Christmas Island

We may have more pictures in a bit - this picture is something that Madison took on her cell phone this morning of our last KidPak service of 2020.  It was pre-planned that we'd be off for next Sunday, and even more so, the Christmas Eve service was moved to an online service this weekend, something we did last year.  I remember watching the service online last year and of course we all could do something like that, and I was thinking how novel of an experience it was.  But now that's all we do of course, and yes, we'll be watching online this week for the service.  It will be nice.

But this morning was very nice.  We had a different service, one I remember from a long time ago at the very beginnings of KidPak, where we all sat around a campfire, just talking about things from the Bible.  We had a script this time, and it was certainly related to Christmas, but it was also something that was really relaxed.  By this point above, the lights were up, but earlier, it was darker, the light of the campfire glowing a bit and all of us just singing a song together at KidPak:  "Silent Night."  

It was a nice service this morning.  Mom and Nana were with us, and Madison was upstairs in the front row again for the first service.  The second, she was downstairs with us, getting a full dose of KidPak!
 

This morning, the elf was caught playing skee ball, and my money's on Snowflake for winning this game.  We'll see as the day goes on who winds up on top!

Tonight our neighborhood had a impromptu parade!  Basically, only a few days ago it was decided why not do a Christmas parade?  

And so there was a Christmas parade!  You can see the horses walking through the neighborhood, but also there were plenty of golf carts, each one decorated with Christmas lights and playing loud Christmas music.

Both grandmothers joined us at the corner of Stone River and Forest Path, along with Madison and myself.  People threw out candy canes (in wrappers, of course), and waved at the cheering crowd.  There was a great group of people there, all cheering on the decorated cars and golf carts, of which there were plenty.

And there were a few of these too!  Santa was back on his motorcycle, and there was another Santa on a dirt bike too, racing up and down the road like Shriners.  It was really fun!

Afterwards, you can see where we went - to Christmas Island!  This image here was taken from our car, taken out the window of another light show we went to see just down the road at another church.  All of us hopped in the car, and there were a lot of people there, but we moved through quickly, and it was fun!

You can see there were plenty of lights here, and in a nice gesture, it was all free!  We rode through, windows down, and sang along with all the Christmas songs playing - or even being sung by a live band!

It was pretty nice!  We watched the animated Grinch movie tonight, and huddled under the blankets a bit.  It's getting cold out there, and there's talk of snow or at least flurries this Christmas Eve.  We're hoping for either, as that would be a wonderful blessing!

We finished our journey in Narnia tonight, or at least returned there safely from the underworld.  "The Silver Chair" was a nice book, and it's time to go probably elsewhere - but we'll return to Narnia soon enough, as there are two more books Madison hasn't read yet.  

We said our prayers tonight, and yep, it was time for long winter's nap.  It was yet another full December day, and we were fast asleep rather quickly.