Dr. Jake Wexler

Madison brought home one of her creative projects from school, a poster she made to illustrate the character of Dr. Jake Wexler.  You can see he's obviously a doctor of medicine, as evidenced by his 3D stethoscope, tie, and other objects on the poster board.  And as a bonus, we can actually open the medical bags floating around him to discover a few things about his character:

This was really creative!  Just in case you have no idea who Dr. Jake Wexler is, don't worry.  You're not alone.  Neither do Mommy or Daddy.  Madison has been reading this book at school with her class, and to go with the theme we've had at church, yes it's a mystery.  It's "The Westing Game," and Madison has enjoyed the book so much that she wants it for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, on the way back from piano class today, we stopped at Dairy Queen for a seasonal tradition:  Candy Cane Blizzards.  These were good, especially for Madison, who finished hers probably before we even left the Gainesville city limits.  Mommy and Daddy were longing tonight for the old fashioned egg nog milkshakes we used to have, but for tonight this candy cane treat was delicious.

Tonight before bed, we squeezed in a Christmas special, "Toy Story that Time Forgot."  The little angel ornament is Madison's favorite character in that one.  It's a pretty short special, and it has to be, as we had to get upstairs to bed on time tonight.  Besides, Nancy Drew was waiting with yet another mystery!

Mommy and Daddy have been watching a lot of old Christmas specials lately.  Sherry Lewis had a few, so just for fun, and just before we quickly faded off into dreamland, Mommy and Daddy watched some ancient Sherry Lewis Christmas episodes, with Lambchop and Charlie Horse.  And this other weird dog character that seemed to fall off ladders and bump into things a lot.  This is probably because the person inside that costume couldn't see very well!

Time to sleep.  We have a lot going on lately, including devotionals, major Christmas productions, and of course the current series at KidPak.  It's sort of catching up with us, so tonight's a great night for a good night's rest.  Sleep tight!

Clue

We played a game of Clue after school today, right after a quick snack.  With all this mystery going on, why not?  By the way, it was Mr. Green.  Madison loved playing this game and can't wait to do it again - Mommy got the right answer, by the way.  It was just in time so we could turn around and get ready to go to ballet.

While Madison was dancing, Mommy and Daddy were doing a bit of Christmas shopping.  We've got a lot done so far!

Tonight, we got home and did a lot of studying for a social studies test on the turn of the century here in America.  Talk about some great events in world history.  We were studying George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and a few Presidents like McKinley and Roosevelt. There were cattle drives, General Custer, Ellis Island, Angel Island, Pittsburgh Steel, price incentives, The Spanish-American War, and railway barons.  Quite a bit of ground to cover, but Madison seems to have it all covered.

We went to bed, full of knowledge, and ready to hear a bit more from the devotional and from the latest Nancy Drew book.  We said our prayers together tonight.  Mommy and Daddy are still somewhat in shock of what happened at a Texas church yesterday, and how something like that could happen.  We prayed for those who are hurting, grateful for what we have, and who we have.

Afterwards, Mommy and Daddy had a bit of a cheese-fest.  Mommy got all kinds of the best cheese, and we were sampling them with crackers, all while watching...

We watched Stranger Things, finishing up season two.  We definitely liked season one better, but it's been a fun series that everyone seems to be watching lately.  This picture above only makes sense to those who have seen season one.

Tonight, we saw that, and we watched a Danny Kaye Christmas special, which was a whole lot of fun.  We found a lot of old Christmas specials this year, some we've never seen before.  It's going to be a fun season watching some of this classic programming.  We were laughing pretty hard at points during this one - it was great stuff, that old live programming where anything could happen.  Nat King Cole came out and sang his great Christmas song, and Mary Tyler Moore was there too.  It was a really fun show to watch, the first of many during this Christmas season.

Okay, it's time to get some sleep.  And to all a goodnight!

Chasing the Crown

We almost had the full cast with us today on stage for the next chapter in our ongoing series, "Get a Clue."  Today's message had to do with "chasing the crown," which has Biblical significance, and of course a bit of British significance, as a lot of crime capers usually go after the Crown Jewels.

Here's Bart speaking to the kids about the message today, something Madison goes to see.  She rushes right out there to hear whoever it is that is sharing the message that day, which is so great to see.  She's got to fill out the points in her booklet, and then of course get that stamped for the end of each series.  For those kids that make it to each service and get a stamp after filling out their answers, they get a ten dollar gift card.  Madison has been saving these up with close to $100 saved up so far.

