Wintersmith

We had Christmas practice this morning, starting things off pretty early.  Mom wasn't quite well enough yet to come with me, and Maddie really wanted to sleep in this morning, so off I went on my own for several hours to the church for practice, and then after that a little bit of setting up for tomorrow's service at KidPak.  It was basically a work day for me, although I did get home early afternoon for a delicious fish dinner Mom had prepared for us.  She's doing better, and that's great news.

I started with the tree today, the living room tree.  It takes a LOT of time to get up with all the ornaments and lights - it's a huge endeavor.  But with Christmas movies and music, things go by much better.  We were having a Dolly-fest, watching "Coat of Many Colors" and "A Smoky Mountain Christmas" as well.  A long time ago, I downloaded that movie somewhere and I'm glad I did, because you can't find "A Smokey Mountain Christmas" - at least a good copy that doesn't look copied off a television set by way of a VHS - anywhere now.  This movie has become a tradition of ours.

We've had some much-needed rain, and the weather actually turned something in the direction of Winter today, which is somewhat appropriate given the fact that we are approaching winter.  A fun little related aside was our recent decision at KidPak to do a theme of "Tropical Freeze" for Summer Xtreme.  This theme has been on the back burner for a few years now, but we decided to go with it this summer, one reason being that we can have a beach look to the set for a few months, and right there in the midst of it, we add icicles and snow to the palm trees and sand.  The theme of a sudden onslaught of snow and ice in a normally hot location got a few confirmations this week with the new Ghostbusters trailer, which weirdly has the same exact theme.  Literally the day after we made our decision, the new trailer with the same theme came out.  And on top of that, we're reading "Wintersmith," which is about winter remaining in a place where summer should be.  It's an oddly specific theme that just suddenly popped in there.  Have to keep an eye on that!

So I was on the treadmill today, and I've been doing that every day of course.  But lately, I've been able to pick up the speed.  I've done a few Turkey Trots, which are basically a 5K done at Thanksgiving time, amidst a whole lot of other runners, some of which are dressed as turkeys, which is always amazing.  I can't run the entire thing yet - the last effort had me speed walking about five minutes of it.  I did a 5K in about 38 minutes though.  There are three Turkey Trots on the iFit program, and maybe they'll add a new one this year.  One thing they just added was a badge you can earn for doing the three existing Turkey Trots, so I'll be sure to earn that one.  But yeah, I'm training up for a 5k, getting better and better, hopefully strengthening up this heart.

The leaves are really falling outside.  I know that because I was marching through a thick layer of them in the back yard today.  It's a pretty season, driving along the road and watching the leaves float the air and spiral downward.

It was a nice Saturday, one spent mostly on prep for Sunday and for a Christmas production.  We had plans to do something bigger tonight, and even reservations, but we thought with Mom recovering it would be best to just have a silent night at home, which we did.  It was a good day - we closed things out with reading, and with prayer.