Mr. and Mrs. Beaver

 Mom did a fantastic job giving some outfits to Mr. and Mrs. Beaver!  You can see them above, two of the stars of our upcoming adventure in Narnia, which looks like it will be starting in January now, although the series starts at the beginning of December.  We'll go through two weeks of messages for the first two books, and then start things up for a five-week run in January.  It should be a lot of fun, although we've got a lot of work to do in that regard with writing and so on.  And until then, there are the other December productions to work on.

It's cold outside, which makes sense.  It's the last day of November, and that sort of thing tends to happen. There was youth tonight, although I didn't go myself.  I do step in to talk with friends and other workers there, but I need to get back to Mom and Nana, because Nana often needs entertaining.  We're going through all of our Christmas movies, but with this huge library of Hallmark Christmas ones around, we're also checking out some of those as well.  Maddie enjoyed youth tonight, of course, hanging around with her friends there and as always enjoying all the aspects of service.  Except, perhaps, for the pizza.  That's getting boring for her!

We read tonight, and we said our prayers too.  Tomorrow things really get going, as it is December 1st.  That means you-know-who is back, along with all kinds of other Christmas surprises!

This is Toss Across!

 

"This is Toss Across!"  This one scene - this obscure quote from a Christmas sequel movie - has been said by us so many times over the years.  We have a small super fan club within KidPak, and it's such that when it came time for this year's KPTV online game, the one we would film, the first thing that was blurted out - and in this guy's voice above - was "This is Toss Across!"  

And so it came to pass that I had to get a copy of the game for KidPak.  Instead of X's and O's, we made candy canes and Christmas trees, and we filmed something pretty short this afternoon, completely embracing it.  We'll show the video in a few weeks, closer to Christmas, but I'm looking forward to the game, and the cutaways where we hear a teacher named John Pierce exclaim with such intensity, "This is Toss Across!"  And of course, there may be some that don't get it, at which point we'll play the other quote, "It's just tic-tac-toe with bean bags."  Should be fun.

We fixed up a few ornaments today, so now they're all hanging on the tree - Indiana Jones lost a foot somehow, but some good glue got that all together.  Speaking of which, there is a new trailer for the last Indiana Jones movie, and I'll be on line to see it.  Like many others, I'm a pretty huge fan, so Indy has a good place on the Christmas tree this year, ready to whip up adventure where he can.  

It was cold today.  Which is what it's supposed to be, but nevertheless it has come as somewhat of a shock to us.  I was proofing a lot of Narnia stuff, still racing to get this all lined up for the weekend's service, which I'm starting to feel a little better about.  Mom is making costumes, or at least putting pieces together.  We'll have a faun, a wigglemarsh, and a Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.  This weekend though, we'll do a simple skit that highlights the Father Christmas from Narnia.  There's just so much going on that the Narnia skits and on stage stories will have to wait until January.  The first message in December will feature Father Christmas and a focus on "The Magician's Nephew," and the second message will have a lot of clips from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."  It's going to be good!

We have rain, and thunder too.  The storms are worse elsewhere, but we're definitely getting a good bit of precipitation to help with this overall draught.  Outside the birds are flocking to our deck.  Mrs. Bluebird is relentless with her pecking at the window and her reflection, despite our best efforts to shoo her away.  Mr. Robin is a jerk, acting like a territorial hummingbird on the feeders, not sharing and just acting like a bully that no one likes.  We've had a rufous sided towhee, sparrows galore, bluebirds, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches, and many a tufted titmouse.   Is the plural tufted titmice?

The first part of the school year is winding down.  Maddie is getting ready to work with clay in art, and make her own mug.  We've had the Christmas music playing throughout the day, and if there was one word to describe Nana these days, it would be "incessant."  Lots of muttering, sighing, wandering, complaining, and so on.  It's been tough to snap her out of it.  You really have to invest a lot of time and energy solely on her, sort of like an infant?  Otherwise things don't go well.  Mom is doing her best.  

