Return to The Nutcracker

We returned to Gainesville Ballet's "Nutcracker" this year, this time not as members or parents of a ballerina, but simply as fans with some Christmas spirit.  The girl who plays Clara goes to our church and we're good friends with her family.  They all did such a wonderful job tonight.

And you can see here that Madison brought friends with her.  She, Mary Shannon and Camille sat in the front row of the balcony, watching the production from above, and it was fantastic as always.

It's a pretty modified version of "The Nutcracker," but the main elements of Mr. Drosselmeyer and Clara with her Nutcracker are there, along with dances from Sugar Plums, Snowflakes, Candy Canes, and that odd Mother Ginger bit.

Madison saw all her old friends from the ballet company, and even went back to see them afterwards in "The Black Box."  That's the backstage area we used to hang out in waiting to go on stage.  Madison saw her friends dance, many of them with Mother Ginger this year.  But she doesn't regret leaving ballet so much, although she does miss her friends each week.  She talks to them online frequently, so there's that.  But again, she's completely happy with the directions she's chosen, going to Edge ATA now.

As for tonight's production, it was a magical night as it always is.  I've grown rather fond of "The Nutcracker," for whatever reasons.  Perhaps it is the nostalgia, or the wonderful music, or the choreography and performances.  It's familiar, although the performers themselves change and shift from year to yet.  Still, it's always brings a smile to our faces, a sweet night full of Christmas magic.

The rest of today was not quite as magical, a strange gloom over things.  Perhaps it was the passing of one of our former Presidents, George HW Bush.  Also, one of the ballerinas - the girl who plays Clara's sister - broke her foot on stage in an early morning performance of "The Nutcracker."  Quite suddenly, all the practice, all the things given up, and all the effort and love for dance were erased, and we were quite sad to hear this.  Mommy getting sick today did not add any joy either.  She was struggling with a stomach virus today or something.  Also, there were a few struggles at work, along with the odd news from Madison's middle school that there were rumors - untrue - of a student wanting to come in with weapons and so forth.  This is not true, according to the school, who is quoting the Sheriff's department and so on.  Nevertheless, it cast the day in a negative manner for a time.  The weather was cold and rainy, and things were gloomy for quite some time.  Even going home, there was an accident on the winding Browns Bridge Road that caused all of us to spend an extra hour or so on the roads, waiting to get home.  Fortunately, Daddy left a little earlier than usual, and as a result we got to the ballet just in time.

Thankfully, there was the ballet.  It lifted the spirits somewhat, and was yet another pleasant night celebrating this Christmas season.  We got home, tired, but feeling better about things.  We read from "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms," which is already adding a lot to the book.  But it was late, so we said our prayers after that, and promptly got ourselves under those nice, warm covers!

Festival of the Nativity 2018

Tonight after taekwondo, we gathered together at the local LDS church to see something like 1,000 Nativity Sets.  It is called the "Festival of the Nativity," and it is really something to see!

Here's the group that came along, many of them for the first time.  Daddy did a sales pitch to get them to come, and everyone thought it was well worth the visit.  Everybody spent a great deal of time there, looking at amazing Nativity sets from all over the world.

There were literally ones inside a matchbox, and others like the one outside, large enough to walk amongst.  Or, at least lay down as if you're a barnyard animal:

It was great to see this with friends tonight, and watch their reactions at seeing so many different sets.  Many were parts of one person's collection, a real blessing to the community here.  You can see Mary Shannon and Camille with Mommy here, having a great time with a neat little seasonal activity!

We met in the parking lot outside, and soon enough we were inside.  It was chilly outside, but the warmth of the church was welcoming, and we're not just talking about the thermostat, of course.  The people there were very friendly and happy to have us there.  And there was so much to see!

It took them several weeks to set all this up, and they were up until the last possible minute last night, still working on the arrangements.  But it came out really well.  We love seeing this wondrous variety,  with Nativity sets from all over, including this one from Africa.

