Practice Makes Perfect

Look who has gotten into another mess!  Jingle made his way into Madison's bedroom this morning, and got a bit tangled up in the jewelry.  He's wearing a bit too much, if you ask me - although Madison thinks he looks just fine.

Tonight we had an epic play practice, putting more of the components together.  Madison was with us for a time, as were all the Nativity players.  We rehearsed our scenes, our music, our dancing, our lines and blocking.  We covered lighting, audio tracks and more.  It was a pretty productive night, but a pretty long one as well.

We did have piano class today as well, which was fun for Madison.  Only one more of those this year, and time for us to start catching up a little next week.  Today's piano class... we didn't have ANY homework done for it.  We have just been so busy with this play - it's been crazy.  But our teacher understands, coming from a similar background.  We'll catch up soon, so we're not worried quite yet.

Each morning, Daddy and Mommy have been collecting a different craft to post, one that is related to the Nativity story.  We've kept it going each morning, although it is starting to get challenging.  Coming up with 25 separate activities - that's a bit more challenging than we anticipated.  Also in the morning, Madison takes off another link from the advent chain.  She goes to the advent calendars, including the one with small chocolates inside for each day.  Then there's the small present under the tree - lately, we've been finding different craft books there.  Madison is going to be learning origami soon - including some Christmas origami.

The weather is getting cold again, which is nice because it is approaching winter and this is the thing that is supposed to happen.  Simultaneously, our neighborhood has been invaded by an infestation of roof repair people.  These are the sort that remind you of ambulance chasers.  For every storm you see on the Doppler radar, there are roofers looking for those precise locations where several inches of hail are falling.  That would be our neighborhood a few months ago.  These guys will tell you exactly the day it happened and how much fell.  So all these roofing people see the hail on the map, and they see the neighborhood, and they swarm in, armed with free estimates.  They're everywhere, letting customers know how bad their rooves are, and how fortunate the home insurance covers a lot of it, and how this is the sort of thing you need to have taken care of right away.  So first thing in the morning, large trucks pour in, each carrying squadrons of workers ascending to the roof to hammer away.  It's an interesting business to say the least.

So our trees are up.  We've listened to about 75% of our Christmas music so far, which is no small accomplishment.  And we've seen a few Christmas movies as well, with plenty to go.  But tonight, we started our Christmas books.  Daddy read a few to Madison before bed, including one by Stan Lee (about superheroes saving Santa from the Ice King).  We also read the book about Shaoey, another tradition each year.  We've got many other of these books to go, but it is always nice before bed to read some Christmas tales.

Speaking of bed, it is time to go to bed right now.  It's been a pretty long day, with work and school and afterwards.  It is a busy time, but things are going well - so we work hard, but without the dreary feeling of dread as we face a new day.   All is well!