Farewell Great Beginnings

The December holiday season kicked off with the annual Christmas recital and party at Kelly's daycare/pre-school. All the kids in her 3-yr-old class were dressed and decorated as "reindeer" and sang "Jingle Bells".

She did pretty good this year and stood "on stage" with her peers, singing and ringing her hand bells, instead of running to mommy in the audience!

The day culminated with a visit from Santa - not only was Kelly NOT at all afraid of him this year, but she was the very first to run right up to him and say "HI SANTA!!!". She was very excited to tell him what she wanted and told him she was a "good girl". Hmmm, already workin' it!!

Sadly though, the event was a little bitter sweet as we were also dealing with the news that her school, Great Beginnings, where she has been for over 2 years, was very possibly closing down on Dec. 31st due to failed negotiations with their landlord to extend their lease for the building they are in.

So New Year's week it was confirmed that they would in fact be closing and all of the parents were scrambling to figure out what to do. Fortunately, the owner's are friends with the owners of the Montessori School of Encinitas and made arrangements with them to take us all in for the same rates we had been paying for a few months while they tried to find a new location to re-open. So about half of the kids decided to move there, as did we. The parents figured that at least the kids would have a lot of familiar faces to help with the transition. We are really missing her old school though (the environment there was so loving and friendly, like a family) and Kelly is still going through some adjustment. We are not sure if the old school will re-open anytime soon, and even if they do, if it will make sense to move her again. So for now, we are trying out Montesori, making the best of it and are hopeful that she will adjust and eventually love it there too.

Here is Kelly on her last day at Great Beginnings with two of her favorite teachers, Miss Raina:

And Miss Jill:

We are thankful for such wonderful people like them and the owners who provided a warm, safe, and loving environment for our little angel for the past 2 years, truly a Great Beginning :-)