Eve of the Season

Nana and Ye-Ye were over at the Botanical Gardens and visited our tree today, snapping this shot to share with us.  

Today was our second annual gingerbread house battle, something we filmed for the first time last year that was a whole lot of fun.  The contestants pick gingerbread kits and go to work on a theme, having about a half-hour to complete their house, but there are challenges along the way that include weapons, switching houses, and odd ingredients like Hillshire sausages.  Last year's battle was epic, and today's contest was just as fun - they'll be working on editing it.  I was filming for it again, but also doing a bunch of other work today with the Christmas production.  There's costuming, but there's also the animal walk-through, which I was with the handler today talking about.  And there's the videos being shot - I've got those narrator bits written.  Here's what the narrator will say at the intro for our production next week:

Since the beginning, through the countless centuries in darkness, all of creation waited eagerly with a growing hope ….for a Savior.

And throughout the ages, this hope could not dim, as men and women of God saw brief glimpses of the divine, their spirits lifted by an unrelenting expectation of something magnificent that was yet to come.

They wrote of a star that would come forth from Jacob, (Numbers 24:7), for unto us a child is born, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).  He shall be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), and his throne would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16).

And now, in a place least expected, hope has arrived.  Imagine the scene as the celestial curtain was pulled aside, with angels singing and radiant beams of God’s love cascading downward.  It is something more than anyone could ever hope, or even dream. The spectacular arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

It should be nice.  Oh, and speaking of nice, look what we got at the grocery store! 

Christmas ice cream!  The one on the right has a lot of coffee in it, and the one on the left has candy canes in it.  Both are quite tasty!  I have to go back and get the other candy cane flavored one for Mom, but tonight we sat watching "The Bishop's Wife" while enjoying a bowl of ice cream together.

It's the last day of November.  Soon, the Yule Lads will be coming.  I only started learning about these guys this year really, after listening to a podcast while walking.  Currently, I've been doing my treadmill exercises each morning while listening to podcasts about this or that, but lately, it's been all kinds of unusual Christmas background stories.  It's amazing all the history surrounding these Christmas traditions like wassailing, Yule logs, egg nog riots, and seven swans a-swimmin'.  How other countries celebrate is fascinating too, especially Iceland.  I knew about the Yule Cat and Jolabokaflod, but today I learned about the Yule Lads, and how each one has a different name and different mischievous personality.  Fun stuff, although from now on we'll have to be on the lookout for Gluggagægir, the Yule Lad who likes to peek into windows for things to steal.  I'd tell him not to do such a thing, but at the moment I have no idea how to actually pronounce his name.

One thing we'll have to do though is get Maddie some new clothing for Christmas, as that Yule Cat is lurking out there.  I'm surprised no one has made a movie about this yet, as it could be terrifying.  Speaking of which, Krampus is on the way soon - I think that's Monday.  He's a bit more mainstream now, given that there have been movies about him.  I'm not sure if there'll be a parade or not, given the state of this world, but we'll have to be on the lookout for that, because nothing says Christmas like a parade of a hundred hairy demon-faced monsters with cages to carry off children with.  Maddie, you'd best be practicing more of your taekwondo, because Krampus is coming to town!

And speaking of offbeat international traditions, the Gävle Goat is standing strong, and looking quite nice with all the snow on top of it.  We check in on the live-cam from time to time, as is our tradition this time of year.  No arsonists have attacked it in quite some time, which I don't think has anything to do with the wall of armaments surrounding it so much as perhaps the community saying, "Enough."  At least I think that's what is being said.  Basically, it's been a rough few years, and perhaps those who planned to do this goat harm were following proper quarantine guidelines at home.  You don't want to disobey World Health Organization guidelines while sneaking out and setting fire to a town's two-story tall Christmas goat.  Creating a blazing inferno and ruining Christmas for some folks is one thing, but not following CDC guidelines is probably taking things too far.

Anyway, it was a good day.  Tonight we read, and we prayed.  Mom worked hard through the night on costuming again.  Tomorrow is December, and that's where the rubber hits the road.  We'll try to hold on to this season as long as we can.  

