We had so much fun celebrating birthdays in this past week! Who can think about Christmas when awesome people are so busy getting older and wiser?
Heidi turned 15 on December 3. She and best friend Carmen and I went out for breakfast at Panera, which was fabulous and fattening. Then on to the Warrenton Christmas Parade to watch Holly and Amy show off the adorable mini horses they have been working with since last summer. Gordon got to be in the parade too...as the pooper scooper...and had the time of his life! Truly, he was the hit of the parade. We just had to pretend we didn't know who he was. Then Heidi had a bunch of friends over to make gingerbread houses and watch Christmas movies. She has the funnest bunch of friends EVER. These kids were hilarious and just good, happy, fun kids. It was a great day! 
Then it was Jill's birthday on December 4! What a great sister! It was very fun to get to share her birthday with her AND get to celebrate Grandpa's Dec. 5 birthday a day early! Heidi, Jill, and Grandpa all shared blowing out the candles. It was a fun time.
And finally, Jeffrey turned 19 yesterday, December 11! We weren't sure how that was going to work since he is in the middle of finals. However, he had a concert with his a cappella group at Grand Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley and we went down to see it on Saturday night. It was the coolest thing we have ever done. The event was held for a children's charity so the admission included toy donations and homemade ornaments. It was called "Caroling in the Caves." They gave candlelight tours of the caverns, and at various locations throughout, had musical groups playing and singing Christmas carols. It was so awesome! There was a bagpiper, and a totally hick little country string band that was a hoot. Jeffrey's group, the Overtones, sounded spectacular. I do not believe I have ever felt such a moment as hearing Silent Night sung in that cavern (the acoustics were something else) by these beautiful young people and all of us there....everything lit by candles. Had some real Christmas spirit that moment I am telling you. Plus there was hot apple cider and yummy cookies served by friendly old people at the end of the tour...it was just a fun time! Our friends the Ratliffs came too, bringing Jeffrey's girlfriend Hillary and their older daughter Hailey, who shares the same birthday as Jeffrey.
Afterwards, we all went out to Wood Grill for dinner and Mrs. Ratliff had a beautiful cake for the kids. Then we got to bring Jeffrey home for a few days since he doesn't have another final until Thursday! Bonus! We celebrated his real birthday yesterday by going to church to hear Heidi give a talk on Patterning our lives after Christ, and attending the high school Christmas band concert, where Hillary had several beautiful flute solos as first chair and Heidi had some friends playing as well (we won't mention that one of them is a really cute boy that she sends about 1,000 text messages back and forth with every day--oh brother.). There was a sing a long too--amazed that Culpeper is still getting away with a "Christmas" concert and singing traditioal "Christmas Carols" but we will go with it as long as it lasts!
It has been the best Christmas birthday celebration week ever! If you would like to send Heidi or Jeffrey a birthday wish, facebook is probably the best way to go, since teenagers don't do a lot of blog reading these days. haha. Now we can bring on Christmas FULL BLAST! Love to everyone!
3 comments:
Loved this. That cavern idea sounds amazing. I'm glad you were able to all party together! So fun! And Gordon as the pooper scooper is just hysterical...even if you did have to pretend you didn't know him! haha.
I love this! The cave concert sounds fabulous. What a wonderful memory for all of you. I'm so happy Jeff gets to be part of this group and have this cool experience. It was fun to share a birthday with Heidi and Dad. I'll come out tomorrow to wish Jeff his happy birthday, and all of you a Merry Christmas! We love you.
Awesome pictures and details! Those birthday celebrations sound amazing. I love the idea of the gingerbread houses for Heidi's birthday -- teenagers still deserve to have good ol' fun. And the cavern singing must have been out of this world. I'm glad you can still feel the Christmas Spirit in a cave! "Silent Night" does that to me, too. The girls (and Gordon) in the parade is very cool. I have a picture to send you of my kiddos with a miniature horse -- we all thought of Holly and Amy. I didn't know Hillary plays the flute, too! She is one impressive girl! Now, on to Christmas.
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