Namaste

Abigail has had a busy holiday season. She had her winter orchestra concert on the 11th, which had an added layer of excitement associated with it because she somehow broke her E-string just moments before they went on stage. Fortunately, one of the other girls in the orchestra had a spare E-string that she gave Abbie and the conductor was able to put it on the violin for her before the performance. Since then, the orchestra has been on break, but rehearsals will start up again in January and Abigail is looking forward to it.  

  

Speaking of performances, Abigail also performed in the school-wide holiday program. In addition to singing, Abigail accompanied the chorus on her violin as they sang Auld Lang Syne. She did great and was so happy to finally be able to incorporate her violin into the program. In past years, the music director has been too rigid, but the new music director is much more open to her ideas. Abigail also had fun hanging out with her friends, who were all dressed up and looking so mature that I just couldn't believe it.

She and her friend, Vivian (in green) have been learning about Buddhism lately. This seems to fit pretty well with Abbie's other interests in yoga, meditation, and vegetarianism. She would love to rearrange her room to create a meditation space, etc., but I'm not sure that the room is set up to accommodate her desires. She is also interested in repainting and re-carpeting, which we will need to give some thought to at some point.

Despite her interest in Buddhism, Abigail is still all in on Santa, etc. She created a double-layer cookie for him this year, sealed together with icing. I turned my back for just a minute and then discovered that she had been working on a four-layer cookie - yikes! I quickly had her dismantle it into something more manageable. Even with only two layers, however, Santa was not able to finish the entire thing. :)

The annual visit to Santa was critical as always, and Abigail left nothing to chance. She had two items that she had chosen from the Sharper Image catalog. She didn't want any misunderstandings so she was sure to write the item numbers on her arm prior to the meeting. She did receive one of the two items - a super fancy alarm clock - and it seems to be all that she had hoped it would be. :)

Abigail also had the opportunity to see her friend Eleanore over the break. Eleanore normally lives in our area (sort of), but her family is spending two years in London for her father's work, so the girls, who met at camp a few years ago, rarely get to see each other in person. They FaceTime regularly, but there is just no substitute for real face time! Of course, she spent a night with Eleanore's family who is in town for a week, but the girls didn't sleep very much so Abbie is now nursing a massive cold - no doubt the product of too much sugar and too little sleep!

Finally, Abigail loved ice skating this year just as much as Emily did. She has been asking to go skating for years, but we were never really sure where to take her. We have now found two separate locations, one of which is relatively close by, reasonably priced, and is a full size rink. Abbie took to it pretty well and also enjoyed helping Emily. :)