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I heard something somewhere in the house.  I think the Yule Lad Hurðaskellir might be here a little early!

Approaching December

We watched "A Boy Called Christmas" tonight, this after we just heard a good review of the book of the same name on a podcast.  The movie was good, another new movie for the season that we've seen that we've enjoyed together.  We've seen quite a few new movies and specials this year, and a lot of them have been pretty fun.  Of course, given that the world is what it is, some - like this movie - have done what it can to completely disregard the actual meaning and origin of Christmas.  I mean, one character is named Christmas, and another says towards the end, "Let's name this day after you."  

And I'm like, "Are you intentionally trying to forget who Christmas is really named after, or are you just not that bright?"  The first five letters in Christmas sort of give away who the day was actually named after.  That's a little thing, but overall the movie was decent, and certainly well-made.  I'm not sure how the book is, but I've checked it out from the library - online.  You can do that now - check an online book out, and read it on your computer or device.  I might read that one next, as soon as I'm done with "Hogfather."

Anyway, today was a return to taekwondo for Maddie, and she was happy to be there.  It won't be long before she's testing again.  Nana and I were there again to observe, and chat with the other parents as always.

Maddie finished up her advent chain again for this year, links of green and red construction paper linked together, with numbers on each 1-25, and small candy canes too.  It's all part of that morning ritual in December:  find the elf, get the advent calendar prize, and take another link off the chain.  Prayers and a picture follow.  It all starts in two days!

Mom was up late working on costuming, while I was finalizing the December messages for our new series.  The messages are what they would have been if we had done "Humbug," but we just converted things to a Neverland theme, as that's the series we're already in right now.  I've gotten a nice storyline set up with Captain Hook getting three visitors showing him past, present, and future, and it should be a lot of fun!

I made this graphic up using clip-art I found online, and I think it should work for the hand-outs that have the sermons on them.  The hand-outs go in the chairs, showing the three points for each message, along with supporting scriptures and so forth.  It should be a great mini-series.  I wish I could have done a devotional for it, or some dramatically new messages, but the skits should be fun.  The devotional is going to be one related to "A Christmas Carol," and man, because of all these last-minute changes, that deadline was pretty tight.  I just approved the cover this morning for a booklet that will be in our hands on Friday.  

So today was a day back to school for Maddie, and a day where Mom and I were still working on Christmas.  We even did some online shopping.  Or, at least a little.  Much of our shopping was done earlier, and in fact packages should be arriving soon.  I hate to order so much online versus actually going to places, but this year leaves me little choice, and it would be so stressful trying to find this or that while out and about amongst a throng of other holiday shoppers.  I can still head out, but at least it will be more enjoyable.  Once this Christmas production is over on the twelfth, we can do a lot of things and enjoy the season more.  We'll still make time to fit in some other holiday traditions, but it's going to be a flurry of activity to begin with.

Anyway, we prayed tonight, and of course we read.  It's been a good day.

Heaven and Nature Sing

Everyone in Neverland got their Thanksgiving feast after all this morning, although the food was what you'd expect the Lost Boys to be eating:  imaginary.  And at the end, things went in a direction you'd expect for the Lost Boys:  an imaginary food fight.  Captain Hook was foiled again, and all was well, at least for the time being.  Next week, we move from a Thanksgiving story to a Christmas one.  Maddie and her friends on stage there have been having fun each week, and there's no sense in stopping that now, right?

 

So this afternoon we were off to the Botanical Gardens again, this time to decorate a tree that they set up for us.  Each year, they have a "Holiday Tree Trail," where certain people are invited to decorate their own Christmas tree with ornaments that celebrate nature, gardening, or the outdoors in general.  Mom has been making ornaments for quite some time, with a little help from Nana, and so we packed up all the ornaments and headed down to the gardens to decorate our tree.

You can see the different ornaments we put on the tree, a theme of cardinals.  We thought the red and the white would stand out more on tree with so much brown and green all around in the environment there.  The pine cones are from our back yard - Mom and Nana harvested those, and then painted them afterwards with a white frosting.  The smaller heart-shaped ornaments are decorated by Mom, each one with hand-drawn cardinals, holly leaves, pine tree leaves, and small messages.  