There were several from Africa, and a lot of novelty ones as well, just as we saw last time.  There were actually two sets of Nativity sets where all the figure included were moose.

There was much debate about the plural of "moose," by the way.

And then there were others like this one here, which Daddy liked a lot.  Each time you went through this collection, you caught something new.  Someone would come up and say, "Did you see this one or that one?"  And we'd come back and marvel at the artistry, or occasionally laugh.

Yes, this is a "Precious Moments" Nativity set.  Of course.  There was a big room just packed with so many Nativity sets, and then there were other rooms filled with Nativity sets and other parts of the story of Jesus.  Here's a camel, just finished a few days ago.  We were invited in to check out this room as well tonight.

The other rooms focused on certain parts of the story of Jesus, and were all well done for the visitors who came.  It was a nice touch.

Look at all the Nativity sets.  It's impossible to get them all in one picture, as they were scattered all over, along with tapestries and paintings and ornaments.  There were so many, someone actually made up a scavenger hunt for the kids to see if they could spot certain items, like elephants or zebras, or polar bears and igloos.  Here's Madison with her checklist, looking for a snowman Nativity set.

It really got everyone in the Christmas spirit, something new and exciting for our guests who joined us.  We were happy to do something like this, celebrating the reason for the season together.

We've got a few different Nativity sets at our own house, ones we've put out already.  Ironically, the ones we have are all different from anything they had on display, except for the "Little People" one we bring up for Madison.  There's a smaller version of that at this church too.

Ours are from around this area.  But these are from all over the world, collected in one person's travels.  I believe this set above is from Ecuador.  Here's the whole group again, all of us together, including Daddy this time.

Oh, and here's one from Honduras.  Each one is so remarkably different, so stylized and just incredible to see lined up one after the other.  You could spend a really long time in there, looking around.  We chose the first night to attend, as there would be the least amount of visitors on a Thursday night. Sure enough, it wasn't as packed as it had been.

Anyway, this was our big thing for the day.  We had some time at the dojo this evening, and there was work, where Daddy was finalizing movie clips and next week's Whoville booklet.  Madison was at school of course.  She's been helping out with Live to Give, and assisting with the toy drive at the school.  She's also working with art, doing more with the spinning table of the pottery wheel to make spin art.  She did well on a math test today, and she's doing even better elsewhere with school.   It's a happy season, the greatest time of year!

One more photo of Mary Shannon and Madison tonight before we close up.  It was a very nice night together!

Apollo 8 and Silent Night

Each year Madison makes a chain, link by link, and not quite the kind we see in tales of Mr. Scrooge.  This is a paper chain, each link decorated with candy canes and stickers and quite a bit of effort actually.  Madison finally finished this, and so we're ready for another December, as each day goes by, the links on the chain are removed one at a time.  When all the links are gone, that's when it's Christmas!

It was a Wednesday night service tonight, and Daddy did the message for the auditorium, one with a simple message of worship, and a moment of being still.  Some time ago, one of my favorite Christmas memories was coming back from an event at Raggers Retreat, something for the Y-Club kids like myself.  There were about seven or eight of us, and we all stopped a moment, just talking and then just singing Christmas carols.  I'll never forget the sweet moment, the harmony and sincerity when we sang "Silent Night."  To this day I remember that, and thought this service we could do a bit of that, sans the instruments.  I hoped to do it without the microphones too, but musicians are funny that way sometimes!

Anyway, the message was about a couple of anniversaries, each related to the overall message in their own way:  the first anniversary that is pretty big is of the song itself, "Silent Night."  It's two-hundred years old this Christmas Eve, at least in its completed form.  The story behind it is interesting, with the church organ not working, and the young priest desperately wanting music for the evening.  He wrote a poem a few years prior, and the organist set it to music that could be played with a guitar, and the rest is history.

