It's a Wonderful Life

I love our great room. We're so blessed - with a beautiful tree, a fireplace, stockings hung by the chimney with care, and all sorts of coziness that's just right for a December night. The weather is quite chilly outside, which is what it's supposed to be! I'll have to post a photo of our house now - Mommy has hung up wreaths on each of the windows, and lights all around, plus the Nativity set. It's a picture perfect sort of house right now, and we're quite pleased.

Madison spent the day at our house with Mommy and Daddy. This morning, Mommy had a hair appointment, so it was Daddy and Madison fooling around in the house again. We first played with all the Mr. Potato Head parts - we've since added the new pieces from our recent Disney World plunderings, and now have a real Mr. Potato Head empire! A word about the new Mr. Potato Head mold though: the smaller ones don't cut it. They have these smaller Mr. Potato Heads for Warner Brothers characters and Elvis. We got the Elvis one because hey, it's Elvis. But we don't want to get any more of those smaller Mr. Potato Head parts. I'm talking to you, Hasbro. Make the Mr. Potato Heads all the same size!

Okay, enough of that. Currently, there's a regular-sized Mr. Potato Head in our great room, wearing a Mickey Christmas hat and carrying a Christmas tree. He's quite festive!

Madison continued piano lessons today, and actually played "Jingle Bells." The neat thing about piano practice is that we all sort of learn how to play as well. Mommy is getting to be quite good at some of these simple tunes!

Daddy was filling out Christmas cards today - lots of cards to send out this year. We got a bunch filled out, but have a bunch to go. What a long and arduous process! Still, it's a nice gesture. Not as many people are sending out cards as they used to. Nowadays, Christmas images and messages are sent a more convenient, faster, and cheaper way: by email, or some social network. We're not doing it that way: we're sending it by "snail mail," because it's the thought that counts, by gum!

Tonight, we returned to Bedford Falls to see "It's a Wonderful Life," returning to the Cumming Playhouse. Last summer, we saw "Big River," which was actually pretty well done. This production wasn't as polished, but it was still fun to see, and certainly nostalgic. While we were seeing George Bailey's life unfold, Madison was with Ye-Ye and Nana having a wonderful life herself: she was watching movies and playing games and just having a great time. Fortunately for all of us, the play was rather quick - which means we'll all get a good night's rest. Tomorrow is a work day for all of us, and tomorrow night is another special Christmas tradition: the Living Christmas Tree at Gainesville's 1st Baptist Church. I don't know where the 2nd Baptist church is. It's probably nearby Oriental Garden #1.

"You'll see a lot of strange things from now on."

- Clarence