The whole family was on hand to decorate.  You can see Maddie here, lending a hand at one point.  We had a little over an hour to get everything in place, as we went after church today.  But we didn't feel that rushed.  It's not a large tree, not like the ones we have at our house.

"Cardinals appear when angels are near."  Mom was really drawn to the idea of Cardinals, and of course as we were leaving afterwards, sure enough, a cardinal flew right up to us.

We had wanted to try this one, just as we wanted to try a scarecrow in October, and way back then we were thinking up a theme.  It didn't take Mom long to arrive at this idea.  In fact, she's already got an idea for next year that involves tiny birdhouses.

You can see the top here, with the black-and-white checkered ribbons, white branches and poinsettia.  We've put up a lot of trees this year, haven't we?  We've still got one more to go in Maddie's room, actually.  

The afternoon was perfect for this.  You can see another tree off to the right in this picture above, one already decorated.  We found a nice location, and saw a few visitors to the gardens as we were decorating. There were about four or five groups walking through over the hour or so we were there, but for the most part it was a very quiet, very pleasant afternoon.

While we were finishing up, Maddie had a seat on one of the benches there, texting of course, but also just relaxing.  It's a nice place there.

Ultimately, we finished up with about a half-hour to go until the gardens closed on Sunday afternoon.  There are other trees along the path, about two undecorated, but the decorating was scheduled to take place today and tomorrow, so those who reserved trees like us can come in tomorrow as well.  However, most of them were already decorated when we arrived, as it was first come, first serve on the which particular tree to choose.  Sunday is a busy day for us in the morning, so we were fine coming by in the afternoon, and in fact, we found a very nice tree is a pretty good location.

We debated a tree base, but we thought it was okay without any kind of tree skirt.  The rest on the bottom sort of enhances the rest of the tree, actually.

"Let your heart be light."  That's a message we can all use this year for certain.  Much was made of 2020 being a terrible year and so forth, but this one clearly has been tougher.

Maddie was all smiles this afternoon.  It's a busy day today for her, as right after this, we were off to the church for the final FCY of November.  We actually dropped her off on the way home - she had a great night as always, while we were at home watching a few Christmas movies, including "A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong," which was hysterical.

This is fourth tree decorated this season, and we've got one more in Maddie's room.  Time is tight on that, so it might have to wait until next weekend.  We've got a lot going on, but a lot of the things scheduled are going to be things like this, some nice chances to get out of the house and do a few things that we can do with Nana.

Mom's been working on these ornaments with Nana sometimes helping, and she's been doing this since October or so, squeezing in some creating in between working on costuming for the Christmas production and looking after Nana.  That in itself has become a full-time job.

But in the end, this has come out so well.  It's a gorgeous tree!  She did such a great job.  We helped hang things, and even helped here or there elsewhere, but most of this was certainly Mom's efforts rewarded.  What makes it even greater was that this was a chance for the whole family to spend time together doing something like this while out.

One more shot of the tree.  We'll take pictures of the other trees when we go back to visit, but we wanted to make sure we got pictures of our tree here before we left, and the weather is supposed to be clear the next week or so, which will be good news.

As mentioned earlier, Maddie had her youth service tonight, and we were at home watching a few things.  We picked up Maddie and got home, and yeah, we had to get to bed early tonight.  School returns tomorrow, and things are building momentum for this Christmas production we're working on.  We still read from our book though - it's a long one, by the way, over six hundred pages long.  But Maddie is hooked, and we're moving through it pretty quickly considering.  We said our prayers tonight, and after that, it was time for some sleep, except for Mom, who's been up so incredibly late recently, putting together costumes for Wise Men, Shepherds, Mary, and Joseph.

Porch Decorations

It's a process putting these decorations out, a gradual thing as there are so many.  But when it's all in place, the house looks very nice.

It was a day off again.  We did a quick trip over to Kinsey Farms, not to get a Christmas tree, but to just soak in the atmosphere.  Christmas trees are tied to roofs of cars and SUVs all around, and many of them are coming from this farm about three miles from our house.  The pine smell is just wonderful, and it's nice with the lights and the fire pit and roasting marshmallows.  There are farm animals there, although we went when it was later and darker.  We'll return when things are brighter and we can say hello to all the animals there.

