Arg...the holidays

I truly feel that once I get through this next weekend it will be a piece of cake from then on out. This last week was done at a mile a minute. A lot of it had to do with singing in the Creche (nativity) festival. I love doing it, but it's quite a bit of time in preparation and actual performing. Sad but glad that it's over. Mr. Earl conducted us again- such a treat to work with such a talented man, and we had wonderful musicians who made us sound better than we were. Our special number this year was "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in honor of the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On Sunday night they had some veterans and survivors come and it was such an honor to meet with them afterward and let them know how much we appreciate their sacrifice. They are such sweet men and women. Maria (or Auntie Jess as she prefers) came and took pictures- I'll post them another time.
Inevitably, singing with the choir and Mr. Earl reminds me of my high school days. Poor Clay put up with me reminiscing about it tonight. It always makes me think of one of my favorite groups, Chanticleer, who's pieces were some of our favorite. I listen to them a lot during Christmas and happened to be playing them this evening as well. I always think of them during Christmas not only because of singing for Mr. Earl, but they do a concert at the St. Vincent's Catholic church in Petaluma every year around this time and I love going. I've been twice and it is an amazing space to hear them. You can just FEEL the music... amazing. I would love to take Clay and Cash one of these years. But probably not until Cash is quite a bit older. This Ave Maria piece was done by some of our guys in choir the year I graduated from high school. We all loved it.
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This week it's work, work, work and then our church Christmas party that I'm helping to plan. I'm supposed to be in the 12 Pains of Christmas, a lip sync number, and bringing a dessert. And I'm babysitting that day for a friend who's moving. And I'm doing the music. Thankfully they canceled the Relief Society activity the following day so I can actually rest on Sunday. Woohoo!
So Cash has developed a bit of a bad habit... he bites. He bites everyone and everything. The good news is he doesn't do it to hurt or be mean. He thinks he's playing. When he does bite out of frustration (usually because he didn't get his way) he bites your clothes. He only tries to bite you when he's being playful. And it's usually your nose or knee. I think he got it from us because we pretend to "eat" him when we're horsing around. Now the trick is to break him of it. Sometimes he's too smart for his own good.
Cash has been kind of sleeping better. If you recall I'd moved his bed onto the landing. We discovered while this is nice while we're sleeping and makes our room feel more spacious, when he goes down at 8:30pm that means we can't do anything in the kitchen or living room afterward since the balcony is open to those areas. We ended up holed up in the office this week. Saturday night I'd invited over Cam's and JP so we moved his bed back to our bedroom so we could use the living room and kitchen. I guess that's where we'll keep him until we figure out better arrangements. Ah well. I enjoyed my spacious room for that one week.