Living Room Tree

I got the living room tree finished tonight, which took a little longer than usual because of the busy weekend.  But it looks nice, and with the Nativity set also up in that room that makes for a complete area.  Next, on to the main event:  the big Christmas tree in the great room.  It's a wonderful thing pulling out these ornaments and having those associated memories with each one.  There are souvenir ornaments from various places, or there's the ornaments made by our family for the botanical gardens trees.  There are plenty more, of course, including many from Mom's past - little ornaments and big ones too.   

Today's KidPak service went well.  You can see it's Veteran's Day tomorrow, so we were honoring one of our veterans, Mr. Dewey, who served in Vietnam.  He led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then I led the band in singing the Star Spangled Banner, which was actually pretty cool.  Maddie took a lot of good pictures today, and here are just a few from this morning's service.

We had a skit about the Helmet of Salvation that was pretty fun.  It was something new that I came up with, and it worked out well.  We had a solid morning at KidPak, with a great message that was tied somewhat to Veteran's Day as well.

Afterwards, we went to go see Nana at her house.  She seems to be doing much better right now, but yesterday's slip was very serious.  She'll be recovering the next few weeks, but spirits are up.  We sat and talked with them for a good bit, and then got home to have lunch.  Or dinner.  Regardless, it was a rotisserie chicken that we picked up at the grocery store on the way home.

Tonight's feature movies were both Christmas movies - a double feature!  We started out with the Nutcracker:  The Fourth Kingdom," and then moved on to "The Coat of Many Colors."  We're in the Christmas season now, knocking off all these Christmas movies one at a time!

We read tonight from "Wyrd Sisters," and we're approaching the end of that.  Afterwards, we did say our prayers, and we got the Plush Entourage tucked in for a good night's rest.  It was a full day, and a good one!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Yay, Bones Coffee!  Mom got some new coffees, and some old flavors too.  Some flavors are limited, like the Loki-inspired one with a key lime pie flavoring.  The Indiana Jones themed flavors are great too.  The artwork on the packaging is fantastic.  Also, there's a holdover from Shark Week, a flavor called "Megalodonut."  Can't wait to try that one.  In that sample pack though are the Christmas flavors, like a Nutcracker themed one with a roasted chestnut flavor.  Maddie is enjoying all of these flavors quite a bit - I love sitting on the front porch with Mom in the mornings, sipping on coffee or tea while reading the latest book, and of course the Bible.  I've been a little over halfway through Deuteronomy, and as for the other reading, I've been reading a book that Mom got me some time ago about the JKF assassination.

We did get some things going today, such as the living room Christmas tree - I have that nearly done, but it's a big project, and I'll have to finish it up tomorrow.  I'll post pictures then, but for now it was time to head off to the movies!

We hadn't seen a movie in some time, and this one was with the wait.  We've been wanting to see "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" ever since we heard it was coming out.  We're big fans of the first made-for-television version of it, something we watch once a year.  This one was movie-length, and the three of us agreed it was really, really good.  The end really packed a punch, that is the pageant itself.  It was wonderful, and just a great Christmas movie to add to the collection.  We were sitting in the back row, and there were a good number of other people in that auditorium - I think the movie is doing pretty well.

Speaking of Christmas, Mom got me a Christmas gift a little early, the reason being that the gift was two ornaments for the patriotic tree.  Some time ago at the Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge, I spotted a few ornaments, and didn't pick them up at the time.  Mom got them for me without me knowing, and now they're on our patriotic tree.  We'll post pictures is a bit, but they look good.  I immediately found a place for them.

Tonight Nana had an accident on the steps.  She slipped down two steps, and there was unfortunately a reindeer decoration at the bottom that actually stabbed her arm.  She's okay, but it was kind of scary.  There was a hospital visit, and a big of panic.  And on top of that, discussions of them moving - the feeling is that their ages may be telling them it's time to downsize.  We'll see how that goes, but there's a huge test that has taken place for Ye-Ye, and the results will be this upcoming week and will determine what is going on in his abdomen that's been bugging him.  I have a bit of an issue myself - a doctor's visit is upcoming for me as well.  Lots of maintenance going on here - Mom has some serious dental work soon, and on top of that she's still recovering.  She was very tired today, very tired.  She got some nutrition in her and pepped up some, but we're glad she doesn't have the Christmas production to do this year, as she needs the recovery time.