Mom was working on costuming quite a bit today.  There wasn't any taekwondo or Team Edge practice today, so it was a more relaxed day.  We got some things done, including some assembling for tomorrow's Neverland service.  We had Christmas movies and music playing all day long it seems, with "The Santa Clause 3," on tonight.

Maddie was watching "Newsies" again this afternoon though.  She's loving that production, and all the music in it too.  I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to dress as a Newsie next Halloween.  Or maybe not.  But she does love that musical.

At one point we were out shopping for some basic items, and some of the lights that you see above, but the shelves were pretty empty when we were looking for certain items, like Maddie's favorite pizza, Christmas lights, or certain flavors of ice cream.  It's more than that, of course.  There are many shelves that are emptier than usual.  Additionally, the gas prices are still a lot higher, and there's a general feeling that our economy is not heading in the right direction.  Hopefully we can collectively right this, but this season is undiscovered country for many of us, a world that reminds the older folks of the 1970's.  Hopefully this too will pass, but right now it seems as if we're collectively struggling.  There are all kinds of bad news stories with crimes, with riots, with troubles.  We're praying that God will heal our land.

Anyway, we got to bed tonight earlier because we have a big day tomorrow.  We've got church in the morning and evening, and an extra destination in between that should be fun.  We said our prayers, and we read tonight again from our adventures with the Kingdom Keepers.  The story is moving along so well that Maddie is insistent that we can't just read one chapter each night.  The Overtakers have to be stopped!

Afterlife

It was Black Friday, but we didn't do any early rising in this house, nor did we race out the door to do battle against other shoppers, armed with coupons and Christmas lists, ready for the thrill frenzied skirmishes on the battlefield of shopping centers and malls.  The very idea of all that sounds very stressful and so unnecessary.  In fact, I've already blissfully ordered quite a bit online, with the hope that eventually I can head out to some smaller stores this season and just meander about, enjoying the atmosphere or even picking up an item or two. 

That's not to say that we didn't head out the door today.  No, we actually saw a wooing of the latest Ghostbusters movie at a theater in Dawsonville, which is apparently going to be our new theater from this point on, as our favorite theater in Cumming is no longer open.  Blame the pandemic for that one, the forced closures and so on.  It was a good theater, one we were taking Maddie to for her entire life.  It was sold and is now serving some other function.  This newer theater is actually a little more pricy, but it's also a nicer theater really.  We found our seats in the back, but shortly after the theater had plenty of people in there to see the 12:45 showing of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife."

We really liked this movie.  It was a different movie from the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, of course.  And they're both good movies.  This one, however, was a direct sequel to the 1980's movies, whereas the 2016 was not.  I think we as fans were wanting a continuation of the story all along, and this movie was just that, dripping with nostalgia, while having a great storyline that passes the torch from one generation to the next.  It was so great to see Ray, Peter, Winston, and even Egon back together again.  With the passing of one of the actors, how they dealt with that was touching and just perfect for fans of the franchise like myself. 

We stopped by the thrift store afterwards, where Mom found a lot of good material for the Wise Men costuming she's been working on.  Can't wait to show off some of those costumes.  Tonight, we had leftovers for dinner, but I love leftover Thanksgiving meals.  We've had turkey all week long, starting with Tuesday's office Thanksgiving, and then leftovers from that, and then Thursday's actual Thanksgiving meal, and then today too.  And I could eat it tomorrow if there's anything left - I love Thanksgiving food!

The tree is lit, and tomorrow we'll have some new decorations out front.  Our house will look very nice and seasonal with the two trees visible through the windows.  Many other houses in the neighborhood have their decorations and lights up too, and it's just a pleasant drive going through with some Christmas music playing. 

There was a fire in the fireplace and some Christmas movies playing tonight as well.  With egg nog too.  Mom has an infuser with a orange and spice fragrance that smells really nice, and with the lit tree and the crackling of the fire in the fireplace, Mom has made a nice place for us.

