Other December ongoings

Quilly was running a few days behind his scheduled arrival and got locked out:

Bill of Rights Day with the Girl Scouts (photo by R):

Omri spent two nights away on a school trip, so Raia and I had a night out in Minneapolis after dropping off V at rehearsal. We had dinner at Gai Noi.

Walking around New Brighton during one of Veronica's voice lessons:

She sang "Blue Christmas" at a recital, solo, in front of a church full of people (I don't have permission to post the video, but this is her poodle skirt):

Omri and I went to the Bell Museum to see an award-winning planetarium show produced by our friend Dr. Holly:

We did NOT start smoking. This is R blowing out the advent candles after dinner:

I took 300 photos at a concert held at Bethel University. That happened to be during the weekend before my busiest week of the year at work.

It eventually caught up with me because I, literally, fell ill the Saturday morning before Christmas, when my parents were in town, passing out onto the floor of the kitchen in front of my dad. It was mostly due to a stomach virus, but it was also a warning sign to slow down.

Taking and editing photos is not what is stressing me out, but I'm still going to take a little pause on the blog for the next week or so, for reasons that will become clear. Christmas photos are still coming (in January)!

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Solstice Festival 2024

Still catching up on the month a bit...

Veronica sold homemade candles at the junior high market to raise money for her upcoming trip to Washington DC:

Thank you to Grandma Linda for the help in making them. They turned out beautifully:

She also sang and played the flute:

I did not have a good vantage point for the band, so we only have video of her singing:

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Family photos 2024

You may have received our Christmas card, which features a few of these, but I wanted to post them here too. All credit goes to local photographer Gretchen Loretta. She did an amazing job! It's even more impressive when I tell you these were taken on a windy, rainy, chilly day.

 

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Shrek The Musical Jr.

Veronica made her Minneapolis debut at The Conn Theater on Nicollet Ave with 18 performances of Shrek over three weekends (and some school days). It was a very entertaining show with a small but incredibly talented cast, ages 10-20. Her role was the Wicked Witch, but she also sang and danced a bunch in the ensemble. She is such a hard worker, learning new skills for her parts (baton twirling and more advanced tap dancing this time), even powering through multiple shows a day when she was sick (the show must go on). I'm hoping we will get some professional photos of actors on stage that I can post eventually, but for now I only have a few snaps from the lobby afterwards. 

Here is her selfie with grandmas Linda and Sofia:

And one with my parents from last Friday.

Grandpa Rak and Uncle Nathan also made to performances, along with other friends and supporters. Thanks to everyone who made it out!

Brava, my darling girl!

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Omri on keys

Omri gave Grandpa a preview of the song he would be playing at his piano recital:

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Decorating the tree 2024

These are a little disappointing compared to previous years because I have been having an issue with my big camera and wasn't able to use it! I also can't seem to take a decent shot with my iPhone these days either (I think because of the auto-HDR that can no longer be turned off?). Anyway, here's what I got:

Nice job, team!

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Alice turns 2

The day after Thanksgiving was Alice's birthday, so we stopped by to wish her a happy one. She was happy alright!

 

Salvi got a belated birthday gift too:

Alice, having her hair done again:

The gamer guyz had other things on their mind:

Ezra made an appearance too:

That's about it from our one-night trip up north. It was a lot of driving but nice to see family!

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Thanksgiving 2024

Had a marvelous dinner at Mike and Sofia's house this year! Thank you to our hosts!

I neglected to take a group photo, but R's sister's family was in attendance. Alice kind of stole the show this year with her adorableness (she's also one of the few people I know who seems to like to have her photo taken anymore, so we got along well).

 

She really took a liking to her big girl cousin, Veronica, who is doing her hair here:

Mauro and R performed Adam Sandler's "The Thanksgiving Song" (which I have on video, just not permission to share):

And this is neither here nor there, just a shot of Veronica browsing Mike's music shelf earlier in the day:

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Philly 2024

I was in Philadelphia last week for my company's 30th anniversary celebration.

 

The event itself was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Rocky famously ran up the stairs.

My team at the photo booth:

A photo from my walk through City Hall and a pre-party mirror selfie:

I had a corner room on the 22nd floor. This was part of my view:

Grabbing a cheese steak AFTER the after-party:

 I had a good time!

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Lego Challenge

Omri is in a Lego robotics league. He has been meeting with his team twice a week this fall, and they had their first competition last weekend. It was an interesting and fun experience!

 

The kids built and programmed a robot to perform certain tasks and earn points during timed matches.

Their robot:

The Krakens also presented a research assignment about cleaning up rivers in front of a panel of judges.

They won a Breakthrough Award for their novel approach and their design of this model of the filtering equipment:

Not bad for their first year as a club!

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