Tonight we read, this after Maddie did her homework.  We said our prayers, and it was easy to get some sleep tonight.  We were all pretty zonked, and it was nice and warm under those covers! 

Classroom Elves and Wise Men

 

So one quiet little prayer of mine this year was to be a Wise Man in the upcoming production.  We've had the roles filled for over a year, of course, and the idea was that the same exact Wise Men would return to their roles from last year.  I was still in the cast, but most likely returning as a shepherd.  But something happened recently, and it's a little thing, but it's still a neat one:  one of our Wise Men couldn't be in the production due to his work schedule, and it just so happened that he was the Wise Man that wore an outfit that pretty much fit me.  So it came to pass that I threw it out there:  I could in fact be the Wise Man, right?  And yes, it was good.  I've been growing more of a beard than I've ever grown in the past, and I think it will be even more so by the production so that I'll have the aged Wise Man look down pretty good.  And Mom had me try on the costume today, so it looks pretty good!  I get to be a Wise Man!

Maddie had a fun day at school.  You can see above that she's shared some pictures of an elf or two in her classroom, peeking from the ceiling.  I forgot their names already, but she knows them - they're watching over all the students in the upcoming month, of course.  Hopefully everyone will behave, otherwise these cute little mischievous elves will follow the kids home and do despicable things to them in their sleep.  Or not.  That might be Krampus I'm thinking of.

Speaking of Krampus, I'm sure he's getting read for his yearly trek through the Alpine regions looking for naughty children.  No naughty ones in Sweden yet, where the Gavle Goat is still standing strong, looking quite nice on this new camera.  I can't wait for the first snowfall, as this imagery is so clear and actually pretty scenic.  Makes me want to go to Sweden.  At least for the candy fish.  And meatballs.

It was a quiet day today, just one of the last few of November where it is officially Christmas season, at least to those who subscribe to the theory that Christmas season starts right as soon as Santa appears at the end of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.  To us, Christmas season starts pretty much November 1st.  If it weren't for Halloween there, we might even start sooner!

We read tonight, a book that maybe combines a bit of the two holidays with DEATH stepping up to fill in for the Hogfather in order to save the holidays on Discworld.  It's been fun to read about these characters again.  Afterwards, we said our prayers and got to sleep.  Soon Maddie will want to get up earlier, as we've got all kinds of December fun planned.  It'll be here soon!

Darth Pilgrim

 

It is a little known historical fact that amongst the 101 passengers aboard the Mayflower was a Sith Lord known as Darth Pilgrim.  Upon arriving at Plymouth Rock, he announced, "Impressive. Most impressive."   This will be a day long remembered!"

You can see above some of the cast from this morning's finale of "The Voyage," our Thanksgiving-themed series.  We were rehearsing and practicing a little and the adults looked over to stage left to see the younger cast members lounging on the set.  It made for a fun picture!

We had a super solid morning, a great one to wrap up this really fun series.  The cast did wonderfully, and the message was a great one too!

Getting home, Mom had a great spaghetti meal for us, and after that it was time to do some more decorating.  I got the entire Nativity set up in the piano room, and it looks great as always.  We got this set back in the 90's at K-Mart, back when the Fontanini sets were a big deal, these huge elaborate empires with all the characters of the Nativity story.  We weren't really in a place where we could afford all that, but then along came this close-out sale at K-Mart where they were dropping the prices.  So now we have a census building, a carpenter's shop, a stable, a shepherd's home, a temple, a Wise Men tent, some ruins, a chariot, all kinds of animals, plants, palm trees, shepherds, Wise Men, villagers, Roman soldiers, a priest, angels, and of course the Holy Family.  It's our own little empire!  I remember getting this at the Super K-Mart, back when those existed, and thinking on the whole it wasn't too far off from the super fancy ones, and literally hundreds of dollars cheaper.  We've had this set for over twenty years now, and looking it up online, it's not worth that much if we sold it, at least I don't think it is.  But we love it nevertheless, and it's got a lot of sentimental value.

