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What a day.  Each year, what a wonderful day.  It's Christmas Eve, and we'll have updates in a bit... it's late tonight and tomorrow's going to be fun.  Time for some sleep!

 ...Santa Buc-ee's beaver nuggets, setting the table, Candlelight service, Christmas Eve at Wang's, Jólabókaflóðið, treadmill and Rocky IV, wrapping, Christmas Eve with Nate, new Star Wars ornament, LEGO gifts, Finished Guardians advent... updates coming soon...

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INSERT BUC-EE PRESENT WRAPPED

Wow, we're really almost there.  This morning Maddie got yet another gift from Santa Buc-ee, and it was actually a really great one.  Take a look!

INSERT BUC-EE PUZZLE

She got a Buc-ee's jigsaw puzzle, a 1000-piece one.  It might take a while, but nowhere near as long as the one we just finished.  Today was a day of last minute work.  I was actually in the office for a bit, and the plan was to get some things lined up for the first Sunday of the year at KidPak, but we did a few other things instead, such as give and open various Christmas gifts.  

I got home in time to pick up Mom, the two of us heading to Cracker Barrel for a pick-up.  Once again, we're getting our Christmas meal catered, and that should make things easier for Mom on Christmas Day.  We looked around inside for a few items, but Mom didn't see the sweater that she was wanting anymore - they were out of her size.  What a bummer.  But Santa knows that Mom has been good all year, and Santa made a dash over to Cracker Barrel for this very same sweater while Maddie was at taekwondo on Friday.  That was a bonkers trip, and I'm so glad I made it - Mom was looking at that sweater twice now.  Third time's the charm though, as she'll open that on Christmas morning.  Tee-hee!

So Mom and I also went shopping at Kirkland's a bit after that.  We ran into Mrs. Diane Callahan there, the amazing founder of Gainesville Ballet.  Very random meeting, but it was nice to see her.  She recognized us, and we talked for a few moments before resuming our shopping.  Mom and I were there for some candles, but we also picked up a great reindeer mug.  I mean wow.  I love this thing.  It's so over-the-top!  

So I was doing a lot of wrapping today, but Maddie did a ton of it.  She was wrapping while we were out shopping, and I'm super grateful for that, because it takes me a while to do that sort of thing.  Mom was getting things together for food today, but she also did something really awesome.

INSERT BEDROOM TREE PICS HERE

She decorated our bedroom tree with lights and ornaments, and it looks wonderful.  These are the cardinals and birdhouses from our tree we decorated at the botanical gardens one year, and another tree a little later.  The result is nice, a great looking tree for our room.

INSERT FINISHED PUZZLE PIC HERE

We all finished the puzzle, and that was a challenge.  But we overcame and did it!  Yay, us!  Now we can quickly clear it so that we can get the dining room table all nice and decorated.  

INSERT PICTURES OF DINING ROOM HERE

And doesn't it look magnificent!  Mom's new Christmas plates are just gorgeous, and the entire table is just a beautiful thing to look at.  It's what we always wanted, and it's just a really beautiful place right now.  We can't wait for everyone to come over again to enjoy it.

I did do some more walking on the treadmill, and I finished "Rocky III," another great entry in the Rocky series.  I was remembering this stuff as I went along - it's been so long since I've seen these movies.  The fun thing is that I'm getting to "Rocky IV" on Christmas Eve, which of course is "a Christmas movie."  Meaning, part of it takes place during Christmas, so does that make it a Christmas movie?  Sure, why not?  Meanwhile, I got about three miles on that virtual trail to the Forbidden City.

Tonight's feature was "Hogfather," which all three of us enjoyed again.  We're still reading it - in fact, tonight we almost finished.  I think there's ten pages left.  But the movie follows the book fairly closely.  Yes, there are variations, but they're not many.  It's a good movie, and it just makes me want to hang out in the Discworld some more.

After reading, it was time for bed.  We're pretty wiped out, and can you believe it?  Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!

Christmas Coffee

Only a few more sleeps 'til Christmas!  Santa Buc-ee and his helpers are here with yet another gift, this time something special...

Yes, that's right - it's Buc-ee's House Blend Coffee!  This was an unthinkable sort of present for Maddie only a few short years ago.  And yet here we are today.

Yes, Maddie actually tried this coffee today, and said it wasn't bad.  Obviously it's not the flavored coffee.  But it's good - I'll probably try it soon enough.  But at the moment, I'm still busy working down bags and bags of Bones Christmas coffee.  Currently this is my favorite flavor:

This one has an almond flavor that is really strong.  As mentioned earlier, my sense of smell and taste comes and goes, but this is one coffee that seems to awaken all my senses.  It's really good.

