With Christmas falling on a Sunday, we headed to church at 11 a.m. They had put together several musical numbers for the program and I had been asked to play a piano solo of Silent Night. I had done a lot of accompanying in the last several years but hadn't performed a solo in a long time. I found a really pretty arrangement of Silent Night and Still, Still, Still. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to learn and I spent countless hours in December trying to perfect it, usually sitting down at the piano after midnight to practice when all the kids were finally in bed and I had finished other chores and Christmas-related tasks. I stressed out about it way too much and was so glad to finally get it over with. I also accompanied another musical number for the program which was, thankfully, much easier. It did get me back in the habit of playing the piano more and I'm now working on some classical pieces for fun.
After church we had a big brunch. We had our usual German pancakes (puffed pancake) and I also tried a new ham and swiss breakfast casserole using brioche that was super delicious. We spent the rest of the day playing with all of our new toys and games and enjoying video chats with family. I got the girls a whole bunch of costumes for their dress-up collection. I found all these amazing costumes from Chasing Fireflies that were marked down significantly after Halloween. Many of them were only $7 (normally $75 or more). The girls loved them and put on multiple plays for us over the next week. The kids also loved the new teepee and campfire set and went on lots of pretend camping trips in the family room.