We saw a few Christmas movies, and had some egg nog and delicious Christmas desserts too tonight.  But Maddie did have to get to bed early - so there is bedtime earlier because of school.  Prayers and reading, and after that, a good night's rest!

Decking those Halls

November is drawing to a close, and we've got a few good holiday traditions under our belt, and of course some new ones.  Maddie and I have been reading "Hogfather" lately, and we've gotten into the book just enough that DEATH itself has taken it upon himself to save the holiday season by dressing up as the Hogfather, which of course is the Discworld's version of Santa Claus.

It makes for some pretty fun moments thus far, as along for the ride is Albert, a cranky old guy helping out DEATH, all dressed up as an elf.  And DEATH's granddaughter Susan is there too, trying to unravel the mystery of what is going on.  I'm not sure how many of these Discworld books we'll get around to read, but Maddie - like millions of other fans of Terry Pratchett's work - seems to be liking them.

An old tradition of ours is to check in on the Gävle Goat, which has a new live feed camera to watch it this year.  It looks perfectly clear, and that may be a terrible temptation for potential arsonists.  It also may offer a very clear view of said arsonists, so we'll see how it goes.  But for now, we're happy to check in with the Swedes from time to time, and we plan to watch the upcoming inauguration celebration, which usually includes all kinds of festivities, and popular Christmas classics sung entirely in Swedish.  It's going to be fun!

We got the final touches on the Christmas ornaments today, adding icicles to the tree, which make it glimmer and add a continuity throughout.  The tree looks marvelous.  We had Christmas movies playing today, of course, and I was out there afterwards for a good bit today, blowing all those leaves off the front yard.  It took a long while, as there are so many.  The back yard will come next, but unexpectedly, it rained tonight, stalling my next outing there.  Fortunately, the rain came after all the leaves were blown, so that was a good thing.

Anyway, we continued decking the halls today, pulling out the official Santa pictures with Maddie.  Those will go up on the bookshelves with the other items that Mom will use to decorate.  We had some Christmas vinyl records playing throughout the day, some of our new ones.  Love the Partridge Family one.  Neither one of us is a huge fan of the Bobby Sherman one.  

Maddie was out for a few hours with my mother, the two of them doing a lot of Christmas shopping, this day after Black Friday.  It was busy, but they had a good time, and Maddie loves what she's picked up.  She was showing off new clothes, new shoes, new plush friends, and other items too.  We may have to wrap these and have her open them later on, but she loves them already.  The two went to eat at Texas Roadhouse where it was a little busy today, but she had a great time.

Our holiday amaryllis is really growing lately, launching upward with the red bloom starting to peek out already.  It's not even December yet!  Last year's bloomed a little late, but this one seems to be ready to bloom a lot earlier!

Tonight's programming was a Sight & Sound production of "Joseph," which of course tells the story of the Joseph found in the book of Genesis.  It was a free program this weekend, so we took advantage of that, and enjoyed it together.  

We had fire in the fireplace for most of the day, as it was a cold and wet sort of day.  Of course, it makes the Christmas atmosphere nice though, with the tree all lit up, and everyone's hearts all aglow.  

We made the finishing touches on the last KidPak skit for "The Voyage" tomorrow, and I'm pretty proud of it.  We've got a good cast with us and although things are busy this weekend for folks on vacation and all the other things that go on during Thanksgiving weekend, we'll still have a big cast coming, and a great morning.  We said our prayers tonight after reading, and we got to bed a little bit earlier.  Got to get up earlier tomorrow!

Ginger House Building Party

We had another night off, so why not build a gingerbread house?

Maddie spontaneously invited a friend over for a night of gingerbread creation, and this of course is something she has many years of experience doing!  She and Ginger made some gingerbread houses, decorating them and this time using actual sugar to hold the seams and edges together, which was slightly challenging. 