Speaking of good, check out the progress of our amaryllis!  It's almost there to blooming.  We might actually see these things bloom on Christmas Day!  We'll check in tomorrow of course.

I'm periodically taking pictures of decorations around the house.  I like this snow globe.  It's a Thomas Kincaid snow globe.  And speaking of Thomas Kincaid, we're almost done with that puzzle!  It's this thousand-piece puzzle, and it's been quite the challenge. 

Today Maddie went over to see Nate for a few hours, and while they were together, Mom and I went to see a movie!

We saw "Klaus" in theaters - this is a movie from a few years ago, an incredibly excellent Christmas movie.  I can't tell you how much I love this one.  Mom and I were the only ones in the theater for this one, as if we bought out the whole place!  This is an old movie and they were doing this promotion where they were playing different Christmas movies throughout the month.  I'm glad we could catch this one, because it's so good.  We got our seats in the back and our popcorn, and it was just a nice time out.  We did some grocery shopping after that, more Christmas shopping for dinner Thursday.  

After getting Maddie, we went home to do some light wrapping.  I was walking on the treadmill downstairs, starting on "Rocky III," and walking a good bit on that virtual path towards the Forbidden City. 

We read a bit more tonight from "Hogfather."  We should be done by Christmas Eve, oddly enough.  We'll probably have to watch the movie tomorrow night, I suspect, just because we've been reading the book.  It's a great one.

Okay, time for bed.  It's been a good season.  We've been enjoying all our Christmas music and we're getting a few Christmas cards here and there.  Not many any more.  People are skipping the physical mail thing in exchange for a virtual message online.  We're old-fashioned though, and like cards.  We mailed out a lot this year.

It's been a good season, and we'r having a hard time believing it's already almost over with.  HO.  HO.  HO.

 

Last KidPak of the Year!

This morning Santa Buc-ee left something a little different under the Christmas tree - Buc-ee's Toilet Spray!  Yeah, they make that too.  

This morning we were at KidPak again, and we had a great time with our skit on stage with Joseph, Mary, a donkey, shepherds and an angel.  Josh was leading the kids in a game where they had to finish the lyrics - to Christmas carols.  And Bailee read them the Christmas story from the Bible, and talked about the Light of the World.  That led nicely into our own version of a candlelight service downstairs.  We order these battery-powered candles, and turn the lights down for a quiet worship service with Christmas carols and other worship songs.  It's a sweet morning, and Maddie of course took some great pictures.  Here below are just a few of them of our service this morning.

Maddie has been going to the second service upstairs - in the main sanctuary.  What we call "Big People Church," where Pastor Franklin leads service each morning.  She's been going there the last few months while we cover the remaining service downstairs. 

Free Chapel gave away some ornaments today to families and those look nice.  They have a message of peace on them - you can see we already have it on our piano room tree.  And we got another ornament from Emma too!

She made us one last year too!  This one is nice, and as you can see, it's' already on our tree.  We got home today and just spent the day recovering.  I'm still recovering from this long-term illness.  We heard the door bell this afternoon and our neighbors gave us a big basket of delicious cookies and home baked goods - they were all dressed up in pajamas and it was a lot of fun.  These are our neighbors across the street, and the mom was a walker too - or a runner - on the street.  I bring that up because I'm on the treadmill just about every day too - both of us trying to keep healthy.  And yet she too has had the same exact symptoms and illness for the same exact amount of time.  It was encouraging to hear, in an odd way.  Obviously I don't celebrate other people's illnesses.  But I just thought it was me.  This has been really debilitating and demoralizing.

Nevertheless, back on the treadmill I went.  I finished "Rocky II" while on that treadmill, and wow, I forgot how great these movies were.  I've got my path for the rest of the year, watching all these "Rocky" movies.  I'm hoping to get to "Rocky IV" by Christmas Eve, because that's another Christmas movie, sort of.  It depends on who you ask.  There's a great debate about this sort of thing!  Does it make it a Christmas movie just because it takes place around Christmas time?  I'm going to watch it and decide for myself.  Meanwhile, here's a few pictures of our tree. 

Today was the last day of Hanukkah.  Mom, Maddie and I turned the lights down a bit - Maddie lit the candles while I said the blessing over the Shamash candle, and then read the scripture as Maddie lit the remaining candles one by one.   We read the devotional after that, the last one for the last night.

Look at these two cuties!  We had those chocolate coins ready down there, but honestly... they weren't the best tasting ones!  No dreidel gaming for those!

But we did do this other card game that was a lot of fun.  It was a Muppet Christmas Carol card game, and it's pretty easy to learn to play - and it was actually a lot of fun.  And of course there's all the great artwork and characters in it.  But we played this about three times in a row, it was so much fun.  You can see Maddie's already amassed about three gifts in her pile there, on her way to another big victory.  We'll have to try this again.