The other anniversary is younger, but pretty amazing as well.  It was the first time humans circled the moon, three Americans on Christmas Eve, fifty years ago this year.  They were told they could make some personal remarks, and when it came down to it, the three astronauts weren't quite sure what to say, as it was all rather trite.

I made these two things above for the upcoming Parenting Matters, but also talked about them tonight in service, and it went rather well.   Christmas is coming, and it's all good!

Grinch Activities

This was a little maze Daddy made for the upcoming book for this new series at KidPak.  There are only three messages, so it was a little short for a book, so the basic idea was to come up with some extra pages here and there, where you could write Christmas lists, or even do a mad lib.  Here's "The Grinch" themed mad lib below:

Whoville Mad Lib

Fill in the blanks below with the kind of words needed for our Mad Lib!  You can use the examples, or come up with your own words.  The sillier the better!

1.    Color (examples:green, neon yellow, mauve)
___________________________

2.    Adjective (examples: beautiful, ridonculous, gigantic).
___________________________

3.    Adjective (examples:  smelly, pretty, fishy)  
___________________________

4.    Animal (examples:  dog, clownfish, hippopotamus)
___________________________

5.    Place (examples: Braselton, Waffle House, Canada)
___________________________

6.    Verb that you do to something (examples: hug, punch,  cook)
___________________________

7.    Plural Noun (examples: giant squids, taquitos, garbage trucks)
___________________________

8.    Plural Noun (examples:  earthworms, cheese puffs, toilet bowl cleansers)
___________________________

9.    Vehicle (examples:  cruise ship, sled, zamboni)
___________________________

10.  Plural Noun (examples:  banana slugs, wrenches, pistachio nuts)
___________________________

11.  Plural Noun (examples:  school janitors, noodles, car mufflers)
___________________________

12.  Adjective (examples:  crabby, delicious, exploding)
___________________________

13.  Adjective (examples:  joyous, sticky, unsettling)
___________________________

14.  Adjective (examples:  goofy, super duper, depressing)
___________________________

15.  Feeling (examples:  nervous, excited, confused)
___________________________

Next, match up your words with the blanks on the next page to complete the story!

The Story of the Grinch

     High on Mt. Crumpet lived a nasty, wasty skunk we call the Grinch!  He is a (1)___________ and (2)___________ fellow who did not like Christmas at all.  In fact, when he sees people celebrating Christmas, it makes him very (3)___________. 

     He and his (4)___________ Max decided to do something big.  He looked down at the ones that lived in (5)___________, each one filled with Christmas cheer.  They were going to(6)___________  Christmas!

     On Christmas Eve, he came down and took all their (7)___________!  He even stole their (8)___________!  He loaded all their stuff and put it in his (9)___________, and went back up the mountain!

      But when he got their and looked down at the town, he saw something amazing!  Outside their homes, he saw (10)___________!  And they were singing!  

      It turns out he didn’t steal Christmas, because you can’t. It’s not about (11)___________, (12)___________ Christmas lights,  (13)___________ gifts, and really (14)___________ songs that get everyone feeling (15)___________.

     No, Christmas is not about any of that.  It’s about God’s love for all of us.  The Grinch realized that Christmas means a little bit more. And this Christmas, we hope you know that too!

Merry Christmas!

    I'm especially fond of using the adjectives "unsettling" and "exploding."  Anyway, the work on the book continues, and it should be done relatively soon.

     Meanwhile, Madison was back at school on another cold and blustery day.  Wind has been whirling the leaves all about, and through the last two evenings you can hear the roar of wind outside.  It's not an evening to be out, unless you like really cold and windy temperatures in the dark.  We personally don't, and are quite grateful for a nice warm house.

     Tonight we watched "A Year Without a Santa Claus," which was Madison's choice for the evening.  The Snow Miser must be in town, because with the wind chill tonight, it's supposed to feel like something in the teens.  Which here in Georgia is quite a shock to the system!