They did a great job though, and they even created two other mini-gingerbread houses too, slathering on the sweets and sugar, and of course sampling a bit of everything they could along the way!

It was a fun time!  There was Christmas music playing and the trees were all decorated and lit up for a nice little festive evening together.  

This probably won't be the last time she makes a gingerbread house, but this was a whole lot of fun!

 

We had a decent day today.  It was Black Friday, so we were determined to stay away from the shoppers rushing home with their treasures.  But later on, Nana was in such a state that I took her out to do some grocery shopping, inventing reasons to go out and things to do.  While we were away, Maddie was able to have a great time, of course.

We got the Christmas wreaths up on the outside of the house, one of those processes that is completely unenjoyable in every way - except the finished product.  The windows we have are just not that great at opening or shutting.  Anyway, the end product looks great.  We even put the small trees in the front, and with the piano tree and the Star Wars tree all lit up and visible from the front, the house is looking pretty good so far!

While at the grocery store, we even got some more of those little pine-scented sticks that are designed to hang from a bough inside the artificial tree to give it a pine smell.  We've got just a hint of pine in the rooms, especially with Mom's scented Christmas soap. 

We did watch a few movies tonight, Christmas ones of course.  But we're not out and about so much today.  No Thanksgiving weekend movies this year, as there really isn't much out there to see.

At the end of it all, we read from our book, and we said our prayers too.  It was a good day today.

Maddie's pov:

So basically, I did nothing for most of the day. For like 3 hours, I played "A World of Keflings", which is a game that I used to play a lot.

Around 7 pm, my friend Ginger came to my house so we could make a gingerbread house together. We both made one small one ourselves before we decorated the big main one. I decorated one half of the house and Ginger did the other half. We were talking and all. It was really chill.

Thanksgiving 2022

This was a great Thanksgiving!  You can see above the gathering of the family - Aunt Shain is taking the picture, so she's not in this group shot.  But there we are at the table all together, just before diving in for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.  The turkey was just right and all the food was as it should be - different stuffings, potatoes, cranberry sauce, potatoes, peas, gravy, rolls, and those Brussel sprouts that I avoid so fervently.  We enjoyed sitting around the table, talking and catching up and just relaxing with one another.  It was a perfect Thanksgiving meal, company included.  There was much laughter, and much eating too - when the desserts came out, it was hard to resist the pumpkin pie, apple pie, chocolate cake and so much more.  The house was warm and decorated nicely with some holiday music playing, and it was just one of those occasions where you didn't want to leave.  It was good to be together, all of us.  It's getting increasingly difficult with competing schedules and so forth, but a mandatory holiday is always a welcome break in the routine.

This morning we rose a little later, but still with plenty of time to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade up in New York.  The weather was perfect, and it was nice to see all the floats and marching bands, and all the Broadway performances too.  I was putting some of the finishing touches on the Christmas tree in the main room while we were watching the parade this morning, plus Mom was getting some food ready to bring over for Thanksgiving too. 

It was a nice day!  We got home and watched a few Christmas movies tonight and enjoyed the rest of the day together, doing a bit of decorating and relaxing.  At bedtime, it was time for prayers and of course reading.  It was a nice Thanksgiving together.

Game Day

This summer, Mom had been working on these birdhouses she ordered online.  She painted them and put little wreathes on them, and got them all ready because today was the day.  We packed everything up and headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in Gainesville in order to decorate an outdoor Christmas tree!

The weather was warm outside, and we picked a location along the trail that was pretty close to where we decorated a tree last year.  Together, we unpacked the ornaments and got to work right away.  

The end result was really nice!  We had the cardinals from last year, and Mom had spent some time painting those Sweetgum seed pods, and adding them to the decorations.  Finally, all the ingredients were ready, and after decorating for a bit, we finished our tree. 

We were pretty happy with it, and happy where it is located.  Afterwards, we toured around to see some of the other trees that had been decorated.

Not all of them are there yet - originally the invitation told us to arrive Friday and Saturday.  However, we got a note today that said to come by even today.  And we jumped right on that.

