Hark! The Herod Angels Sing

Ah, we're going to have a Holly Dolly Christmas after all!  Maddie was wondering about, and I think really hoping we'd head up to Tennessee again before the end of the year, and as an answer to that Christmas wish, Jingle Bell showed up with some good news.  Not only are we heading back with those season tickets, we're also going to see the Christmas version of the Stampede show there.  As a bonus, Maddie also got a Funko Pop version of Dolly Parton as well.  So it was a good morning, of course, complete with listening to a bit of "Holly Dolly Christmas" on the way in to school.

So this morning we set out with our routines, which included intermittent jogging and walking in a market in Germany, plus our daily advent listening of "A Christmas Carol," where Scrooge is now visiting with the Ghost of Christmas Present.

We peeked in on the Gävle Goat as well, and noted that a good bit of straw seemed to be off the horns of the mighty goat.  A closer inspection revealed that this year's vandals are not in fact humans with fire, but rather crows looking for good nesting material perhaps?

We picked up a few things today, including props and material for the production.  But we also got a few Christmas cards in the mail - the numbers of those are decreasing immensely.  It appears to be a dying tradition, certainly with inflation going on, and of course the ease of social media greetings.  One of the things we picked up was a print of the Santa photo with Maddie, which goes well with the new frame - a new addition this year to the shelves.  We printed out the Santa Cow picture too, so we'll have that framed as well.

So Maddie was off to "Christmas Movie Night" at FCY, and she had a great time tonight watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," which is certainly a theme for the year.  They wore their pajamas and had a good time together celebrating Christmas with a bit of a party.  Only one more FCY left of the year!

Meanwhile, yes, we were at Tech Week.  Another night closer to the big production.  We went through it a few times, and Maddie came back to see us towards the latter part of the second run-through.  It's coming along well enough.  I was a stand-in for King Herod tonight, and I was even all dressed up for the part.  Mom got me in my kingly outfit, and the others were dressed too.  The evening started out with me simply standing in for the actor playing King Herod, and by the end of the night, apparently I got the part.  No worries - the guy who was King Herod before is now a Wise Man, as one of those has fallen ill.  Anyway, it's been fun staggering around as this wicked king, correcting the choir members and instructing them to sing, "Hark!  The Herod Angels Sing!"

It was another late night though.  We're moving forward through this busy Christmas season though.  Tonight we read, and we said our prayers too.  After that, time for a good night's rest.  Tomorrow we hae to get up early!