We read tonight, still marching along with book seven.  And we said our prayers tonight before bed.  It was a decent day today.  We had a few challenges with the home dynamics, just like we typically do.  Sometimes there's frustration and a general sense of hopelessness, but the week is all about finding those things to be thankful for, and that being said, there is certainly a lot to be thankful for this year.

Thanksgiving 2021

This morning we had put out a feast in the front yard for all our wildlife friends who came to visit, and you can see below one visitor who got a mouthful!

 We even put out a plate for the cat, who was chowing down on an early Thanksgiving feast while the rest of us watched on, or at least were slowly rising for a new day.  There was no super early rising today, as sometimes happens on Thanksgiving due to the turkey's schedule.  This is because we had no turkey to cook or any food to prepare, really.  

So instead, we actually sat down and watched the parade in its entirety on this television here in the living room, this while enjoying tea and other small snacks.  Nana and Mom even had time to watch the annual dog show that comes on the television right after the parade.  It was a quiet, relaxing Thanksgiving, and the weather was perfect outside too.  It was quiet outside, and we were quite content watching parade floats, marching bands and ginormous balloons.  Of course there was a Grogu one floating by, and that got everyone's attention.  One fun fact about getting older:  you have no idea who any of these celebrities are on these parade floats.  That might be an exaggeration, of course.  I knew about two out of every ten, maybe?  Regardless, it was all very nice, and it was great to see everyone back with all that energy.  And of course it was great to see Santa at the end, just like always.

At around 2pm, we went over to Nana and Ye-Ye's house, and that's when we got down to the business of a big Thanksgiving dinner.  They had a huge feast set out for us and my sister's family.  We got there, sitting and socializing, and then on to the big meal at the table.  It was good to see the whole family again, and it really was a nice time together.  There were all the traditional things about Thanksgiving, including of course the turkey.  There was a bowl of dressing, along with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, a vegetable plate, rolls and good gravy!  And hot sauce.  Yes, with Maddie at the table, there's got to be hot sauce as well.  She still has a very particular palate.  You can see that one fifteen-year-old at the first Thanksgiving meal, a young pilgrim sitting across from a few of her Indian neighbors, the three of them pouring a whole bunch of tabasco sauce on their plates to spice up Thanksgiving dinner.  Ever since then, it's been a holiday tradition, right?

One tradition I'm glad is still around is egg nog.  I need to have it lactose free, but there's a pretty good brand out there, and I got to sample it today as well.  There was a pomegranate drink, and we all had a really good appetite for conversation.  We have much to be thankful for.  I know I certainly do.

We got home and the rest of the day was for chilling out at the house.  We watched "Santa Clause 2" tonight - it's exactly one month until Christmas now.  Tomorrow everyone has off, and tomorrow we'll be sleeping in and maybe going out to see a movie.  No shopping for us, as we don't enjoy getting caught up in that chaos.  I certainly don't need any more stress this year.

Going to bed tonight, we continued reading, and we prayed again before going to bed.  We have so much to be thankful for, starting with this day, a really pleasant Thanksgiving.

Hawkeye

Thanksgiving Eve is here and we spent much of the day at work.  Mom did some last-minute shopping today, dropping off Christmas cards at the post office, and picking up last minute groceries amongst the throng of fellow shoppers.  I was at work, working on a few things related to booklets and Christmas productions, while Mom was also putting together these magnificent Wise Men costumes that she was working late into the night to complete.  With certain family members in the house all the time now, she's unable to actually do any work on costuming until after her mom has gone to bed.  So Mom is up pretty late every night lately, deep into the early hours working on costumes that we can look at first thing each morning.  We put together some rolling racks that Mom is using now, hanging her new creations on them. Tonight she was putting together these shepherd costumes that are unique and should be really fantastic at the Christmas production.

Tonight's holiday programming was a bit different, because tonight was the premiere of the new show, "Hawkeye," which debuted with two episodes that we watched back-to-back.  It's a holiday-themed series, and the first two episodes were fantastic.  We love Hawkeye just as much as the other Avengers, and are delighted to see him get his own series, just as we were excited to see Black Widow get her own movie this past summer.  It'll be great to watch this as the season moves on, along with the zillions of other holiday movies and specials we typically watch.  We just found out about another live production next week, "Annie," which we've enjoyed over the years too.