Maddie had some friends at the house, which you'll see about momentarily, and after that it was time to catch up on some of our continuing television shows.  After that, some reading.  We're diving into the book, "Hogfather," a holiday themed visit with the Discworld.

And after that, sleep, certainly.  It was a good day!

Maddie’s pov:

Today I had some friends over, but before that, I was trying to make a Christmas countdown chain while my parents and nana were at the botanical gardens. I made the chain, I just didn’t have the candy canes taped to them yet.

At around 2 pm, Maddie G came. We talked a little bit then stared to play life but pirates of the Caribbean version. I was playing random songs from different playlists. After about 38 minutes after 2, Nevaeh came and played headbands, Exploding Kittens, Uno, and Mystery Date (last one was just with Nevaeh). We had tacos around 3:45. It was a really fun day.

Mary and Joseph

We had to film Mary and Joseph today, just a few shots of them together for the upcoming Christmas production.  That sort of messed around with our schedule today, but we got together and got it done, and got the costumes fitted, and even got Mary's other outfit together today too, so there was some accomplishments.  Maddie was off of school, so she came along, watching a bit of the filming in the main sanctuary before heading downstairs to visit with our friends on staff.

She has a new phone number now.  This was one of the struggles of the day, although the new phone service seems to be pretty decent and even affordable.  Her previous phone service was taken care of by my parents for so long as a gift, so I had to do a bit of research with Mom this morning and by the end of the day we had come to a decision about it all.  The complete confusion about the previous arrangement still had some hurdles we had to jump, and in fact it won't be until tomorrow that things get started for her, but at least it's done and we feel better about that.

I've been working together this "Narnia" sermon booklet all together by a deadline, so that took up a bit of today.   But you know something?  It was good to take a break and do something for Christmas prep.  I've got the living room Christmas tree up and fluffed, and that's a time-consuming process of course.  Fluffing an artificial tree?  It takes a good long time to get that thing looking more natural, having been covered up in the basement all this time.  But it's good, and there's lights on it too.  Next comes the ornaments, and that'll take a while.  But it's going to be so much fun bringing out those ornaments again, seeing them for the first time in so long, remembering where, when and why we got each one.  There are so many memories associated with some of these.

We saw "Scrooged" tonight, and that's the first time in many, many years.  The Bill Murray Christmas movie I remember seeing in theaters was on a streaming service, so we thought we'd revisit it tonight.  It was still fun, though there was more language in it than we'd like.  We've been watching some different Christmas movies this year - there are so many out there, of course including the Hallmark ones that we've been going through.  But this week it's also time to pause for a few Thanksgiving specials, right?

Tonight we started a new book, "Hogfather," as Maddie said she's like to hear another Discworld book.  Why not do the holiday-themed one?  We read for a bit, we said our prayers, and got to sleep a little later tonight.  That's okay, as everyone gets to sleep in tomorrow.

Surprise Birthday Party

Maddie had a birthday party to attend, and you'll read about that below.  It was a lot of fun with go-karts, laser tag, and all kinds of gaming action.  We dropped her off at a place called Andretti's, but we actually decided to stay because it was there that we saw an area set up for a game called duckpin bowling.  I've never heard of this before, but Mom knew exactly what it was - it's a variation of a bowling game where the pins are smaller, and the ball is about half the size.  You get three chances to knock all ten pins down, and strikes are pretty rare.  Spares are tough too!  I know this, because we spontaneously got some bowling shoes on and tried it out.  Mom wound up winning 83 to my 80.  Nana was playing too - we had the bumpers up for her, and she came in with a respectable 65 or so.  It was never that close - Mom was way ahead of us, and the only reason I got closer was because of a spare I threw at the end.  It's frustrating in ways because it's not bowling, and if you just accept the fact that things are not going to all fall down if you send the ball down the middle, you'll be alright.  Anyway, that was fun and then after that the three of us went over to the Texas Roadhouse in Buford, enjoying a pretty good meal with a gift card that I just recently was given (it was given to me for helping out at school with the rock collection).  

