Holiday Cheer

I think this is my favorite day of the school year-the last day before Christmas Break. The kids get all dressed up in their holiday attire, the school plays music in the office and welcomes families with coffee and cookies. Each grade has a time slot for performances and you can't help but get in the holiday spirit! Allison's class performed at 9:00 and she was lucky enough to stand next to her buddies, Lorien and Cooper. 2nd grade put on a little skit along with several musical numbers and Allison "hammed" it up as usual. She really does belong on a stage! Then it was off to her classroom so we could present Mrs. Falciano with her Christmas gift. The class gave her two pre-lit Christmas trees decorated with gift cards to her favorite places and Expo markers, which she needed desperately. She was overwhelmed and very appreciative. Allison is so lucky to have her! Some of the girls in Allison's class.

Then I was off to Taylor's classroom to help with her waffle breakfast. The hallway was lined with waffle makers and Moms eager to help. The kids were treated to waffles, fruit, juice and movie time watching Elf.

Taylor's performance wasn't until 2 so I met the ladies for lunch before heading back up to school. It was funny walking into the MPR to look for a seat. In the younger grades, parents nearly camp out to get the perfect seat to watch their son or daughter or video tape the entire show. They bring grandparents, siblings, neighbors, etc. By the time they reach 5th grade, you are lucky to see half the parents there. There were plenty of open seats and the show lasted 12 minutes. Cute, but almost seemed over before it started! I just kept thinking this would be my last year with both girls performing. I think I will feel that with each event this year :(

Taylor with Shelby and Courtney

The kids both came home with fun gifts for Matt and I to open and bags full of candy canes and treats. We are excited to have the next 2 weeks off the enjoy the holiday!

Saying Goodbye to the Angels

After a 14-1-2 finish, 2nd place in league and 2nd place in Commissioner's Cup, it was time to say goodbye to Charlie's Angels. What better way to celebrate than with ice cream!! I hosted the end of the year party at our house last night and mixed a soccer theme with the holiday season.Any flavor and topping we could think of!

Holiday lifesavers with a little note from the coaches.
(We passed out lifesavers after each game, so it was only fitting!)

A special birthday surprise for Coach Charlie.

The team makes him blush while they sing to him.

Mary put together a wonderful DVD of the season. It is a Schreck team tradition!

The parents presented Charlie, Mary and I with gift cards for a 60 minute massage and dinner gift certificates to a Japanese restaurant in town. I also got a really cool soccer ornament from Charlie and Mary. So sweet!

The girls listened to the coaches' speeches and waited for the awards to be passed out.

Thanks for another great season Coach Charlie.

(See you at All-Star practice tomorrow!)

Old Town Santa

We have been taking the girls to see Santa in Old Town every Christmas season, but this year I couldn't convince Taylor to go. She said she was too old to sit on Santa's lap, which was fine with me. I told her to just stand next to him, share her list and pose for a picture. She would have nothing to do with it and asked if Allison could just give him her letter. She really wants a laptop, but I think she is questioning things...So sad!

But not Allison. She has had her letter written for weeks and has been really worried about Santa finding us at Grandma and Papa's house this year. "Does Grandma have a Santa key? We can't forget to take our stockings. We need to bring reindeer food." I have assured her it will all be fine.

Allison has several requests this year... teacher supplies, goalie gloves, legos, and 40 Zoomania
were the items she put on this year's list. She understands that the Santa in Old Town is not the real Santa, but one of the many helpers that gets the letters to the real Santa at the North Pole. On her letter, she asked that the real Santa call her to let her know that he got the letter. I love the magic of it all!

Santa checked inside his sleeve to make sure Allison was on the "Good" list.He read every word of her letter and let out a perfect Santa laugh after he struggled to read goalie gloves on her list! Reanna joined us for our visit. She already sent her letter to Santa, but she shared her requests again. She is hoping for goalie gloves too!

Santa gave the girls candy canes and explained that he can get all of the presents delivered to every house thanks to the International Date Line. It actually gives him 2 days to get them all delivered. The girls agreed with the logic and walked away with big smiles!

White Elephant Christmas Party

Leslie had the great idea to have a White Elephant Christmas party. It was our month to host dinner, so we told everyone to bring a gift ($10 limit) for each family member. It was harder than I thought to find a gift that was funny, cheap and child appropriate, but we sure had fun shopping around. I found gifts for the girls and myself at Marshall's and let Matt get creative on his own. I had to keep reminding him "Kid Appropriate"! I was hoping to save the gift exchange for after dinner, but the kids would hear nothing of it. So we quickly went through the rules:

#1- If you touch it, it's yours.

#2- You get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

#3- A gift can only be stolen twice.

#4- You can't steal what has just been stolen from you.

#5- Have fun!