     We started a new book tonight, one we got for free from Disney Rewards.  It's a nice looking book, a novelization of the Nutcracker movie we just saw a few weeks ago.  So far, chapter one is pretty much identical to the movie.  The cover and illustrations inside are really nice though, and there are twenty-five chapters to go with each day of December, leading up to the big day.  Of course, we started it a little early, but that's because sometimes we have nights where Daddy has to work or perhaps it's just a later night.

      Speaking of which, we got some tickets for a kids' play in a few weeks, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," which will feature one of our neighbors and church friends.  It's always been one of our favorite Christas stories, so it'll be great to see a version of it on stage.  That might be a slightly later night, but it'll be fun.

     The wind is still roaring outside, and our blankets are nice and toasty!  Time to turn in for the night!

Back to Mars

We voted again today, this time for two candidates who are in the run-off for Secretary of State, and some other obscure office that's probably a lot more important than I'm giving it credit for.  While we were all voting, the losing candidate in the Lieutenant Governor race is suing because he thinks there was shenanigans going on with the the election.  And so all this political bickering continues, but meanwhile, we did our part and voted.  Early voting started today, and thankfully, again, this will all be over with in about a week.

So today was cold.  It was really shockingly cold for us in the South, who were not ready for this sudden burst of chill sweeping over our landscape.  Sort of like the Northerners weren't ready for the ice storm that happened a few weeks ago.  None of us were sitting here and pointing and laughing at you in the north, as you were stuck in your cars and struggling to get home.  At least, not laughing with the derisiveness that you had given us over "just a little bit of ice" a few winters ago.  Now you're facing the same exact thing, and lo!  You're in the same situation, with "just a little bit of ice" crippling your entire region.  Now you know what it is like, and now hopefully you can cut us a little bit of slack.  Yeah, I know.  We'll see.

Anyway, today Madison was back in school.  Up early and out the door we went, and off to a good day.   She had a fine day at school, and then on to piano where things seem to be going okay as well.  We're not entirely sure how her progress is there, but she seems to be doing well enough.  It's a different teacher, so we're not in complete communication with her teacher like we were with Mrs. Pam.  Nevertheless, Madison continues to practice at home, and play some of this song that she'll be doing at a recital upcoming.

Mommy and Daddy were out doing a bit of shopping as well, also visiting a used book store on the square that neither of us had been to before.  It was a nice little visit in town to a local shop.

Yesterday while greeting with the characters for KidPak, we ran into one of our former KidPak kids, who is nineteen now.  He went off to Afghanistan today, part of the National Guard.  His face just makes it real to our kids, that these aren't nameless faces going off to be in harm's way, but rather kids that have grown up quite a bit to stand bravely for us all.  We were praying for him today and yesterday.  We're very proud of him, of course, and all the others going with him.  It was a profound moment today, watching them ride off to their destination in service.

Oh, and the other thing we watched today - all three of us - was the landing on Mars.  Yes, Madison was watching at school as it happened, and Mommy and Daddy were watching at home.  NASA was broadcasting the event as it happened, so we were able to see things as they occurred, all the way to the landing on Mars.

This is the first picture taken today, one of many hopefully to come.  It was a successful mission, and it was great to see all the folks at NASA so happy at the outcome of things thus far.  These are still neat, historic moments.  The pictures from Mars are always amazing - it's such an amazing place.  Obviously, there's nothing there except rocks and mountain slopes and generally cloudless sky.  I can't imagine anyone ever living there in my lifetime, but that's the general call we heard while at Canaveral, and still today from billionaires wanting to start colonizing the planet.  I can't even imagine this.  Perhaps some day we will, and I know just the guy to lead the way:  Fred Randall!

Perhaps we need to go back and watch "Rocketman" again soon...

