The Noriega Family

Christmas is in full swing at the Noriega house.  We started out countdown to Christmas on Dec. 1st; we sit up our tree.  We have so many ornaments and we all love talking about the memories that come with each one.  One the girls favorite activities this season was making elf traps.  They really got into and so creative with their engineering. They spend a couple hours on them.  In the end, it was Estelle's trap that caught the elf and she has been getting into shenanigans at our house every night since the night she was trapped.   

Grandma came for a visit and we just love our December's with Grandma.  We got to do some different activities with Grandma this year.  She went with us to the Craft Fair.  The girls got to see Santa for the first time this season and we all had a great time looking at all the handmade crafts.

Mom and I saw two plays; Singing in the Rain and Fiddler on the Roof.  They were both fantastic.  My leg did not fit in the seats, but the theaters were great about finding me a seat that would accommodate a led that doesn't bend very much.  

We attending the National Army band concert, it was fantastic again this year and I think it is the first time my mom has been able to go with us.  

I think we had an event every night that my mom was here.  We loved having her come and she brought the first gifts to go under the tree.  The girls were real happy about that.  

We have done some other fun Christmas Activities.  We made cookies and delivered them to neighbors, we have done crafts, gone to parties, looked at amazing lights and watched Christmas movies.  We went to the Bethlehem walk, did a Christmas puzzle, did some Amazon shopping and listened to lots of Christmas music.  I cannot believe there is only one week left.  We all love the Christmas season.  

The woman in the Turkey costume is the principle at the elementary school.  Thanksgiving was really nice again this year.  I was still on crutches, so we kept it really low key.  The girls helped make pies the day before and then we brought them down to grandma's house.  We stayed a few days at Hector's parents.  The kids had a blast playing together.  We all ate good food and enjoyed each other's company.  We ate tons of pie and played lots of games.  We love Thanksgiving with family.

I injured my knee back in September.  After a month of optimistic assuming it would just get better, the MRI told me otherwise.  I had a torn ACL and a sprained MCL and that meant I needed knee surgery.  I had to wait for volleyball season to end, since I couldn't just be out for a week of coaching.  Coaching was interesting with the knee injury; I kept attempting to demonstrate things on one leg.  Not the most effective, but I started to get good at it after two months of coaching on an inured knee.  

I finally had my surgery on November 18th.  All things went well and now I have spent the last four weeks rehabbing. I was on crutches for the first two weeks.  The doctor told me I would be off crutches between two and three weeks.  That seamed impossible the first couple of days.  I could even stand up.  I couldn't move my leg on it's own.  It is amazing how fast our body can heal.  It is nice to be walking without crutches.  I am gaining more flexibility and rebuilding my muscles.  It is funny some of the little things I took for granted.  I still have 8 more months before I can play volleyball, but I am making lots of progress.  

The most difficult part of this has been sleeping.  It is so hard to get comfortable since my leg hurts in most positions.  I hadn't even considered this side effect.  I expected the knee swelling and lack of range of motion and all that comes with physical therapy, but I didn't think about how tired I would be.     

My kids have been awesome.  They made me lots of cute cards and we so good that first week when I couldn't really do anything.  They loved having cereal for breakfast every morning and buying school lunches.  Natalia cooked dinners and they all brought me ice packs and were good little helpers. 

My volleyball season has come to an end.  It was another great season; not our best record ever, but still a great season.  We had really tough competition every night as we found ourselves in the best district in the state of Virginia.  We actually took 5th place in our district but beat teams that finished first in other districts.   It was still great and I think a good experience for all.   

 Natalia also played volleyball this season on a rec team.  We do not have school sports until the kids are in high school.  She had fun playing on her team - all nice girls and a nice coach.  They did not win many games, but then ended up playing really well the final day of tournament play and took second place.  Natalia also got her serve over the net for the first time in her final game;  I could not attend the game, but apparently she made three serves over (all underhand).  She did great and improved a lot this season.  

Natalia with her 5th/6th grade team

There was a free Ballet performance at the Visitor's Center by the professional ballet children's school in DC.  Since Estelle had just finished her ballet class, we took all the girls to see the show.  We got all dressed up.  Estelle was so cute, she was on the edge of her seat and totally captivated the whole time.  She loves it when the girls are on pointe.  That is always her favorite.  She says, "I love it when they are on their tippy toes."  

For fun when looked up the school to see how much these kids are paying to go to ballet school.  It ranged from $50,000-$70,000 a year.  Looks like Estelle will have to keep taking her ballet classes at the parks and rec.  

Estelle took a Dance class thru the parks and rec this Fall.  She absolutely loved it.  She learned more Ballet and did tap for the first time.  The last day of class they did a little performance for the families.  Estelle did a really good job and the award for the best technique.  She loves to practice on her own.  She checks out ballet books and dvd's from the library.  She is such a cute ballerina!

Another Halloween has come and gone.  My girls look forward to it every year.  Natalia really wanted to be a grim reaper this year.  She loved her costume.  Sienna had a hard time deciding between Iron Man, Black Panther and Ant Man.  She finally settled on Black Panther and she loved it.  Estelle was a ballerina.  They had a few chances to wear their costumes; school Fall festival, Girl Scout Halloween party, church Fall Party and then actual Halloween.  They loved it all.    

I didn't have practice this Halloween so we had lots of time to have fun.  We spent the evening with Hector's family and they kids had a great time trick or treating and passing out candy.  It was lots of fun.  

The girls love school and all the fun activities that they get to do at school.  The week before Halloween, was spirit week.  They had fun doing mismatched outfits and a crazy hair day.  They had a funky sock day and a school spirit day.  They came up with all their own ideas, I just helped them execute their vision.