice cream...

...which means she had a wad of gum to chew on the way home!