As for the service itself today, it was another fantastic one with lots of laughs, and of course mystery. Madison is loving being on stage, and wants a bigger speaking role next week.  She's having a great time on stage, and helping with the scripts in the office.  She sort of watches over the lines as cast members practice, quick to help out with dropped lines or problem areas.

Here she is talking on stage with our mystery person.  She's still a Baker Street Irregular, and will indeed have a bigger part next weekend.  We've got just two more services to go with this series, if you can believe that!

Here is Mycroft in disguise.  Of course, it's a bad one, with a newspaper in front and the eye holes cut out to peek through.  It's that sort of skit, with lots of zingers and bad jokes.  But everyone has been loving it lately, including Daddy who is just having the greatest time with this series.

It was a great series, and although we had Daylight Savings Time this week, Mommy and Daddy were still tired when all was said and done.  At home, Madison did some practice on her piano, studied for an upcoming test, and did some drawing too.  Mommy and Daddy took a nap, believe it or not.  It was a somewhat unproductive day, although we were removing the decorations from fall a little bit, so we can bring up some Christmas decorations.  It's time to start getting ready for the holidays, starting tomorrow with the Star Wars Christmas tree.  We'll hopefully have a few trees up by the end of this upcoming week.  We did a bit of cleaning up together, and of course Mommy made us all a nice meal today - we had butternut squash soup, which is always so good on a day like today.

Tonight, we saw "Smoky Mountain Christmas" together, which is a first for Madison.  Now that she knows who Dolly is, she can kind of appreciate the movie a bit more.  We actually really like this one, if you haven't seen it yet.  We had the popcorn and the blankets and the couch all set up, snuggling as we went back to the Smoky Mountains for a bit.

Then it was time for Nancy Drew, and our devotional of course.  It seems later as we go to bed tonight, but that pays off in the morning, when it seems later then too!

Dry Ice Bubble

We did the giant dry ice bubble experiment in the house today, just because we had some dry ice.  It was pretty fun, actually.  Madison was utterly fascinated with the stuff, playing around with the dry ice for quite some time, just amazed at all the fog coming from out of the kitchen sink.  As for the bubble, it's a simple concept to do.  We did it a few times, watching these big bubbles form out of the dry ice we had.

The rest of the dry ice was in the kitchen sink, bubbling away for an hour or so.  Mommy took advantage of it it, pretending she was cooking up something special:

It was a fun little diversion, although much of the day was wasted for Daddy, who was out hosting a birthday party in Snellville.  It went well, but Daddy would have much rather been at home with Mommy and Madison.  The two were having a good day though, completing piano and practicing drawing, and playing some games too.

Tonight, we continued our "A Christmas Carol" fest with the version starring Mr. Magoo.  It's this version that has the best charwoman, laundress and undertaker:

Christmas future shows Scrooge a future that has three lowlife scoundrels taking stuff from his property, and selling it off to Old Joe.  While many of the versions of this movie have interesting versions of these characters, this movie has the best, strangely enough.  It's because they have their own song and dance routine, the one with the mouths.  Their mouths open really wide as they hammer that chorus, and it's just a lot of goofy fun.  But this movie overall is fun, more fun than you'd think it would be.  The songs are actually good, and the stylized animation is a pleasure to see.  Also, Jim Backus and Paul Frees do voice work for it, which makes it fun.

Tomorrow morning is Daylight Savings Time - the Fall Back edition.  This is the best one of all, and is such a joyous moment.  One extra hour for everyone, an extra hour of sleep!  This is the weekend we all look forward too.  Although, Mommy and Daddy might be staying up one extra hour later tonight to get through season two of "Stranger Things."  It's been somewhat addictive, this show.  We've got four more episodes to go.

We read another chapter of Nancy Drew's latest adventure with Madison tonight, just getting started on a new mystery.  An Asian woman is referred to as "Oriental" time and again throughout the early goings of this book, and that just reminds us of how things change over time.  "Oriental" isn't a proper term anymore.  I believe the correct way to address someone of that race is not "Asian."  Daddy is replacing all the "Orientals" with "Asians" in the reading.  I'm not entirely sure if this is preference, or if it is offensive for some reason, but we've been taught for the last fifteen years or so that "Oriental" is not a good term anymore.

Time to go.  We've got an extra hour tonight, and we're about to use it up!

The Case of the Christmas Pudding

Tonight we cracked open the case of the Christmas pudding, a 1937 Christmas special with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. James Watson - and a Christmas pudding.  We have all these old Christmas specials on DVD, and with this theme currently going on, we thought we should check out this short story.  It was actually not too bad, although Mommy solved the one big question within it right away.  By jove, I think she's got it!