We got home pretty late.  We read tonight, and after that we were saying our prayers and going to bed.  It was a fun night though, as you'll hear now from Maddie as she writes about her evening at Andretti's.

Maddie’s pov:

So today was Ginger’s surprise birthday party. It was at Andretti’s. When I got there, I didn’t really know anyone, but I saw this one girl that I recognized from school named Alondra, and she recognized me, so we started talking to each other. Stephanie came and so did Alexandra. We were talking, and some of Ginger’s crew friends came. There was a slideshow of pictures of Ginger. It was really nice. When it came time to surprise her and turn off the lights, it was like 10 minutes til she came in, so we were in the dark for a little. Her dad walked by the door, looked at us, then turned around cause he didn’t have ginger, but it was funny. Their excuse of going down that hallway was to find the restroom and apparently she managed to find it lol. When she came in, we all said surprise and she’s just like “oh hi you guys” and we kinda laughed with her. We had food, sang her happy birthday, had cake, talked to her, and took pics with her.

After all that, we went to the go karts. It was really fun. I got rear ended by Ginger (by accident) because her go kart got a boost right before she hit the breaks so the momentum was still there. I got to do it four times, which was fun.

After go karts, we had went to laser tag. I was on the blue team with Ginger’s mom, Stephanie, and Alondra. My team had the high ground like Obi Wan did in Revenge of The Sith lol. The red team was kinda stuck down on the first floor. My team won laser tag by about 70 points. It was kind of a work out in a way with running around. I had like 4060 points.

We did a 3d glasses shooting which was fun. I didn’t do too great but whatever. Then we went and did arcade games. It was really fun. After a while, Stephanie and Ginger and I talked a lot. It was really nice being able to talk to them.

After the party, Ginger’s dad brought Stephanie, Ginger, and me home, so we talked a lot then which was fun. A lot about Disney princesses, songs, and middle names. I didn’t get home until like 11 pm tho lol. It was really fun tho going to the party and seeing her again.

Ginger after we said surprise and her still slightly in shock

She came to talk to us a few times :)))

Random pic of Stephanie 

Stephanie and me getting ready for go karts

Ginger and me (Alondra trying to hide behind us) after laser tag

Ginger, dude, Alondra, and Ginger’s mom playing air hockey

Photo shoot with Ginger, Stephanie, and me

Models lol

Slay

Christmas Soap

 

This morning we had our famous Thanksgiving cooking skit, or at least I call it that because every time we do this one, we get some really good laughs.  It's just one "dad joke" after another, all hosted by Nerdo as he starts talking about the food on the table, not really getting anywhere until the end, when he gets his head stuck in a turkey.  Of course, that's all from the Mr. Bean Christmas episode some time ago, but Nana and Ye-Ye sculpted this turkey form out of styrofoam, and we've had it all these years - ready to put it on someone's head once again.  It's been maybe a decade since we've done this skit, and how great that Maddie could be there for it.  You can see her above in Pilgrim gear to the left.  It was a super fun morning, as Josh closed out his three-part video series that chronicled the story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans, or Indigenous People, or whatever terminology we're supposed to use these days.  I think I've been calling them locals this entire series, and that seemed simpler for now.  For now.  

Check out these soaps that Mom made yesterday!  The soap has hardened and Mom was able to cut away sections.  These look gorgeous, and the smell of pine is so strong with these that we actually have them sitting in the room with the Christmas tree in it, just to give that room a pine scent.  The bars of soap themselves came out very well.  Mom had a great time, and she's so creative!

