Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Sophia, Micah, Joshua, & Judah

Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government

shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Girl's Night Out

Sophia and I have a tradition that when we complete a violin book, we have a night out. So my husband booked a hotel through Priceline for downtown Cincinnati. We started our exciting day, however, by going to the Nutcracker Ballet. We met Nena there and enjoyed the wonderful performance.

Afterwards, Nena treated us to lunch and gave Sophie an ornament to remember the special day by. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful mother-in-law.

After lunch, Sophia and I went to a few stores downtown. The candy store was a favorite of hers and mine was the art supply store.

We stayed at the Hyatt by Fountain Square. It was so pretty. With all the Christmas music in the sky walks and the snow all around made it especially magical. We had to ride up and down the escalators just for fun.

After checking in the room, we decided to head up the Carew Tower. There is a viewing deck at the top. It was snowing, so it wasn't the clearest day, but we still had a great time.

We then headed to Fountain Square where there was ice skating. Sophia had soo much fun.

After skating, we went to the Rock Bottom Restaurant where Soph had a couple of refills of hot chocolate.

The Chrismas lights were so pretty. Even the carriages were all lit up.

The hotel lobby had an amazing gingerbread village on display.

We ended our trip the next morning, riding the free carriage ride around the block. It was a very special time and I'm so thankful for such a lovely daughter.

Snow!

We've had so much snow these past couple weeks. Very exciting. If it's going to be cold, it might as well have snow! It's looking hopeful that we might have a White Christmas this year.

Field Trips

Mom and Dad came to visit so we decided to hit the city for a couple of days. First we went to Duke Energy where they put on this beautiful electric train display for Christmas.

Judah was fascinated. He was so excited and was telling everyone to "Look!" as the train "is coming!!" again. And then again. And then again. I guess he didn't get that the track was made into a loop.

We were fortunate to have a backstage tour with our home school group at the Music Hall. Soon following, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra played a few pieces demonstrating the importance of Rhythm and Beats found in music.

Judah James

Judah, who is 2 1/2 years old, is sporting his personality more and more these days. He's such a delight.