In the Fog

It was pretty foggy this morning, probably the foggiest it's been in quite some time.  We couldn't see the color of the streetlights until you were very close to them, and unless people's headlights were on in their cars, you couldn't see them until they were right there passing by.   Daddy snapped this picture of the chapel this morning, just because the sun was at the right angle there behind the church, and it made for an interesting photo.

As for service itself, you can see we had Vanellope and Ralph back once again on stage.  We're closing up the series, perhaps, at least as far as the messages in the booklet go.  The decorations on stage upstairs took precedent over KidPak's material, and so we now have a bit of a gap next weekend to fill.  But with Christmas season here, I think we can find plenty to talk about as we develop a service through the week.  Video games and Christmas:  that might be a fun combination, huh?

Madison did some piano and made her candy cane chain, and we all enjoyed delicious spaghetti together.  We're seated to watch "The Santa Clause 3," which Madison chose as tonight's Christmas-themed entry, with popcorn and everything.

Daddy got a free book in the mail, a novelization of "Nutcracker and the Four Realms," with a great looking hardcover, and some nice artwork inside.  It was actually a nice and very limited giveaway on a rewards site for Disney, so Daddy used up some saved points for that right away, along with a few other gift items.  We also got some other Christmas items in the mail, but those are a secret right now!

We'll do some reading and an early night tonight - school is back in tomorrow.  Got to get back into the swing of things for a few weeks - but look at the calendar today:  it's the twenty-fifth.  One month to go until the Big Day!

Retro Nativity Set

This year we have a place to put out this neat retro-styled Nativity Set, and Daddy was pretty happy to see it set up by the front door, so much that he took a picture really quickly.  We did just a bit more decorating, but you should see the house nearly across the street from us, all decked out with lights inside and out.  It's beautiful!  We'll hopefully get ours up to Elfcom 5 within the next few days, but we're pretty proud of our inside accomplishments for the time being, with four trees and extra decorations up.  Besides, we still need to pack up some of the Thanksgiving decorations already.  I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already!

Today we did leave the house for a while.  We were doing a bit of Christmas shopping here and there, and also getting some candy canes for Madison's candy cane chain for December.  Each yet she makes this, taking one candy cane off each morning until there's none left, and when that happens, there's plenty more candy around because it's Christmas!

But while we were out, we went to see the new movie that just came out, "Wreck-it Ralph 2:  Ralph Breaks the Internet."  There was a good crowd of people there to see the movie, but nevertheless, we got our usual seats in the back, and our usual tub of popcorn.

It was a decent movie, although the three of us liked the original the best.  This one had a few great moments in the middle with memes and a musical number, but otherwise, we felt the writing and story were much better for the first one.  Again, it was still fun to watch and we enjoyed our time out at the movies.  It seems we've been at the theater a lot to see movies - we might be back later this month to see a Spider-man movie and another Mary Poppins movie.  We've also got plenty of other usual Christmas excursions to head off to see, including hopefully another trip down to the beach around New Year's Day.  We'll see how that goes, but it will be fun, and we'll savor each day.  This season goes by so fast each year, and every day is so packed with fun, with Christmas cards and cookies and gingerbread houses and lights and Christmas movies and Krampus and Elf on the Shelf and Advent Calendars and Stockings and... well, you get the idea.  It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Going Nowhere

We got this new game about a month ago, in anticipation of the Christmas season.  It's "A Christmas Story Card Scramble," which is a little bit different for us as far as gameplay is concerned.  We tried it out today and it was about an hour or so - Madison and Daddy tried first, and then Mommy joined us for another round.  The basic idea is to collect matching cards, which are the very thing that move you around the board as well.  We had fun with it, although the printed instructions didn't quite cover all the game play.  There were still a few questions towards the end, but we winged it and had a good time.  Of course we had Christmas music playing and the lights on and all that.

We did not, however, go anywhere today.  Daddy went to the mailbox once.  And late morning, the three of us ventured out onto the porch where we waved goodbye to the grandparents, who were off on their first leg of the journey home.  Recently, they've decided to make the trip in two parts, stopping halfway along the trip to around Adel, Georgia or so.

