Christmas Concert and other things

The girl had her Christmas concert at school. It was splendid. All of the second graders were on the stage at once, so there were about 95 kids up there. They sang 4 songs, of which I really can't remember the names. Caitlyn had a sore throat that week, so she kept making faces at me and motioning that she needed a cough drop. As if I could do anything about that at that very moment.


She also got her progress report, which basically is a midterm report letting parents know where the kids are at and where they will be when report cards come out. Caitlyn is overjoyed, as are we, with her grades. She has all A's right now. That is what her goal for the year is. I can see that sometimes she gets too focused on her grades and is quite the determined child when it comes to getting an A on anything. I often have to remind her that B's are fine too. And C's are okay provided she put forth her best effort. She does know though that a D or an F really isn't acceptable around these parts. But where she gets this drive from to succeed in school like this, I'll never know.

More to come after Christmas :)
I am pretty much done with all of the Christmas stuff. Not only is just about everything bought and wrapped, I have also wrapped the Santa gifts for Caitlyn. Truly, this is a huge feat for me. Santa's gifts always come in wrapping paper that is different from any we have in the house. I buy it special and it is based on what Caitlyn is "in to" that particular year. In there past, there has been Barbie, Princesses, Tinkerbell, etc. This year, it is High School Musical. Go figure. Once all Santa's gifts are wrapped, the paper is put away under the stairs, never to resurface. Well, at least not until she knows Santa does not bring her gifts. Which should be within the next year or so. Mainly because the kids at school are really starting to talk. Which is fine with me. We got a good 7 years, hopefully at least one more, of the sheer excitement and joy of Santa, and I am content with that.

We have been having crazy weather here in Chicago. Loads of snow and freezing cold weather. The snow and ice resulted in snow day for me on Friday. And it allowed for Caitlyn to play outside with the neighbor's son while I shoveled. This weekend has brought us temperatures that are below zero, so we have been pretty much holed up in the house. The only good thing to come out of that, is all the stuff I have been able to get done since it's too cold to leave.

Caitlyn loves to knock people down in the snow. Here she is getting my neighbor.