It was a decent episode, with a hint of menace at Christmas time.  It appears as if an escaped death-row inmate has his sites on getting revenge on Sherlock Holmes.  If only that inmate had common sense, and skipped all the revenge part.  Because when dealing with Sherlock Holmes, the best strategy is probably trying to make a run for it.  Although he'll still probably find you.  So yes, things work out well for the great detective and his faithful sidekick.  And they don't turn out well for the criminal in this case.  At least he can enjoy one last Christmas, I suppose.

Today was a day for writing, and a bit of shopping on Daddy's part.  We were getting things for a science-themed birthday part that takes place tomorrow.  Little did Daddy realize that this party will be over an hour away, and will take up more than an hour and ... well, let's just say I should have said no.  As it is, Daddy is spending his time looking for science experiments to entertain kids, while writing a mini-skit, and gathering props and costuming.  What started out as a nice little charitable swing-by has turned into a Herculean chore.

Lesson learned:  just say no.

Madison had a good day today, as did Mommy.  Madison has been keeping up with her piano, and she's been spending a lot more time working on her drawing lately.  She's copying faces and other more complex drawings that she sees, and she's improving each day.  She sits and draws, while listening to her music or watching "Liv and Maddie," or something like that.  It's her latest show that she's been really into.

Speaking of which, we started a new Nancy Drew book today, one called "The Secret of the Red Gate Farm."  We read chapter one tonight.  Daddy had to drop by the library to return the other books, and then pick this one up.  I meant to pick up the one before this, something that takes place at a ranch.  But mistakenly, I picked up this one instead.  Madison was hoping for the other one, but she's content to hear this one, and then that one next I suppose.  Soon enough, we'll be reading other books that aren't mysteries, but this is in fact a season of mysteries, so why not?

Scrooge and the Ghostbusters

Tonight we watched the first Christmas special of the season, which tied nicely to the theme of October:  "Ghostbusters:  Xmas Marks the Spot."  This also ties to our "Humbug" theme that will be hopefully pretty big in December.

Yes, we're returning to "A Christmas Carol" on December 3rd, and it will be the best we've ever done.  We have a monster cast, and the set looks amazing already.  The messages have been solidified, and each day, Daddy's been writing about two devotional entries entirely based on the book and the movies.  So far, I'm at about day fifteen of twenty five, so hopefully that will be done towards the end of next week.

Meanwhile, "Get a Clue" continues, and this week we'll have the entire cast on stage.  Can't wait to get a picture of that.  The clues are dropped one bit at a time, and soon enough we'll discover what happened to Sherlock Holmes, and hopefully stopped the robbery of the Crown Jewels!  We have so much fun at KidPak.

As for the special tonight, it's a pretty fun concept.  The Ghostbusters travel back in time and capture the three ghosts that haunt Scrooge in the classic story.  And because they stop the ghosts, Ebenezer Scrooge doesn't change.  In fact, he is empowered by the victory of the ghosts, and he goes on to declare victory over Christmas, killing it once and for all.  Obviously the Ghostbusters have to rescue the ghosts, but until then, three of them each take the place of the ghosts in an attempt to show Scrooge the error of his ways.

It's a fun holiday cartoon that Daddy has recorded on DVD.  The same disc has a Flintstones Christmas Carol and one with the Jetsons in it too.  These will be fun to watch again, as will Mr. Magoo.  I'm going to try to watch as many as we can this season, and in fact Mommy and Daddy were thinking about getting tickets to see it on stage.  It'll be a fun theme for the season, although we certainly have plans to do other things too.

Although it was after Halloween tonight, Madison was still in costume.  All the kids got to wear their costumes all week to ballet, and so Madison chose her Wonder Woman costume.  It was jazz and ballet night, so it was a longer night. Mommy did some grocery shopping and got all caught up, while Daddy was at work.  Mommy is getting things ready for Thanksgiving, already picking up a few things here and there.  The dining room is getting set up and cleaned up, and it'll be a really nice day here.  It's not too early to plan.

It's not too early to plan a lot, actually.  Yes, we're looking at making Christmas lists and doing a bit of shopping and so on.  It won't be long until it's Christmas, and we're starting a bit early this year so it won't be all rushed and at the last minute.

