Mixed Emotions

Today was all about the new series tomorrow.  Madison came in and was so helpful with taking down previous decorations, helping put things in place, and helping even with the filming.  More on that in a moment, but before going on, above is Mommy's display case for the series.  She's using Daddy's precious lithographs, but we also got ourselves a few of the plush characters - and as a bonus, Mommy found some Christmas lights with the right shape, and exactly the right colors!

As far as the filming part goes, we filmed the POV stuff this morning for the skit tomorrow.  There are five emotions inside Penny's head - Penny is the name of our main character - and what they see through Penny's eyes is what causes them to react.  So the first skit is about Penny waking up.  We filmed some POV stuff in Madison's bedroom this morning, and even needed to use Madison's arms for a few shots.  For example, the main character hears the alarm clock, and then hits the snooze button.  Of course, Madison hit it in such a way that a piece of plastic came off the clock.  Which made for a funny video clip.  And in another instance, it's Madison's arms going through the clothing closet, looking for something to wear.  So it'll be Madison up there on stage with us a bit tomorrow, which will be fun.  One thing of note:  while there are all kinds of 'girly' things in her room, if your eyes are quick in the video, you can actually spot... a life-sized Clone Trooper helmet!

For dinner today, we said goodbye to sweets and meats, as tomorrow we start our yearly church wide fast.  This isn't one of those private fasts, but the corporate kind they talk about in the Bible where everyone joins in together.  There is such a wonderful spirit this time of year, where everyone encourages each other and it is common knowledge that the focus is God - it's almost like corporate worship, where everyone is joining in together singing.  In this case, everyone is giving up something in order to spend more time praying, and seeking guidance for the new year.

Anyway, we ate at Chick-Fil-A, using our yearly calendar card.  Got to use it today, or wait another 21 days, right?  Anyway, today's card gave us grilled chicken nuggets, which are gluten free, and we had two cards.  So we had a good meal there, and a goodbye...

Lake Lanier is amazingly full right now.  It is still way up the banks, covering over the bottoms of tree trunks, and washing out places where fishermen used to rest their lawn chairs.  We have been blessed with a lot of water lately, but the weather has been dryer the last few days, so hopefully that's a pattern. And, more in line with January, it's colder.  We're dressing in layers once again, an abrupt change to all the warmer temperatures we've been 'enduring!'

One final thing:  we said goodbye also to Nana and Ba-Ba today.  They went back to Florida, and we prayed they would arrive safely - which they did.  Also, without incident - which they did.  Traffic was heavy, but there wasn't any significant delays, so that was good.  It's a long trip down there, and back again.  We were happy to see them, and hear they made it safely.

So tonight it's off to bed.  Everything is set for tomorrow - it should be a fantastic day!