Today we got home after church, and Mom had a nice meal for us.  Eventually for the Christmas season, we'll have to have noodles and pie, in honor of "The Santa Clause 2," but today was a Thanksgiving feast of sorts, just with chicken as the main course.  We picked up a chicken rotisserie.  And egg nog too.  I have found a great lactose free egg nog that 's just perfect.  Recently, we've been picking up some of Publix's holiday ice cream flavors, and after eating lunch, Maddie had the pepperoni stick ice cream, while Mom and I had a Christmas coffee flavor that was really good.  We've also got an egg nog ice cream too, so we're set for the holidays.  At least for a little bit, anyway, as Maddie eats it up pretty quickly!

We watched "The Santa Clause 3" today, but the movie of the night was "Disenchanted," the sequel to "Enchanted," which goes back a long ways.  Maddie was still in China when that was released.  Anyway, it's been a favorite of ours, and we were nervous about this sequel so many years later.  But it was actually pretty good!  We loved the music and the story.  It starts out somewhat glum, but once a magic wand shows up you know there's going to be something big happening, and it's nearly like WandaVision in a way, a musical version.  And that's not a bad thing.

Tonight we finished "The Light Fantastic," the second book of the Discworld, and that leaves a big question as what to read next.  But in the meantime, Maddie enjoyed hearing about the different characters introduced here, including one of our favorites, the Luggage.  I'm not sure where we're going from here, but this was a great introduction to the Discworld.  

We said our prayers afterwards, and then it was time for some rest.  It was a fun weekend, and tomorrow we get to sleep in!

The Gift 2022

This bluebird is funny.  I mean, there's usually the whole "worried about my reflection in the windows so I'll attack it" thing, but then there are times where there are no mealworms in the bird food, so it comes up to the window and stares at us with an expression like this that says, "Well?  Are you going to fill the bird feeder or what?"

Yes, we filled it up.  There's a family of five out there, hungry!  Also we have to make sure the water sources are no longer completely frozen over, as that's been happening each night.  It's cold out there!

Today was a monster day with a long of fun stuff in between.  Mom started the day off at a soap making class in Oakwood - she made the soap you see above, and got some others too.  There are scents within the soap of pine and Christmas, and the end result is going to be wonderful.  We just have to let it dry in place for a it, but she's made some nice things this morning with friends.

Meanwhile, Maddie was training with the team as you can see above.  She's gotten very good with the bo staff, and everyone is super coordinated at this point, although there's a lot of practice time to go.  One big thing that will affect everyone here is a major decision by Master Edge, one he told us about this morning in private.  We'll talk about it later, but it involves the letters "GTMA." 

After picking up Mom, it was time to head down to the Venue in order to see "The Gift," the yearly dance performance that we go to see.  It's been something over twenty years now that we've been watching this.  They actually did the same opening scene they used to do many, many years ago.  We got there really early, so we actually got front row seats for the entire thing which was as always a very special, very wonderful and moving performance.   We were in line early for the snacks, so we got this fudge that had all kinds of cranberries and...

...pischachios.... with smichmachios.... with.... with nuts!

Anyway, it was a good time there.  We talked about being there with Maddie at the very beginning, fourteen years ago for her.  And how Zena and I used to go see it all the time at a different location.  We've been on the "Angel Donor" list for years now, our names on the screens at the beginning (along with others), and on the program too.  We're big fans.

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So we got home and I was able to finish the piano room tree, which you can see above.  We were watching "The Santa Clause 2" and munching on a few snacks while also making final preparations for tomorrow's service.  Lots of props, but it's going to be fun!

Here's one more picture, this one of the Star Wars tree.  I'll have to take a picture of both of these at daytime, but at night they look perfectly festive.

Lunch today was at Chick-Fil-A.  Forgot to mention that.  We did that in the time between the morning activities and the production.  Didn't have time for a seasonal milkshake, but we'll make time for that this week.  

We've been going through our Christmas records and Christmas music in the car pretty well, but we've got so many recordings now.  I was loving the Partridge Family Christmas record tonight, while decorating the tree there.  It was a good day at the end - we were reading, and we said our prayers, and I was super tired.  It didn't take long to fall asleep at all.  Must have been a big day!