So we're off to bed now.  We read to Madison a bit from the devotional, and we prayed together.  Now Mommy and Daddy are back to season two of "Stranger Things."  This is one of those shows all of the staff seems to be racing through - we're on episode two so far, and I think we'll watch a couple of episodes tonight.  I don't think they're holiday-themed episodes though.  In fact, I'm pretty sure of it.  The ones we saw last night took place on Halloween, which is pretty much fitting, given the nature of the show.  The main characters were even dressed up like Ghostbusters for their costumes.  Which sort of brings things full circle, doesn't it?  Who ya' gonna' call?

Taking off the Masks

Tonight, we did a skit based on a Sherlock Holmes story, "The Man with the Twisted Lip."  It was a fun little mad lib that went with our series, and of course there's a message behind the story itself, something we could draw from.  In fact, here it is...

     In one most curious case, our great detective discovers a mystery: where is the decent man with a sterling reputation? And just who is this other unusual person that wears a twisted lip, and is found nearby the place where our good gentleman disappeared?
     The solution to the puzzle is remarkable: they are both one and the same! This individual was wearing a disguise! At night, the culprit is a faithful husband and family man. But during the day he transforms into something else entirely.
As devious as this rascal may seem, the truth of the matter is this: we all have a temptation to live a double life. Know this: God can see through any disguise. If you think you’re fooling everyone, you need to get a clue! It’s time for us to take off the masks with one another, and show ourselves as we truly are.
     In our Bibles, Jesus saw right through some of the Pharisees’ disguises:  they were dressed as holy men, quite religious! But their hearts were far from God, otherwise they would have known who Jesus really was. They may have been fooling a lot of people, but they weren’t fooling the one who mattered most.
     The word “hypocrite” means a “mask,” and that’s just what these Pharisees were wearing. Are you wearing a mask too? Are you making yourself seem like something you’re not? Are you just dressing the part of a Christian, while secretly acting like a villain?
     If so, you’d better watch out! God will forgive us – it’s time to throw off that disguise! 

     This was a fun service, and what a great scripture from Luke 12:2 (the Message version):

"You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known."

     For fun, we were leaving this on people's desk, printed out in a vaguely threatening way.  It's just the translation that sort of fits the whole mystery mood a bit.

     Speaking of mysteries, tonight we finished "Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion," which was a decent book.  We revealed who the real villains of the book are, and it turns out to be pretty much everyone we suspected at the beginning.  The book ends with a rocket launch and a definite NASA theme, so it was neat reading a book with Nancy visiting the same place we were at not long ago.  The book is not necessarily our favorite of the Nancy Drew canon, but Madison certainly enjoyed hearing it.  She keeps asking, "One more chapter?"  She'll be reading these on her own soon enough.  She enjoys mysteries, she told us.  This is such a fun season for that sort of thing.  We've got another clue to discover this week with the "Get a Clue" game - in order to get it, we must be posed as a family playing a board game.  I'm sure that game will be "Clue," and maybe we'll do that tomorrow.

     Anyway, Daddy read that before heading off to KidPak tonight.  It was nice coming home to see Mommy and Madison on these long Wednesdays.  There is so much to do lately, but that's important.

     It was raining a bit tonight, right around the time yesterday when all the kids were going out to trick-or-treat.  This just highlighted how perfectly timed the weather was this season for us.  The only off day was that Gwinnett Fall Festival, but that wasn't a big deal at all.  It was icing on the cake, really.  And frosted icing at that.  Looking back at all we did between the last of September and the end of October... it's pretty amazing.  It was a great month.

     But this will be a great month too.  November rain starts us off, a reminder of many things to be thankful for.  Another thing we're thankful for:  hot chocolate.  The office is suffering from sub-zero conditions, so it's like Christmas in there!  In fact, because October is officially over, we were playing some Christmas music in there.  It may seem too soon, actually, but it's fun.

     Tonight, Mommy and Daddy were moving on with our "Stranger Things" binge.  We've been watching a lot of this lately, and the idea is to be wrapped up in time to start our Christmas movie fest.  The show has been one of those things everyone is talking about, at least around here.  Season one seems to draw you in a bit more, but it's still a fun show.  Madison won't be watching it any time soon though - it's definitely got some scary bits in it.

     So begins November, and the next two months are going to be so full, and so much fun.  We've decided to stay here for Thanksgiving, and host it once again.  But we may go somewhere after that.  Today we were looking into local Christmas activities, and as always, there are plenty of adventures to go on.  We'll be doing quite a bit of that as the season moves on.  Sure, October has come and gone.  But this next month is great as well.  It's going to be a wonderful new season!