Last weekend we had our very first snow fall of the season. What a wonderful way to welcome December! Snow can be fun, but it never seems to come at the right time! And this was not just snow, but ice and rain mixed in. It started on Saturday morning, so all events scheduled at the local schools were cancelled. The kids were bummed since they did not get their first snow day. But I was disappointed since I had tickets for the family and my mom to go hear the US Army Jazz Band play their Holiday concert at the local High School. They always do such an incredible job, and they play a 2 hr concert for free! Can't beat the price. So unfortunately, because they were scheduled to play at the school, and the schools were closed, the concert was cancelled. Oh well, it gave me more time to work on my Christmas cards.

And to get ready for the upcoming neighborhood Christmas party that night. We were to bring appetizers and side dishes, so I had some cooking to do. I also made a batch of Holiday Wassail-warm Christmas wine-in the crock pot which turned out to be a big hit on a cold night. Especially with the oranges, cranberries and cinnamon sticks.  We had a wonderful time visiting with all our neighbors, but the roads were slick getting home. I had hoped to take my Mom to the concert as well as the party, but did not want to risk Mom walking up frozen driveways or me skidding on the roads trying to pick her up and drop her off(especially after sampling the Christmas Wassail!).

The bad weather also kept Scott and I home baking cookies for his Cookie Exchange party with his elementary/high school friends. One of the girls has hosted a party for the past 4 years. I am always invited, although I usually have to run off to some GS choir event. So Scott and I made chocolate covered popcorn, cocoa spoons and oreo cookies and packaged them all up. Yum!  On Sunday afternoon we headed over for the party. I always enjoy catching up with the moms from the old school, as well as their kids future plans. We even exchanged contact info to see if the kids could get summer internships. Plus the moms are all so nice and exchange gifts! I can't keep up!And then I did have to leave for another GS choir event!

Our GS choir was invited to sing at a lighting ceremony in Mt Washington at the Johns Hopkins University. They actually light up an historical building-a multi story house in the shape of an octagon. I will have to check out its history. I really did not have time to talk to any of the staff. The building is attached to a conference center/hotel. Very nice, but very empty on a Sunday night. The staff did put out a Starbucks Hot Cocoa bar and cookies for the community, but it went fast. They said this was the most people they have ever had at their event. And they enjoyed our GS choir leading everyone in caroling.

I was also busy running around during the week. It was time to pick up our Christmas Photo cards at JC Penney. I invited Tom and Scott to join me for dinner. I had a gift card for Maggiones Italian Restaurant-Tom's favorite. We had a very nice dinner and got there just before all the big Holiday groups starting pouring in.  On  Friday I was running errands and spent the whole day Christmas shopping! What fun! Even Cookie got dropped off for a Christmas hair cut(which she needed badly). And Scott and I could not help picking her up a new bed for Christmas at the pet store(since it was on sale!). She's absolutely lost in the big, fluffy pillow!

We were also looking forward to having Allison come home. She finished a big final presentation on Tuesday night in Management and was busy studying over the weekend for her final in Finance(going to be a tough one!) the following week. Then she will be packing up and heading home for the Holidays!.