We watched something short tonight, "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," and then it was pretty much time for bed.  Tonight we continued our reading from "Wyrd Sisters," where the traveling theater group is heading back to Lancre, and we'll find out soon what kind of play the duke and duchess are about to see.  Something tells me that our favorite Discworld character is also going to be making an appearance...

We said our prayers, and the Plush Entourage was ready to get tucked in so that we could all have a silent night full of pleasant rest.

Wisdom Club Luncheon 2024

Here's Mom looking nice - and perhaps a bit hungry - as we head to the Wisdom Club.  You can see us in the midst of the luncheon in the photos below, quite a crowd!

It's a big annual event, and it was nice to get together with old friends and have a really, really good meal together.  There was the traditional turkey and ham, plus cranberry and sweet potato, and beans too.  Oh, and pie!  Yes, pie!  There was worship, and there was a great message from Pastor Franklin too.  We all sang "God Bless America" as well, which was very stirring.

Ah, here's Maddie at taekwondo tonight.  You can see she's already wearing her Free Chapel College shirt.   She was doing really well tonight, and meanwhile I was writing devotional entries, actually wrapping up the Nativity devotional.  I learned a lot about the outside-the-Bible material talking about the Wise Men.  Super interesting stuff.  

Later on, we went home and watched a movie I ordered, "Nativity!"  It's one of my favorite Christmas movies at the moment.  The songs are super catchy!  It's a hard-to-come-by movie, so I was surprised to see when I had ordered it "slightly used" on DVD from Amazon, it actually came to me in a Blockbuster Video casing.  Yeah, there were Blockbuster labels on it, which is kind of cool.  

Anyway, we saw the movie tonight before bed, and at bedtime we were reading of course.  And there were prayers.  The mood is much lighter after this election now, with no election commercials and no stress.  We're done with that now, and hopefully we can have a more serene Christmas season.  We'll see!

Free Chapel College Preview Day

This morning we went to the North Campus for a fairly monumental day!  Maddie's decision was pretty much firmed up this morning after an awesome morning with Free Chapel College Preview Day.  

Lots of familiar faces here!

She's had this on the calendar for a while, and so she was looking forward to it.  Some of her friends from church were here too, and that was great for her.  We started out with some free coffee, never a bad start for Maddie.  

Free coffee!

Mingling outside the coffee station

If more colleges offered free coffee, I think the decision would have been more challenging.  But seriously, that was nice for her, and then we were inside the auditorium, hearing a few short speeches and meeting the college staff.  

College Staff introduces themselves

Maddie and Bailee

Lilia was there too!

We played a game to begin with, everyone dividing from one side of the room or the other, based on difficult questions like, "Is a hot dog a sandwich?"  Or "Do you put out Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving, or on November 1st?"  But then the meat of the day came, and we were listening to various introductions and descriptions of what the school year would be like.  Following that, we were at Practicum Fair, going to several different booths to learn about the different areas of study at the church.  

Maddie talks with the Marcom people (Marketing and Communications)

The three of us at the Practicum Fair

KidPak had a booth, of course.  But Maddie was looking at the marketing and communications booth, and she's very much wanting to be a part of that.  After a short time there, even I got recruited, possibly, maybe helping out with students in the writing department.  

We went to a service after that, parents and prospective students.  We had a worship session with the live band, everyone participating in chapel.  And then we had a forum, a chance to hear from current and past students as they shared their stories about the college.  It was good, and it ended with one more worship song.  At the end, we all made our way over to the free meal for everyone back at the auditorium.  

The event all ended with anyone who was wanting to apply signing up, and sure enough, that was Maddie.  She was so excited to do this, so happy!  Everyone who signed up got a big celebration, as the staff there rang a big bell and cheered with each new sign-up.  It was a really fun moment, and the perfect end to her experience this morning.  Maddie's signed up for college!

Maddie applies for the college of her choice!

 

The rest of the day was a bit of work at the office and a KidPak Meeting.  We went home after that and got ready for taekwondo too - it was a whirlwind of a day.  Tonight we watched "While You Were Sleeping," which might be considered a Christmas movie, and in fact maybe it should be.  We consider it one now, mainly because we watch it during the Christmas season and it features a lot of Christmas and New Year's Eve themes in it.  It's a fun movie!

We read tonight, and we said our prayers too.  Mom had a dizzy spell tonight, but just when she was lying down.  We got it all worked out, but were somewhat nervous at one point.  Otherwise, she's been doing fine.  Many are reeling from the news of the election, while many others are breathing a sigh of relief.  It's an interesting time.  All those court cases, assassination attempts, debate ambushes, and appearances at McDonald's.  What a remarkable election season this has been.  I've got to say though:  glad it's over!

