Thankful

First of all, take a look at some of Madison's grades lately.  Further down the list, they're still A's - she's doing pretty well in all her classes.  Science is the only one that she's been teetering on with the overall average, but recently she got back into A territory.  She's doing really well!

Madison and Daddy went out to get this CD for Mommy - it's the Monkees "Christmas Party."  Like the release before this one, it's actually pretty good!  It features some Davy Jones songs, and it was released before Peter Tork passed away, and has a some contributions from him as well.  It's just amazing that you can get new material from the Monkees, even fifty years after they first formed.  Sadly, this is probably the last thing they'll release, given that half the band members have passed away.  And that probably adds a bit to the appreciation of this release, a sentimental value that is only for those who are fans of the Monkees.  That being said, I've always liked the song "Snowfall," and there's a great version of that here, along with a good version of "Wonderful Christmastime."   Certain locations have the song "Riu Chiu" on the CD, which is another interesting song.  Anyway, we were obviously listening to this as we were going about our day today - and what were we doing? We were doing some Christmas shopping for Madison.  Plus, we were eating at Cracker Barrel, a Daddy and Mommy lunch date.  It was good - Daddy had some turkey, because hey, it's November.  But it was a pleasant stop, and a fairly productive day of shopping on top of that.  Madison has written her Christmas list, and since she reads this blog from time to time, I'm not going to say a thing more about that.

It was Veteran's Day today, so we had our poppies on, in remembrance of veterans who served our country, and who are still serving really.  It was a nice day, and a nice evening.  We had our piano class tonight, and when Madison and Daddy got back from that, it was time to decorate one last tree in the house:  Madison's tree.  She got straight to work on that, hanging her ornaments on the tree in her room.  It's a smaller tree, but it certainly illuminates the room at night.  It serves as a remarkable night light, but it's certainly a pleasant thing to have this time of year.  And now we have all four trees up and decorated - it's nice at night time, looking upon these trees, watching Christmas movies or listening to music.  We have over a hundred and fifty different Christmas CDs, and like our movie collection, it's impossible to get to them all.  Nevertheless, we try!

Tonight, we were reading from Narnia, and reading the devotional, reading about board games and a tie-in to the Bible.  Afterwards, we were praying again.  Ba-Ba is doing better - we have heard a string of good reports.  He is feeling better, and he can eat more.  The cancer is shrinking, and we're starting to feel a lot more hope than previous.  Things are going well there - this season, we have a lot to be thankful for!