Olive turned on BYU TV and said, "I didn't go to church, so I'm going to watch a church video." Guess she's determined to be spiritually fed today.

Tonight was Olive's preschool Christmas program. She had two speaking parts, which we've been practicing for weeks, and which you'll see in the video. But they are, in case you can't quite understand them:

"...And my favorite, candy canes!"
and, "December's most precious gift is the birth of the baby Jesus."

Grandma and Granddaddy and Caitlin came, and we went out to dinner afterwards. It was a special night.

Here is the video, as well as some photos. A few notes about the video... (1) Make sure to notice the timely kick during "Jingle Bells". (2) When Olive's sash starts to untie she looked at me with a lot of dread, so I kept trying to assure her it was OK. (3) Her candle goes out during "Silent Night" and you can't see it in the video, but she had the same look of dread on her face when it happened. That is, until she figured out a solution to her problem. (4) My favorite moment was Olive's second speaking part. She handled the baby Jesus with such reverence that it made Mommy tear up. Olive noticed, and asked me afterwards why I cried. I told her that it was because I love how she loved Jesus.

Some recent ones of Olive. Sweet, silly, and a camel in the church nativity play.

Olive got a progress report today. I've been thrilled about Miss Jo's preschool, as compared to Tiny Tots, because I always know they're spending their time well and because of the accessibility of the teachers and now because of the progress report. Having said that, it's a little frustrating to see X's by some of the things that I know Olive knows.  But anyway, she's a very bright kid and I'm super proud of her. I'll just put more emphasis where it's needed.

The kids were playing happily while I was baking, so I went in to join the fun. I said, "Hey, what are you guys doing?" They said, "Nothing." I said, "Well, what are you talking about?" Olive said, "Clubs."

While I was making dinner, Olive came up from the basement with a piece of paper and a crayon and asked me how to spell Hello Kitty.  She told me she was writing a letter to Santa and had already written jack-in-the-box. (She wants a Hello Kitty jack-in-the-box...heaven please help me find one). I said, "You already wrote jack-in-the-box? How did you know how to spell it?" And she said, "I heard my noise." I chuckled to myself, knowing she meant she had sounded it out. I loved picturing her down in the craft room likely saying jack-in-the-box out loud to herself to figure out the letters. I took a look at her paper, and sure enough there was a J, a N, and a B. Not bad for a kid who doesn't read or spell yet. Brilliant, really.

Then I spelled Hello Kitty for her. When I said the T T part, she and Lucy and George died laughing. Silly, funny kids!

I just read The Velveteen Rabbit to Olive. It was super long, and I thought she'd lose interest, but she stayed. And when we got to the page where the rabbit cries, she touched the picture and whispered, "I knew he was real." It was magical.

a few recent favorites of olive

honoring her jewish buddy, emmy

first day of her second year of dance

had to wear green to school, and looked beautiful in it

Today's schoolwork...

Here is the homework Olive got from school when she was sick 2 weeks ago. She loved having homework!