Golden Era

So here we are again with another day after, and everyone's a bit tired today.  Most of us stayed late, of those there were a good bit that were up past midnight, although not as many of us made it to this moment above.  I took this picture on the television super early this morning because we waited for that moment to hear the speech about a golden era and so forth.  There was a lot to talk about amongst each other today with many breathing a sigh of relief, while there's also of course a lot of grief from one side of things too.  All of us are glad there aren't any more election commercials, that's for sure.  But here we are starting off this golden era, and apparently already there are some pretty significant changes being made in government.  We'll see how things unfold.

Today was a fun day at the office, and tonight there was FCY, although we were a bit late for that.  The reason for this was because there was a Team Edge practice today at 6pm.  Maddie was training for the team, getting ready for a performance at Edgestravaganza that we'll be looking forward to seeing in a little over a month.  As soon as that was over, we were off to FCY for a good night there together.  Maddie was there with a few of her Team Edge friends, all three of them running from practice towards church tonight for a great service.

It was a good day.  We closed it out with reading, and with prayers, and got to bed nice and early.  Everyone was pretty tired for some reason...!

Election Day 2024

Well, today was fun.  I mean, it started out fun with the bundt cakes given to us by a friend who left them in the office - thanks, Clint!  We got a good bit of of work done today with setting up for the new series and for this weekend, but there was one big thing on everyone's minds in this nation:  Election Day.

Here's our election campaign center.  You can see Josh and I at the office with our team hats...

Ah, and Maddie has her hat on too.  Of course, we ourselves voted a few weeks ago, and you can probably tell by Maddie's attire who we voted for.  Polling was indicating tonight that the swing states would be a battle, a "razor's edge," and over the weekend more in favor of the other candidate.  And so the results started to come in.  The idea was to do other stuff like decorate trees and so on, but nope.  It was sort of an invasive thing, listening to the election.  We listened early and sure enough the usual suspects started to fall - Kentucky and Indiana went red.  Later on, Vermont went blue.  Same old, same old.  It was taking a little longer for those blue states to fall in line up top.  But Florida was quickly going red, and that was interesting.  And Georgia was going red too, and that was a flip from last time.  It took hours for Georgia to be called.  The usual suspect counties are to blame there, but we live in a battleground state, one that was supposed to be super close.  It wasn't.  Maddie's vote added up with the others, and our state went red eventually.  It was a lot later.  Things were lining up as expected.  Ohio was a big deal that went red like it was supposed to.  Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were the biggest prizes of the night, and whoever got those would win the night.  All the Southeast went red.  The Northeast went blue.  Illinois went blue because of Chicago.  Colorado went blue, and of course we were expecting the West Coast to go blue, which it did.  We were talking with others online the whole night as we watched the returns come in.  Georgia was finally called, and that was huge.  Bigger was North Carolina.  And then it was a waiting game... hours went by, but things were certainly leaning red.  And somewhere super late, that's when the shocker came:  Pennsylvania went red.  And that was pretty much it, just three votes shy of 270.  It was apparent this could come from anywhere - Michigan and Wisconsin were clearly going red, but Arizona and Nevada were leaning red too.  Still are - those two haven't been declared yet.  It would be funny if it came to Alaska to finalize things, but that's when Wisconsin was called, and a President-elect was announced:  Trump will be returning to office.   

Interesting fun fact:  there's a county that is in Texas that hasn't gone red since 1896.  During that time, the President was Grover Cleveland, who until tonight was the only President to be elected to two non-consecutive terms. 

Anyway, it was clear what was happening tonight - a red wave.  Before the end of this election, the US Senate would be red, and the House of Representatives would be too.  Quite a night.  We waited for a good while, although Maddie was in bed long before any of this.  We read to Maddie and we all said our prayers - Maddie knew who was going to win the election before she went to bed.  We just had to wait on the confirmations, and then the speech our President-elect made at something like 3am or whatever it was. It was late.  Wow were tired, but we were excited and we got to see it.  And then...  sleep!

But tonight the winner got the popular vote and the Electoral College.  It was a quick and decisive election that didn't take days or weeks to determine.  I say that remembering the year 2000, which sort of set the precedent for that sort of thing.  But leads were too much, and it was clear tonight:  Donald Trump will be President of the United States this January.

I was about to say 47th President, but we'll see how that unfolds over the next few months. 

