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In addition to her newer activities, Molly’s still taking and very much enjoying ballet. We were excited to go to her class’ visitors day to see what she’s learned.

They do a lot of barre work in the beginning.

We need a ballet dictionary (or at least this Wikipedia page) to understand all the movements she’s doing. I believe this is a Chassé.

Molly’s not the only one taking ballet. Leah still very much enjoys it. Her class does not use the French names for things, and instead opts for little-kid-friendly terms. Here’s her “mermaid stretch.”

Here she is galloping. They even get props to help them understand what to do.

And, of course, we got a lot of waves. Note that Leah is still walking on her toes most of the time. Ballet is the one place where she isn’t constantly told to walk on her flat feet :).

The fire department brings a Santa around in a sleigh to local neighborhoods. They stop at the pool by our house, so we braved the cold (it was just above 20) to go see him.

The sleigh was pulled by a fire department vehicle, which was led by a ladder truck. They drove through the neighborhood, though sadly not down our street.

Shortly before heading to church yesterday, snow started coming down like crazy. Here’s Leah with her coat over her fancy smocked dress walking in through the snow.

After church and a quick lunch, it was out to the backyard for some winter fun. The house behind us to one side has a nice hill that runs into our side yard, which has a nice uphill to slow down the sled. The girls are ready to go.

They fell over when stopping, but they’re having fun regardless.

The girls sledded for much of the afternoon, but I did get a turn as well.

Even Mommy joined us (briefly) to sled down once. Looks like she had as much fun as the girls.

After a good little while sledding and making snow angels, the girls were freezing. So, they headed in to warm up by the fire.

After warming up, we headed back out for more fun. After a bit more sledding, we decided to make our first snowman. Leah went in shivering before it was complete, but Molly toughed it out till the end. Neither of us could feel our fingers for the last ten minutes, but we were determined to finish it.

I think this was the most fun we've had in the snow. The girls are now old enough to really enjoy playing in it. After the last two years of very little snow, they were ready to get out and have some fun. I'll likely change my tune after a really big snowfall, but right now we're all really enjoying the snow.

Molly's been doing ballet for several years, but this year she added a tap and jazz class. For their last class of the year, they invited parents and siblings to come see what they did in class. Molly's come a long way on all the skills and seems to especially love tap. She does a great job taking her turn, but I enjoy her "waiting patiently" for the others much more. Also, make sure you watch all the way to the end or you'll miss something (or someone).

In addition to the video, here are a couple of pictures from the class:

Jazz

Tap

We interrupt our usual programming of pictures and activities of our family to say

WAR EAGLE!

The year after the worst season I've ever seen, Auburn wins the SEC championship again.

Great job tonight Michigan State. Thanks for giving us our shot at the title again.

Molly's been taking a drama class after school and we were invited to their last class to see what they've done. They've been working on a bunch of scenes from Disney theater productions. It included both musical numbers and dialogue. Molly had a great time, and we've been singing Disney songs ever since.

In addition to the video, here are a few snaps from some of the other dance numbers:

As we have in previous years, we headed to Greenway Farm to cut down our Christmas tree. With the taller ceilings in our new house, we were looking for a taller tree than we've gotten in the past. Fortunately, the farm had lots of very tall (up to 14 feet) white pines for us to choose from. We chose this 10.5 foot tree, which gave us a little wiggle room to trim off when we got it home.

Despite its extra height, it came down pretty easily.

This taller tree hung off the back of the car a good bit. I had to drive very carefully on the way home, given all the speed bumps along the way.

We put the tree in our old tree stand. We've been saying we should replace it for the past year or two, but we never got around to it. As I was tightening down the bolts, the tree tipped and fell with a huge bang. Our sad old tree stand couldn't handle this bigger tree. So, I hurried to Target to get a new stand.

We had one evening free this week to decorate the tree, so we took advantage. Christmas music, lights, ornaments, and two very happy kids.

A lot of ornaments made it onto the bottom of the tree thanks to the maximum reach of the girls. Thankfully, they were happy to let me lift them up to put ornaments a little higher.

The taller tree meant I needed a ladder to put the angel on top, as well as some of the ornaments and lights up top.

We finished with the tree and headed upstairs to give the girls a bath. Right after they got in the tub, Jen heard a crash downstairs. The tree had fallen over - again. We quickly lifted it up to get the ornaments off. Thankfully, only a few of them had broken. We then set it back down while I ran to Home Depot to get another tree stand. This time it is one made of steel and stated to support 12 foot trees.

After putting on the new stand, then putting the lights and ornaments back on, we have a tree. Please stay up.

After taking in the beauty of the bluff, we had a good visit with the Savannah family. My aunt and uncle threw an oyster roast for EA and Scott to celebrate their recent nuptials. Our family was not shy about digging into these oysters (at least those of us older than 6).

As always, the hammock is the girls' favorite destination at Grandaddy's house.

They do love to hug each other.

Molly and Leah love for me to swing them in the hammock. Getting a picture while I swing them requires a really wide angle, but I think it works.

These girls love their great Grandaddy.

We headed to Grandaddy's house in Savannah to visit the extended family. First stop was of course, the dock. They had beautiful weather in the mid-60's in the location that is my definition of serene. The river was so still, it was great. I got several pictures of the bluff.

In the calm, the clouds roll in.

Grandaddy's house is in an incredible location. This picture is shot from the dock looking back at the bluff. Grandaddy's house is in the center, with the old plantation house to its right.

Hammock, still river, disappearing sun. Serenity.

The golden light of the sunset illuminates the Spanish moss on the bluff.

Sunset on the bluff, as seen from the back porch

Molly's school had a Turkey Trot - a short (about 1 mile) fun run for all the kids. They invited parents to join in as well. When I asked Molly about this, she said she wanted me to come but not to run. She wanted me to just take pictures of her running. I asked her several times in the days leading up to the run and she was quite sure that's what she wanted me to do. So, when the day arrived I walked over to school with my backpack full, including my camera and 5 lenses. Molly was excited and ready to run with her race bib.

Of course, then she told me she changed her mind and did want me to run with her. At least I was wearing sneakers with my jeans. So, I ran alongside her with my backpack bouncing around. I didn't get any pictures during the run for obvious reasons. After the run, we met up with the rest of her class. These girls don't look tired at all.

And here's the whole class.