The Event I Live For All Year...

is Austen's holiday concert. He started practicing with his class in early December and would often come home from school and practice his songs with his sister.  He definitely loves to sing that kid. So Friday, his class along with all the other primary and elementary classes performed their annual holiday concert.  Tom and I took the day off and brought Peyton to see her brother's special performance.  Here is our little star shining so brightly:

Austen relaxing before his performance.

Austen singing Jolly Old St. Nicholas and Must Be Santa.  He is right in the middle, next to the girl with the pink flower in her hair (Austen says she's the prettiest girl in the whole school!).

Let's not forget Peyton either.  Even though she was too young to participate in the school's holiday concert, she had a holiday party the evening before for her class and her teacher had them sing a bunch of the same songs.  Since Peyton had also been practicing at home with her big brother, she stole the show. Check her out.

I love this time of year and seeing the kids so excited for the holidays.  It makes every other hard day worth it to celebrate these events with them.  I feel blessed to share these moments with them.  And, I have to admit after this past week's events in Newtown, Conn., I hugged them all a bit tighter.