Groot is Home

Here's Groot, finally ready to come home from the Botanical Gardens in Gainesville.  Mom's scarecrow creation had spent the last several weeks there greeting visitors along the trail, and looked fantastic there.  The early hurricanes were threatening, and in fact the one storm system was pretty heavy.  But nevertheless, Groot looks great here, and is now currently in our garage greeting us at our house when we return home.  Mom and I are already talking about a scarecrow for next year!

Clearly, our chiropractor is on one side of the political fence.  We went there after dropping Maddie off this morning for school.  It's somewhat of a regular update meeting for Mom, who of course had her health scare a few nights ago.  She has recovered marvelously, and God's grace is upon us mightily.  It is almost mundane how she is back to normal, and of course we're taking it easy.  Follow-up appointments are made here and follow-up testings too.  We're studying and focusing on appropriate actions.  But the overall feeling is that of exceeding great joy.  She's going to be just fine, and we don't have to worry.  Thanks be to God!

So tonight we got the tree up in the living room and it is fluffed and ready for lighting.  We'll get that soon.    We're watching Christmas movies and shows at night, and on the treadmill I'm watching old VHS Christmas episodes on tape as I walk.  There's even a virtual Santa in his room with a fireplace and a treadmill playing as you walk, and that's fun.  

Maddie did have taekwondo tonight, and we attempted a little grocery shopping, but we'll pick that up later.  We've got some new things to get for Mom related to a new diet that we're wanting her to go on to increase calcium and other things that she needs.  The skies are darker though, aren't they?  I mean, they get dark every night, but since the hours have shifted, the dynamics of traveling to and from taekwondo have changed with looking into the sunset to driving in the darkened environment with headlights on.  

Tonight we read more fro "Wyrd Sisters," and after that we prayed.  There is just one more day until a national election, and there's a lot of cautious optimism and predictions.  Some are talking about a landslide, and others are talking about the polls that strongly suggest the Democratic candidate has a solid lead in the swing states.  Many, many people have already voted.  We'll have to wait until the end of the day tomorrow to see how things turn out, but the direction of the country is very much at stake in one day, and perhaps the world.  We'll see how it all turns out.  Not going to lie:  always a little stressful.  Better get some sleep tonight!

Return to Vernardos Circus

We were back with Bernardo's Circus tonight, and you can see just about the whole gang up there behind us on stage.  Pretty neat opportunity to get a photo with the cast.  Super talented people.  We saw the circus about a year and a half ago, and had a great time.  It's a small circus, and it's like a small business, the type of thing that we love to support.  The great thing is that the people involved are really talented and it's actually a very enjoyable show.  Maddie was laughing all throughout, as were were.  And she had her mouth wide open in awe at a few of the performances that kept going higher and higher and higher.  We got there earlier, and found the premium seating.  We paid for those seats so that we could see better this time, and we sure did.  We had front row there, and from time to time the performers were literally a few feet from us, or at least swinging directly over our heads.  We got cotton candy and popcorn, and Maddie got a drink too.  We talked with some of the performers beforehand, and one of the things I love about this sort of circus is that the guy who was an usher leading me to the seats was the Ringmaster, and the ticket scanning folks were performers too.  It's just a warm circus family, and we were happy to be there.  I took a few pictures with my phone, although the lighting and movement were a little much for that phone.  Still, a few of those pictures came out well enough to share here, including some posed ones.

It was a pretty full day.  Of course, there was KidPak in the morning too, which went really well.  The kids loved the skit we did - I had something simple, and sometimes you just think it's too simple, but in fat, simple is just what was needed and it was perfect.  There was a lot of laughing and screaming.  And of course the bottom line was really well put this morning, a message about guarding your heart.  Maddie took some pictures as always, and we shared many of those on the church site.  The great thing about that is the social media team is starting to use Maddie's pics for other things, and Maddie will catch these online.  It's a fantastic way to confirm that she's taking super good pictures now.

The in between of the day involved us eating a rotisserie, Mardi Gras flavoring, of course.  And I got all the nutcrackers up on the shelving too.  They look good up there, quite a crowd!  I'm not sure if there's room for any more, actually!

Tonight we watched a few more episodes of "Hawkeye," including my favorite episode of all, the one with the Nutcracker Suite car chase with trick arrows, and much more.  And after that, we were certainly ready for bed.  We read some more from "Wyrd Sisters," a bit about traveling back in time, and then we aid our prayers.  It was time for some sleep.  We had a great day!