Rainy Gloomy Cold

Mom has all the Santa pictures up on the bookshelves, along with other holiday-related items.  They look super fun up there.  I have to get them all labeled on the back, because the photos are all running together in my mind and I can't remember which one was for what age or what year or whatever.  In my defense, there's about twenty of them up there right now.  Sure, we missed out on the first two years of Santa pictures, but we added some extras in there early on, images with gingerbread men and angels for Christmas cards to be sent out.  Ah, those were the days.  Remember Christmas cards?  Before I go off on that rambling path, here are some of the pictures and items we have on the shelves, just for fun.

Remember the Lowe's Christmas projects?

Yep, that's just the sort of thing to do to make a day a bit less gloomy.  Because wow, today was gloomy.  It's so rainy out there and grey and cold, a dramatic change of atmosphere.  We straightened that out with some Christmas music and some Bones coffee.  I've been having a lot of wonderful flavored coffee each morning, such a great.  And pumpkin spice tea is so good too!  And Mom has her regular tea in the morning.  Maddie was off to school, catching up a good bit, and I wasn't going into the office today because of some air vent work.  Can't be breathing in all that.  So I was working on some new booklet stuff, and this weekend's skit too.  We ordered some drums for Christmas, for the kids production upstairs.  We have an appointment for better wi-fi this week, but AT&T will not stop calling us with these confirmation phone calls.  Over and over again, and we keep saying "YES" and pressing the right buttons and so on, but about four times a day there's a confirmation call - it's hilarious.

Anyway, tonight we watched "Nutcracker and the Four Realms," one of those movies that I have to watch each year.  We also got caught up on our "VisionQuest" episodes, and of course now everyone's really anxious to see how this all ends.  I've always liked Vision, so this has been a lot of fun, and almost like the old days when we were hanging on to every episode, all talking about it afterwards and theorizing this or that about what could happen next.  We'll see!

We read some more from "Hogfather" tonight, said our prayers, and got to sleep early.  I'm not sleeping as well lately, and not sure why that is.  Hopefully that can turn around soon.  Goodnight!

Wonka Class

This morning we were back in the classroom, another college day for me as a guest "teacher."  I think this was my favorite class I ever did right now, as it really connected with these students.  We were going through the process of developing themed messages for the younger kids and I had these students here pair up with one another to create a message to go with an overall theme of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  What they turned out was great - I was going from student team to student team and at the end, there were presentations and just a lot of fun.  We had some solid scriptural backing, and I just felt great about what we did today.

We got another tree done today, the smaller bedroom tree.  I'll take pictures of all the trees when done here, but this one in our bedroom is not the traditional tree, but nevertheless, it's something we decorate seasonally.  At Christmas time, we put up some of the ornaments that Mom used at the Botanical Gardens for their outdoor trees some time ago, those birdhouses and cardinals.  It looks nice!  We watched a few things tonight, including the "Best Christmas Pageant Ever," the version from the 80's.  We'll catch the more recent version later, but the movie of the night was "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," of course.  I'm hoping to get a few messages of that done by the time we have our big meeting, so I can honor our students' effort today.

I've been pretty consistent with the virtual walk through Halloween town, although right now we're approaching Christmas land.  It's the "Nightmare Before Christmas" virtual walk, and it's been a fun little walk.  It's amazing how much there is to watch that is related while you walk along.  Right now, I'm in the midst of watching game play of "Oogie's Revenge," a themed game I never got around to playing and now you can just watch these online if you want to, watching someone else go through the story.

I finished up that Steampunk Ezekiel message, and it's pretty cool!  Maddie's been working harder in school lately, staying at home this morning and busy at the table or in her bedroom with all her studying.

Tonight's election results are all about ebb and flow.  I'm not sure if we're at "ebb" or "flow" right now, but the end result was leaving people feeling blue, as usual.  And also as usual, things will get so far in one direction that eventually people will be seeing red.  Or at least something like that.  I've now been alive long enough to see the ebb and flow of all this, and yes, we voted - and voted early - but we haven't been as focused on this year's news cycles as much.  That being said, we're still not so engaged as to get super stressed out about things we can't have that much influence over.  You just pray and vote.  I always quote one of my favorite musical artists growing up in regards to the passions of protests and election seasons:

"I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage.

I found that just surviving was a noble fight.

I once believed in causes too,

I had my pointless point of view,

And life went on no matter who was wrong or right.”

Not that I don't care, mind you.  It's just that we truly do trust the Lord and are not at all worried so much each and every election.  Because that's a stress that really doesn't need to be on anyone's shoulders too long.  Just do what you can, and there it is.

Moving on!  Tonight we did read some more from "Hogfather," and we said our prayers of course.  Time to get some sleep!

Visit to the Pumpkin Graveyard

Alas, it is time too early - I didn't use bleach or anything to keep these pumpkins from rotting sooner, and so it came to pass that when I reached down to see the inside of this pumpkin, lo!  There was much fuzz, and the sides were starting to get a bit soft.  So to the pumpkin graveyard I went with another two pumpkins, both my mouse burrow pumpkin - and Sergeant Squash.

While down here, I might as well check on the others!

Oogie Boogie's feeling a bit low.

My mighty pirate ship!

No Internet!

The duck is a bit squashed.

It was a quiet day.  We got out the 1964 Nativity set now, the one with the amazing triangular stained glass window backdrop, and of course all those nutcrackers are up and looking down upon us.  Camille gave us a small pink one as a parting gift this summer, so that's our new addition for the year.  I don't know if we'll get any more new nutcrackers, as there's not much room up there.  It'd have to be something special, right?

I spent some time working outside at the fire pit because it was a gorgeous day.  And I'm still walking virtually through Halloween Town, moving forward through that map fairly quickly.  Can't wait to get that medal.  In the meantime, the Niagara Falls medal arrived, and it looks really nice.

Maddie started the day out further north, having spent a good deal of time up there for the weekend.  She skipped class this morning and taekwondo tonight, but will catch up with everything soon enough.  She had fun this weekend. In the meantime, we read tonight, more from "Hogfather," and then we said our prayers.  Time to get some sleep, right?

Good Soil II

 

This is a nice present from Ansley - I actually like these dark chocolates a lot, the ones with coconut inside them!  Yummy!  Funny card too...  anyway, this morning we returned to the skit I did a song for last year, one called "Good Soil,"  It's a fun song, and the costumes are memorable!

We had a really nice morning at KidPak, and then it was time to get home - and take a nap.  I didn't sleep so well last night, so there was some catching up there.  Then it was time to head back to church again for a prayer and worship service that was very powerful.  

Maddie was at a wedding and she's been having fun.  Here are a few pictures from her adventures in North Georgia:

Back here, tonight we actually watched a Christmas movie.  Yes, that happened.  We'll be getting a few other things set up for Christmas tomorrow, though not the main tree yet.  But we're really getting the house decorated early!

Time to get to bed though.  Tough night last night, so tonight we'll get to rest early.  We're up in bed, typing, then a bit of reading... and some sleep!