It did rain today, and that sort of played a part in our decision to not go too far.  After all, going to see lights in the rain doesn't sound like too much fun?  It's a cold rain, too.  So yeah, let's just stay inside today, okay?

Besides, today was a day to catch up, with Madison taking a luxuriant bath and doing some piano, while Mommy and Daddy did a bit of online shopping.  It's Black Friday, but we weren't having any of that in the shopping malls.  Daddy doesn't need that sort of stress, not when there's no apparent reason for it.  Instead, we were writing messages here, one more for the Grinch theme upcoming, and eating leftovers, of course.  There's lots of leftovers leftover, so we had ourselves Thanksgiving 2.0.  All the Tupperware containers filled with the Thanksgiving food items were put out, a sort of cold buffet that we loaded up onto the plates and put into the microwave right after.  Yes, it's not as glorious as Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving leftovers are the best kind of leftovers to have leftover.

Tonight we watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" some more, because why not?  We're in full Christmas season mode now, right?  We put out a few more decorations too, and got the magic Christmas wand set up so that each time the lights go on, there's the tinkling sound of fairy magic.  We've got records and music playing, and the Nutcrackers up on the top shelf.  Tomorrow, we may do a bit more, but today was fun just hanging around the house, cleaning up and doing a bit of productive stuff here and there.  It was a nice, slow paced day, unlike the madness at the shopping centers, and that was just fine with us!

Thanksgiving 2018

So here we are at Thanksgiving once more, and this was another one of those occasions where both sets of grandparents could come to spend the holiday with us.  You can see the table setting here - Madison made the name tags for everyone, and Mommy has been spending days preparing this one meal.  It's one of those things we always talk about, where so much time is invested in preparing this ginormous feast, and that's what it is, a fest.  And yet it doesn't take that long to actually eat the food itself.  This year, we took a few moments to just sit and look around and savor not only the food, but each other's company.  Looking around the table, hearing ordinary conversations, seeing smiles and listening to laughter... these are the things we are thankful for.  Of course, there's more to be thankful for, as the list goes on and on.

But today is about family getting together, and that is what we were able to do.  How blessed we are that everyone gets along so well, and with all this talk about bickering and topics not to bring up at the table, we never really need to worry about that.  Madison has the best grandparents in the world, the kindest and warmest souls we know.  And we know a lot of people.  You can see the piano girls in the picture above:  on Thanksgiving, perhaps this will be a new tradition, sitting around the piano and playing for everyone.  Both Nana and Madison are learning to play, and there were a few sheets of music there to play and learn from.  While that was going on, Mommy was preparing food in the kitchen, but don't worry, she had help:

The smell of Thanksgiving is glorious, isn't it?  It fills the house, upstairs and downstairs, a distinct smell of roasting turkey and other food items as well.  Mommy is famous for her butternut squash soup, as well as the sweet potato casserole.  This year, she made dressing (or "stuffing," as we still call it), in two different styles - one a more English way of preparing it.  Also on the menu for today were rolls, corn, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and of course the main course:  turkey!

Inspired by Medieval Times, Madison had herself a big turkey leg.  She went for that right away, while the rest of us were going for the slices of turkey off the top.  Mommy was showing us all how to properly cut the turkey, and meanwhile Madison wasn't interested in that part.  Nope.  She was going for the turkey leg, ripping it off.  I think she would have eaten it with her hands like at Medieval Times if it weren't for the knife and fork in front of her!

It was nice today.  We were watching the parade this morning together on the big television, and it was in fact the coldest Thanksgiving Day Parade on record.  There was a serious wind threat to the balloons today, one that would ground them all, but fortunately, the winds were such that the balloon handlers were able to make it work.  They just had to move them along lower to the ground.  