There were lots of laughs and great creativity in the prize choices:

Lauren loved her guitar ice cube trays!

Mary stole this Christmas Hot Dog Olive Tray thing from Michael, but Felicia quickly stole it back.

Michael loved his Miss Chatterbox magnet set and frame, but by the end of the night, he had his Christmas hot dog back and Felicia got the Miss Chatterbox stuff.

Emily loved her hat umbrella....

'til Hank stole it...

and Tyan went home with it!

Some other fun gifts were Hot Abs spray, a burger press and ashtray (don't quite get the connection), fart putty, a pack of gum that shocks you when you try to pull a piece out, a pig that poops candy and several stuffed animals. We laughed so hard and enjoyed great dinner and desserts. I think we should make this an annual tradition.

Santa Hank and Leslie

Trailblazer of the Month for....

"Citizenship"Taylor was honored this morning as Trailblazer of the Month in Mrs. Atkinson's class. Normally, the kids are called up at Friday Flag Salute, but due to this morning's rain, the award winners were announced over the loud speaker in the classrooms and then sent to the office to pick up their dog tags. Mrs. Atkinson had this to say about Taylor.

Taylor you are one amazing girl in so many ways. I think back to when you were first in my class... a little, tiny 2nd grader so adorable and eager to learn. You have grown and changed in so many ways over the past 3 years, but your desire to do and be the best that you can be has continued to thrive and brought out the best in you. You always make me proud!
2 4th graders and 2 5th graders were honored today.

Zoe was honored for "Academic Excellence". Way to go Zoe!

Jaden is climbing the pillar to success for "Responsibility".

All of the girls had their "goofy face" pictures added to the Terrific Trailblazer wall.

Commissioner's Cup

After our 2nd place finish during the regular season, Charlie's Angels advanced to this weekend's Commissioner's Cup tournament. Teams from all over Riverside and San Bernadino County travel to represent their cities. Our 1st game on Saturday was against Morongo Basin and we won easily 7-1. We even switched up our lineup to slow the game down. In the afternoon, we faced Yucaipa. They were a much tougher team and it was a hard fought 2-0 win for us.
On Sunday morning, we were at the field at 7:20 to face Wildomar. It was freezing outside, but our kids were RED HOT! We won 9-0 and even spent the 2nd half switching up our lineup again. The girls were so excited to advance to the championship game at 12:30 and hopefully get some redemption from our regular season championship loss.
Unfortunately, we fell short once again with a 7-1 loss against Colton. We had faced this team before in All-Stars last year and done well against them, but today was no match. They beat us on the forward cross everytime and our girls gave up quickly. The game ended with lots of tears, sore ankles and bruised egos, but the league representative and Charlie and I put an end to that real quickly. Doug presented the girls with their medals and thanked them for proudly representing TVSA. He told them about all the teams who had already packed up and went home after their 3rd game, but we were there to play in the finals and we should be proud of that.

Charlie followed up with a little speech expressing his pride in the team and how he was sad to see this team's season come to an end. Unfortunately, our only two losses of the season came in the two championship games. We are looking forward to our team party next week and then continuing the journey with All-Stars. Taylor and two other Angels (Maylie and Bella) will be advancing and there is still a lot more soccer to play in the next several weeks. For now, Taylor is ready to get in a hot bath and soak her tired legs and feet. She played outstanding this weekend, scored several goals for her team and proved to be a true leader. It was another memorable soccer weekend!

Holiday Parade

Matt was really interested in going to our holiday parade this year. The girls have walked in it the past few years with Girl Scouts, but this would be the first year to watch it as a family. After picking the girls up from school, we loaded up our layers of clothes, blankets and chairs and made our way to the parade route to get a good spot. We wanted to back the truck up in a parking spot along the route so we could watch it from the truck bed and be a lot higher than the street. Mission accomplished! While we waited for Matt to meet us from work, the girls played "punch bug" and other games in the bed of the truck. We were hoping for a yummy dinner at Guadalajara, but as we walked up to their doors, the sign read "Due to the holiday parade, we will be closed at 5:00". Bummer! Wendy's was the next best option, so we met Matt there for a quick bite to eat. I think everyone else had the same idea. While we ate, the line kept growing and growing.

The parade started at 7:00 and the weather was perfect. We started off with just sweatshirts and added layers throughout the night.

The flash on my camera struggled to capture good shots, but it was a pretty good parade (just could have used more music on some of the floats). We saw lots of emergency vehicles, cub scout packs and girl scout troops, local businesses, school marching bands and ROTC groups and several sports teams. We voted Great Oak "best marching band" and TVHS "best ROTC".

We even spotted Chip leading the ROTC and he ran over to give the girls a hug.

The temperature was dropping and the girls were getting tired, but we had a great time and think we will make this an annual tradition. Sure puts us in the Christmas spirit!