Now Here's December

Here we are, back in December!  It was quite a busy start to the month, as of course we had church and play practice on top of that.  Our amaryllis is blooming, which you can see above - and there's an unexpected bonus flower rising up as well, so when these four flowers are gone, there will be four more to look forward to just in time for Christmas.

Because it's December, there were two special visitors to the house that come this time each year.  This is a visitor that's been coming to our house since 2012, an elf named Jingle Bell.  He showed up under the Star Wars tree with a new LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar, and that will be exciting the next twenty-four days or so, because you never know what's going to happen with that elf.  Meanwhile, his friendly reindeer buddy also showed up.  Remember Snowflake?  Snowflake was somewhere else in the house this morning, also with a little present, although it wasn't for Madison.  Snowflake brought the gift of a Crunchie bar for Mommy!

All of this happened before church this morning, so as you can imagine we were in somewhat of a rush to get out the door and going.  Service itself went well, with a theme of Thanksgiving going on.  We got an idea for a game called "Traffic Yam," one that involves rolling yams across the stage in a relay race, but only using plastic forks to do so.  The message later on had to do with being thankful for things we often don't realize we should be thankful for.

Getting home, we didn't have as much time between services, so we got ourselves something to eat quickly there.  It's a blustery day outside, the wind roaring so loudly it was almost as if it were thunder.  At night, you can hear it coming a long way off, this rush of wind like an enormous tidal wave sweeping over the land.  It's quite an ominous thing to listen to, especially when coupled with the howling sounds that accompany it.  

Not at all worried about wind, but perhaps slightly concerned about fire, is another friend that came back for this Christmas season.

You can see a guard and a guard dog walking around in circles, protecting the Gävle Goat.  This majestic goat has survived two seasons without catching fire, and with a guard circling it this year, things seem to be making a turn for the better:  maybe he'll survive this third year in a row, and perhaps - perhaps - this is the moment where the goat not have anything to fear from this point on.  That may seem naive, of course.  We all know that right now, at this very moment, there are people in Sweden planning this goat's demise, and trying to outfox the video surveillance and guards.  We'll check in on the goat periodically, another one of our completely random December traditions.

We had soup for lunch, just the type of food you need on a cold and blustery day as this.  Afterwards, we were off to Christmas production practice, and there for the full time. Now that December is here, we're off in earnest!  We were before, but there's this subtle urgency to certain things, and still many pieces to put together.  It's coming along though, and Madison is doing very well with her blocking and lines.  She's got her lines memorized, of course.  All the kids are doing really well!

We got home afterwards, and we had enough time to watch a Christmas movie, so we watched "The Muppets Christmas Carol" tonight before bedtime.  I don't know why they don't have the extended version on Disney Plus yet, so we watched the DVD of that we had, because it's better.  Still, there's been quite a bit we've been watching on Disney Plus thus far, including a good many Christmas movies.

So here we are in December, and there are no excuses now!  It's time to get festive and jolly, because 'tis the season to do such things.  Hold on tight, because it goes by fast!