One note though:  CBS footage of the parade is pretty awful.  They spend way too much time promoting themselves and their own television programming, while NBC seems to spend more time actually looking at the parade itself, which is the reason we're watching in the first place, right?  

Anyway, as that was going on, Daddy was putting the finishing touches on the last tree, including the topper.  Mommy was cooking as that was going on, periodically pulling out the turkey to baste, and getting the rest of us to help put the table settings in place, preparing for the big moment. 

It came and went, just as so many have before, and so many will in the future.  How wonderful that so many families are doing the same thing at the same time, all together, all giving thanks, and all spending time together on this sacred day.  We've been reading a Thanksgiving-themed devotional at night, and many of us do "thankful" exercises, writing out things they're thankful for each day and so on.  But one thing is universal about today:  we all can't help but think of things we're thankful for.  There's a lot to be thankful for.

Dinner was nice, as was dessert, of course.  There were pecan pies, pumpkin pies and apple pies.  We picked up egg nog flavored ice cream, and peppermint flavored ice cream as well.  But there were other dessert items as well, too many, really.  But these will carry on for a few weeks, so that's okay.  Leftovers are just fine with Daddy.  We had tea and coffee, and extended conversations, and then Madison brought out her game of UNO, and made it a mandatory thing for the day that we all play the game a few rounds.  That was fun, again, and this is how traditions start:  Thanksgiving and UNO.  In fact, Ye-Ye and Nana were having a Thanksgiving Meal with the cousins last night, and they were playing UNO as well.  

Anyway, soon Ye-Ye and Nana were on their way home for the evening, and just like that, another Thanksgiving was over.  Or, somewhat over.  The meal part is a big part of it, but the day is about time together, and Nana and Ba-Ba were with us on the couch again, watching the newest Christmas movie, "The Christmas Chronicles," which was actually pretty good.

Madison was in bed not long after that - we read more from our Thanksgiving devotional, and also the adventures of Peter and the Starcatchers.  Meanwhile, the grandparents were watching another movie downstairs with us, "The Man Who Invented Christmas."  Which is another great movie, if you haven't seen it yet. 

Here's Nana on the couch, just before watching the movie.  She's adopted this porg as her pet lately.  Madison let her hold the porg throughout the movie, and it was too cute.  This might be a great Christmas present in a few weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Peas and Carrots

We watched the official ceremony today, the one where not one but two turkeys were pardoned by the President.  There was a vote between the two, one's name is Peas and the other one's name is Carrots. The vote was for which one would get the pardon, and of course there were jokes about the loser refusing to concede.  Fortunately, mercy was shown to both candidates, and both of these turkeys will live out their days without fear of winding up on a plate for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of peas and carrots, today Mommy made us shepherd's pie once more, which was fantastic as always.  Ba-Ba loved it, just because it isn't something you eat all the time here.  Mommy puts it all together and it turned out very nice for a chilly day like today.

We were doing a lot of "decking of the halls" today, decorating for Thanksgiving and a bit of Christmas as well.  The tree in the great room is quite an undertaking, in fact.  Nana and Ba-Ba were watching as Daddy has spent the last few days one this one tree, so full of ornaments.  The other trees don't take nearly as long, up with lights and ornaments in less than a day.  Meanwhile, this tree is apparently a monster.  It has something like seven hundred lights on it, which is something I never bothered to count before, but this year we had to buy new lights and suddenly it dawned on me just how many lights are on this tree.  You can see how Christmas lights can get out of hand, can't you?

Madison was playing piano today, still working on her recital song, which isn't exactly the most festive song in the world, but she's getting better at it, and she's enjoying playing it.  She was spending time with the grandparents too, although she was also spending her time with iPad lately playing this game called Roblox, which enables her to play games online with her friends. Every so often I have to remark that she's acting like Teenage Groot from the Avengers, and she realizes how she must look, her eyes glued to a handheld device.  Such is the world of technology today.