Maddie and I played a few games tonight, "Battlefront II" and even a round of "Gaucamele," which we might be having to go ahead and buy, because it was pretty fun.  

Just a quick update - our President has in fact pardoned a few grateful turkeys this year, two named Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Despite changes in government and all tumultuous events of late, there are still some constants that I'm glad stay in place.  The whole pardoning ceremony is one of those things that's just a nice little tradition.

Tonight Maddie also had her small group session with Camille and the other girls.  It's National Jukebox Day, so they played a trivia game using jukeboxes, one where they had to pick which Christmas song a particular lyric came from.  Given that it's Thanksgiving Eve, they were talking about gratitude and being thankful.  There's a lot to be thankful for this year.

We read tonight, a little later.  We can sleep in tomorrow.  But we read a rather sad chapter tonight, one featuring the death of a major character these past seven books.  The book is only halfway through or so, which means we have a long ways to go.  We said our prayers, and Mom got to work on some shepherd costumes for a bit, while I was pretty sleepy already.  We'll have to see those shepherd costumes in the morning!

Eleventh Annual KidPak Office Thanksgiving

Our Eleventh Annual KidPak Office Thanksgiving was today, and as you can see here, everyone was all smiles!  We had a great afternoon together, a tradition we've kept going for a decade now at KidPak.  Josh and I were remembering how it started out with him talking about doing something like this, and so he determined to bring in a turkey, and then others brought other items, and the next thing you know we had a really pleasant meal together just before Thanksgiving.  This year we had a lot more people show up, just like always, and there was plenty of food brought too.  I was last in the line, and there was still enough of everything by the time I got through the line.  Such variety of food!  Darren Quick always brings something unique, like the eel sliders last year or the Spam casserole before that.  This year, it was a roadkill surprise, which you'll see in a picture below.

     We had nice music playing in the background and got into a circle beforehand where we prayed over our meal and gave thanks for just this time together and so much more.  And then it was time to dig in and eat.  It was just a really pleasant time together this afternoon, and I was happy we could do it this week when Maddie had off of school and be there with us.  Here below you can see some of the pictures taken of this afternoon's KidPak Office Thanksgiving:

We were working today after this, working towards the Christmas production.  And tonight we watched "The Santa Clause" before bedtime, where we read from Kingdom Keepers and said our prayers.  It was a busy day, but the highlight was clearly a very nice and memorable KidPak Office Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Cookies

We spent a little bit of time late this afternoon making some Thanksgiving cookies!  We had some Christmas movies on while we were at the table decorating some turkey-shaped cookies, plus a few oak leaves and pumpkins as well.  

The one tradition is a obstinate looking cookie like this pumpkin above.  But we invest a good amount of time putting out the sprinkles and creating artistic masterpieces!

It was a day to make things merry and bright.  We were putting out our Nativity sets, and that takes a pretty good amount of time setting up the various locations and pieces.  There's a government building where the census is announced, plus a temple with a high priest.  There's a tent set up for the traveling Wise Men, plus a shepherd's home and a carpenter's shop.  And yes, the stable area for the Nativity scene too.  There are bridges, arched walls, wells, animals, shepherds, Romans soldiers, villagers, Wise Men, and there's Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as well.  It's an expansive empire, one we got at K-Mart so long ago.  I remember always wanting a larger Nativity set, and this one is a nice one that's been with us so long that it feels nostalgic bringing it back year after year.

We had frost on the ground this morning - the temperature is dropping as if winter is coming soon or something.  We have a fire in the fireplace, and it's so picturesque with the Christmas tree, Nutcrackers, and a nice Christmas movie on the television screen there.  We were watching "The Grinch" tonight - we've got so many classics to watch, but this year there seems to be plenty of new Christmas movies and specials to watch as well.

We had a great day today, getting lots done for costuming and some work on a new booklet for KidPak in December.  We closed out the day with reading, and with prayers too.  It was a good day today, a festive day spent decking the halls.