The First Night of 2012

On NYE we went to an event called First Night. You buy a button to wear which is your ticket in to various events all night. Last year was our first visit and we LOVED it! I am a big fan of live music, museums and architecture, so it was made for me. Some highlights were:

Lisa & Heather Malyuk are sisters and phenomenal musicians. They play modern, celtic, folky stuff, LOVE them!

I was so excited to see them perform in our local Art Museum lobby! It's a pretty space.

The next performance we saw was in the gorgeous ballroom of a building called Greystone Hall. It was built in 1917, and the architecture is breathtaking

This year there were horse drawn carriage rides. This was extremely popular, and we did not want to wait in line for 1 1/2 hrs, so we skipped it.

we explored the Civic Theater which is my favorite building in the city. I sang here with choirs years ago, and my high school graduation was also held here!

there was a "make-your-own" mask craft, which we did for the 2nd yr

this made me smile the most. My Grandmother used to work in this building!

and finally we saw opera performances in the Actor's Summit which is actually on the top floor of the building the ballroom is in.

We had an absolutely wonderful end to a completely awful year!

Thank you for waring so we do not need to war

I'm a couple weeks behind, what else is new?

As you may or may not know, I have an 8 year old step-daughter. She is in 3rd grade at a great little school. About a week before Christmas, a big yellow envelope arrived in the mail, addressed to my husband. When we opened it, we discovered that it was from the guidance counselor at my step-daughter's school, this is what HER card said:

and this is what was inside:

There are 30 of them! The kids wrote, colored and decorated these cards for parents of students that are in the military. My husband and I were completely blown away. Here is a small sample of the insides :)





but THIS one is my favorite. This one is so innocent but meaningful to me. This kid knows exactly why my husband and so many others do what they do, even if he doesn't really understand. The core reason why they serve is in hopes that future generations don't have to.

we sat and read every single card. It was a highlight of our holiday season!