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!