We were talking with Uncle George today, passing the phone around to wish him a happy birthday.  He's off to New York where they're about to have a pretty chilly Thanksgiving up there.  The parade tomorrow might be the coldest one ever, in fact.

Tonight we were watching "The Santa Clause 2," which the grandparents liked.  It's been fun watching Christmas movies together, all of us on the couch.  Some of these the grandparents haven't seen in ages, so there's been a lot of laughter in the great room each night.   We also sat and played some KidPak Thanksgiving videos from the past, which also got some laughs.  We have some good stuff there, enough to make a nice yearly collection.

We read tonight and said our prayers, and did a few more finishing touches for tomorrow - it's going to be a great day!  But before going, Daddy finished the first Grinch-themed message today, and it turned out pretty well so far.  In closing, here it is:

Welcome Christmas, Welcome All 

High on Mt. Crumpet, lived a stinky old soul

you wouldn’t touch with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole!

He was known as the Grinch, a nasty wasty skunk 

His heart full of unwashed socks, his soul filled with gunk.

Way back in the past, when the Grinch was a boy

He had bad things happen that took all his joy.

Don’t judge.  You should watch how your thinker has thunk.

Just love everyone, even if they stink, stank, or stunk!

Although the Grinch was as charming as an eel

Cindy Lou learned about him, and the way he did feel

And she was surprised when she looked and had seen

that the Grinch, he was hurting.  That’s why he’s so mean!

So Cindy Lou Who, she knew just what to do:

She showed love to all, even the Grinch up there too!

When all others wouldn’t, she stood there alone.

And like her, we should show the love God has shown.

She nominated him to be Cheer-meister here,

and to sit on a throne called the Chair of Cheer!

Yes, she invited him to a nice occasion

To be Cheer-meister at the Whobilation!

She kept on inviting, despite his mean side

Even if no one helped her, she tried and she tried.

Like her, be persistent, and keep showing love

and tell others about Jesus, God’s gift from above.

No one is beyond hope.  That’s the lesson we learn.

God’s grace is for all.  It’s not something we earn!

The Grinch started changing, because of Cindy Lou,

who loved even a Grinch.  And yes, so should you!

 “Suppose I speak in the languages of human beings or of angels. If I don’t have love, I am only a loud gong or a noisy cymbal.  Suppose I have the gift of prophecy. Suppose I can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him. And suppose I have enough faith to move mountains. If I don’t have love, I am nothing at all.  Suppose I give everything I have to poor people. And suppose I give myself over to a difficult life so I can brag. If I don’t have love, I get nothing at all.  Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud.  It does not dishonor other people. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken.  It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up.” 

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 NIRV

"The cheer-meister is the one who deserves a back slap or a toast.  
And it goes to the soul at Christmas who needs it most."
 – The Book of Who

1.    Be a Cindy Lou Who. She knew just what to do!  
For she showed love to all, even Mr. Grinch too!   
When all others wouldn’t, she stood there alone.
Like her, we should show the love that God has shown!“It does not dishonor other people. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs.” 1 Corinthians 13:5 NIRV

2.    Don’t judge.  You should watch how your thinker has thunk.
Love everyone, even if they stink, stank, and stunk!
Cindy Lou was surprised when she looked and had seen
the Grinch, he was hurting.  That was why he was mean! “But here is what I tell you who are listening. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.” Luke 6:27 NIRV

3.    No one is beyond hope. That’s the lesson we learn.
God’s grace is for all.  It’s not something we earn!
The Grinch started changing, because of Cindy Lou.
She loved even a Grinch.  And yes, so should you too!
“He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, He wants all people to turn away from their sins.” 2 Peter 3:9 NIRV

MEMORY VERSE: 

 “Suppose I speak in the languages of human beings or of angels. If I don’t have love, I am only a loud gong or a noisy cymbal.” 1 Corinthian 13:1 NIRV