Ugly Sweaters and Practices

We had a long day today, one of a few that are going on lately - we've got another enormous day coming up on Tuesday.  But today was huge, starting early, and starting with church where we had our Ugly Christmas Sweater Day!  You can see a lot of the staff and volunteers below in a quick moment, although there were a lot of others wearing their ugly sweaters as well.

The service itself went really well, and of course had a Christmas theme to it.  Daddy had a skit all set up, one that involved Jovanna here rescued from being trapped along the railroad tracks.

That's when our hero arrived, and as always it was Nerdo.  He is always good for a lot of laughs on stage - the kids had a great time with videos, skits, worship and Christmas carols.  The message of the morning was "Believe," and it really got everyone focused on the reason for the season.

Mommy spent a lot of time between services, getting things ready for play practice with costuming and props, and Daddy went to get everyone something to eat.  At Burger King, Daddy had that "Impossible Whopper," a hamburger that doesn't have beef in it.  And in fact, it tastes a lot like their usual whopper.  I'm not sure if this is a ringing endorsement, or a criticism of their actual burgers... but the whole reason we were there was to get Madison onion rings.  She loves those now, which is a great new alternative.  Unfortunately, she doesn't like anything else there so much.  So Daddy went to Panera Bread next, to get some good food for Mommy, including that delicious autumn soup.  It's basically butternut squash soup, and of course Mommy makes it better. But it was good enough!

Play practice began around 4pm, and right away, we were at it and running through things on stage a few times.

It was such a long day.  Madison is doing well on stage, as are all the kids.  We went through things on the big stage a couple times, getting home a little later.

And afterwards, it was time to study for mid-terms.  Yeah:  those.  Tomorrow starts her midterm tests, and this adds a whole lot of flavor to the week:  practices and midterms.  Everyone was super tired tonight, so as you'd expect, no story time.  Just prayer, and a quick trip to dreamland.