Cheerleading is here

Anna started her cheerleading season at church in December. She and the other kindgergarten girls cheer for the basketball games in December and January. After hours of practice, the girls were decked out in their uniforms and ready to go!

Anna is ready to cheer on the players at Hope.

Anna and her friend McKayla

Caroline thinks she is ready for cheerleading too.

Nutcracker

Anna and I went to the Nutcracker ballet this year for the third year in a row. The place where she takes ballet is the production company for the main show in town. Therefore, Anna recognizes a lot of the people on stage which is fun for her. She was particularly drawn to the Dew Drop Fairy, Rachel Shumake, from the company, because she knows her well from ballet and church. Anna is convinced she will be on stage one day for everyone to see!!

Anna and Mommy before the big show!

Anna showing off her favorite ballet steps after the show.

Best Christmas Lights!!

Gary has a coworker that takes days and days and days and days to put out his Christmas lights. They are so amazing and are set to 20 minutes of music that you can tune your radio to 106.3 FM to hear while taking in the scenery. The address is 8598 Sycamore Trail Drive in Germantown. You can visit any night between 5:30 and 9:00 p.m. Believe me, it's worth the drive over.

Picking out the tree

It was time for the Zyrieks to venture out and pick out a Christmas tree. Call me crazy but I HAVE to have a real tree in my house. My parents have fake trees now as they are older but I love having a real tree. Gary and I figured out long ago that Home Depot had great trees for very good prics. We took the girls with us this year to find as Anna called it "The Perfect Tree". We started looking around and Anna and Caroline both showed us ones that did not make the cut. At one point Anna even said, "That one is not awesome enough!" Finally we found the right one, had the trunk trimmed up and put it in the Sequoia....decorating would come later.

i like this one!

carolie and ra-ra (baby doll) survey the choices

the tree for us!

Ann Sibert

Gary's sweet grandmother Ann Sibert died on Sunday, Novembe 30th. She was 84 years old. What a blessing it was for me to have met her back in 1992 and continued my relationship with her all these years. She was an amazing Southrn woman who worked in the military, the education system in Alabama and in politics, even running George Wallace's campaign for governor in Alabama. She and her husband Lathem were big Auburn fans and were great people. We traveled to lower Alabama for her funeral this week with Gary's mom and enjoyed seeing all of Gary's family. She will truly be missed!!

Ann
Gary with Ann in Eufaula

Ann, Mary, Gary and Anna (4 generations!)

Ann and Gaga

Thanksgiving Day

We had a fun Thanksgiving Day and the few days following. We started the day with lunch at Mom's house. The girls fed the geese before lunch with their cousins from Dallas, Blake and Drew. This was one of the best moments for Blake as he had the stomach bug most of the weekend. After lunch at mom's we headed over to Dad's which has been our tradition my whole life that I can remember. My uncle Blair remarried on Saturday the 29th so all the family came in town to help celebrate. We had 25+ people at my dad's for lunch. All of the seven grandkids enjoyed being around each other and wreaking havoc all over the place!! We are thankful to have had the chance to see so many of our family members that weekend!!

Anna with cousin Blake

The Zyrieks

The 7 grandkids

Blair, Lisa, Jennifer, James and Lizzie @ wedding

Giving Thanks, part 2

Anna's class had their feast on Monday, November 24th. Her class dressed like Indians by decorating shirts, selecting an Indian name (Princess Snow Fawn) and wearing their self made hats with feathers! Anna's class had a great time feasting away and Anna was a beautiful Indian princess. Kindergarten is going well. Anna made a list of what/who she was thankful for and I have included part of the list below:

1. Mommy
2. McKayla
3. Daddy
4. The Month of November
5. Food
6. Ally (the dog)
7. Many other things
100. In very small print.....her sister Caroline!!!

Love how McKayla her friend made it second on the list before Daddy!!

Snow Fawn with Miss Christy