Bumbles Gum

This morning Jingle Bell the elf got The Abominable Snow Monster of the North involved with a little fun beneath the tree, and brought along a nice little gift for Maddie, a big tub of bubble gum!  

Today marked the beginning of yet another tech week, another week leading up to another big production at the church.  So yes, every night we're here again, although Maddie did get to spend her evening at taekwondo in class, which she enjoyed greatly.  I managed to get over there to pick her up, and then the two of us returned to the church to observe the production's movement forward, and it should be fantastic. There are a lot of huge visual elements to it that will make it stand out, and our friend Josh was cast in the role of Joseph, which is fun to see.  He's doing very well with the sudden casting, and he has a lot of lines to deliver - he's doing very well with those, in fact better than I could have and I'm the one who wrote all those lines.  

How amazing it is that my ideas made it this far.  I've written the scripts for both of these ginormous productions at the church, and in fact came up with the idea of Joseph being the narrator for this one.  Josh is such a great choice, because to me he embodies the idea of the man Joseph, who was no prophet or warrior or king, but simply an obedient man who God trusted and blessed with one of the most important tasks in the history of the world.  

Mom's been busy putting his costume and others together today, giving him more of the look of a carpenter.  She was working on King Herod's costume today - there was some recasting there, which meant alterations galore on his costume and others.  I was working with the shepherds tonight, and the Wise Men too.  It was a long night, and there will be other long nights too - but things are coming together.  Considering it is Monday, we are in good shape.  

There's been a Santa at the church, like last year.  The set-up looks different, and Santa certainly looks different too, in a more vintage costuming than the usual red and white suit.  But it looks good, and Maddie quickly went up there with her phone and had someone take a picture.  We bought a frame, and we'll get this one on the shelf soon enough.

Mom had another candle lit for the menorah when we got home.  No time for dreidel games, but we did have time for some quick snacks.  Maddie and I were sampling some hot cocoa flavored Oreos.  And other Christmas candies too... there are too many of them around here!  Too much temptation!

Which is one reason I'm glad I'm still walking on that treadmill each day.  I've spent a lot of time walking in Antarctica lately, walking amongst penguins and fur seals.  It's been fun, but soon enough I'll start running again, back to the 5K races, one of them being with a bunch of other people dressed up as Santa.  Looking forward to that one - it sounds fun!

Meanwhile, we're keeping up with our Hillsdale course on "A Christmas Carol."  We were visiting with the Ghost of Christmas Future today, listening to a professor online tell us some things about that portion of the story, and yes, there is still so much to learn about this novel even after all these years of seeing/reading/hearing different versions of it.  The reference to Mark 9:36 was especially enlightening to me - I can't believe I've never really seen or noticed this before.  Anyway, it's been a great thing for Mom and I to sit and watch each morning, and there's just one more class left.

We're also continuing with our own advent calendar, the radio theater version of that same story, where we're still with the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Scrooge's sister.  Maddie's opening her advent calendars each morning, announcing from upstairs what her prizes are - the LEGO Star Wars creations are some of the best she's put together in December.  We have about five or six of these advent calendars now, so yeah, that's something like 150 little LEGO Star Wars creations.  The other advent calendar is fun too - today's LEGO Star Wars POP figure was a Luke Skywalker with a candy cane.  They all have that Christmas slant to them, and that's pretty fun.

We continued our reading in the Discworld tonight, continuing with "I Shall Wear Midnight."  And then it was time for prayers, and for bed.  The plush entourage came down the hall to hear the story.  Tomorrow, one more plush friend will be joining the posse - Maddie will get a nice little surprise in the morning!