I have to say I'm loving this Christmas coffee.  The description of this fudge-flavored coffee is so great.  And the artwork on all these bags of coffee is fantastic, fitting with the Bones theme - even the leg lamp there.   And... it's delicious.  My sense of taste has been going in and out for the last few months, so when the flavors and smells hit me, it's just really nice.

We closed out tonight with some puzzling and a movie.  We're all working on this Thomas Kincaid puzzle with a Christmas theme, and we've got to get it done by Christmas so we can use the dining room table!  We thought it'd be done by now, but it is a thousand-piece puzzle and the pieces are unusual in their size and on top of that, there's a lot of similar-colored puzzle pieces to work through.  It's been a little more challenging than the usual puzzle, but we're almost there!

As that was going on, Mom and I watched "The Bells of St. Mary's," one of our favorite Christmas movies.  We still have plenty of other Christmas movies to go through, but we'll get to them.  We're not going on any big trip this year after Christmas, so we can have some fun watching a few things that week.

Tonight we inched a little closer to the end of "Hogfather," reading before bedtime.  We're at Mr. Teatime's downfall, literally, and of course Susan saving Hogswatch in the Discworld.  It's a fun book, and yeah, that's another movie to watch soon enough!

We said our prayers after that, and it was time for another long winter's nap.  It's cold out there, and the blankets feel nice and warm!

1940's Radio Christmas Carol

Maddie got another gift from Santa Buc-ee this morning, and when she dug into that wrapping paper, she discovered gold!

You've probably seen these bags before, the ones with little yellow nuggets of gum inside.  This one has a Buc-ee's logo on it, and Mom predicted it might be empty by the end of the day.  I'll have to check, but that might have been a safe assumption.  Maddie has been laboring on it since!

The reason Santa Buc-ee got that for Maddie might have had to do with our destination tonight:  Dahlonega.  We picked up Nate and went to Dahlonega for a show together.  Knowing how much they decorate the town, we got there early enough to walk around, see the lights, and even do some shopping!

We walked into one little place not far from the Hollly Theater and it was a cluttered sort of place, but they had hot apple cider with spices in it, and I was all on board for that.  We were amazed at the interior collection.  Nate bought a comic book, and can you believe that Mom actually picked up another nutcracker for our collection?

You can just make out that nutcracker at the bottom.  As for the hot cider, it was splendid.  It was really good, the perfect thing for a chilly night.  We left there and just walked around the square for a bit, as we had plenty of time before the show.

Ah, you might not recognize where this tree is, so I'll tell you it's inside the Crown and Bear, an English import shop on an upper floor.  We go there to pick up some treats for Mom, specifically Crunchie bars.  But we also got some Christmas pudding for Christmas Day, and it actually has sixpence inside it!  So yes, instant rebate!  Seriously, this is a tradition from across the pond - I believe whenever the portions are given out, whoever gets the sixpence receives a portion of good luck for the new year.  That sounds like fun!

We made our way around the shop, looking around for a few things here or there, but of course the sweets were what it's all about.  I got Mom some Crunchie Bars and a chocolate orange as well!  

Ah, here's a place we always go to as well, the Dahlonega General Store.  This place is pretty fun, but on this night, I'm not entirely sure you could fit that many other people into this one small area.  It was absolutely packed.  One fun moment was listening to that self-playing piano do "All I Want for Christmas is You."

Our last stop after all that was over at the Fudge Factory, where there was yet another huge line.  Busy Saturday night, the last one before Christmas!  We got ourselves all kinds of fudge for Christmas Day for when the family comes over.  We got all kinds of good stuff to make the day nice and sweet!  

After that, it was time for our appointment at the Holly Theater.  Here's the view of the alleyway we always take from our parking spot behind the theater, this amazing little path upwards to the main road and the entrance to the theater.  

We were here to see an "radio drama" of "A Christmas Carol," performed as it was back in 1943, one hundred years after the release of the famous novel.  The performance itself of course was more than just the audio version of the story - there were behind-the-scenes jokes and storylines going on, and a hilarious bit at the end where the sudden disappearance of an actor leads everyone to do a whole lot of crazy improvisation.

And we had front row seats for this too!  The theater would be packed tonight, every seat filled, and here we are early on in the very front row, dead center.  Pretty amazing seats - we got these over a month ago, and thought it would be a fun idea.

It was a great performance, lots of fun!  We all enjoyed it, but it was a late Saturday night, and we had to get going because church comes early in the morning.  We did one last drive-through around the square, and then went home after that, dropping Nate off and then getting ready for bed.  It was a fun night!