December Madness...

Okay, so Christmas is still 10 days away and I feel absolutely drained! This month kicked off with a bang! Right off the bat we had our 2nd annual Christmas Drive thru at the church. It’s pretty cool… for two evenings in a row, we block off the street in front of the church & set up scenes from the life of Christ. Visitors drive thru in their cars going from scene to scene with the encouragement of a cd that reads the associated bible verse & plays Christmas music. It literally takes the entire year to plan & well over 100 volunteers, but in my opinion is worth every bit of the work involved! Of course I was not in charge, so it’s easy for me to say that! My little job was ‘prop master’ so I set up the accessories for each of the scenes (with my helpers of course), Mike played the part of Andrew the fisherman (see below), Hayden played Jesus at the age of 12 in the temple, and a tractor driver (contemporary scene) on another night, and Koltin played the little boy that brought the loaves & fishes to Jesus. So you can say that it was a family event… even Bobbie & Alyssa took parts as women in the crowd… I think that we had over 800 people drive thru… so it was just an incredible experience.

Mom & Dad had their 2nd annual Christmas party in their new house this past weekend… It was pretty much just family… we tend to entertain ourselves! Dan won the tacky sweater contest (the one in which he picked out all of the other guys’ sweaters)… James has already declared that Danny’s reign will soon end as he begins his hunt for the tackiest Christmas sweater ever. The gift exchange was a total hit with the favorites being a lantern for the guys & some gorgeous mirrored frames for the girls… which I would have got to keep if my dear great aunt Pat hadn’t stolen them from me… The coolest thing was that my cousin Tracy brought a painting that she had painted for me of my favorite photograph, that I happened to take. Check it out below… It’s beyond awesome & she did such an incredible job on it!

So wedding bells were ringing this weekend! Mike’s sister Kathy married her fiancé Randy in a small backyard wedding on Sunday. It was delightful, quaint and to add to the excitement… the skies were about ready to crack open in a mad rush of winter rain at any moment! Outdoor heaters helped, but it was definitely a crisp, cool occasion! The wedding was followed by a champagne brunch with all sorts of yummy foods. Scones, cinnamon rolls, quiche, fruit… Yep… I love food… Where was I? Oh, yea… the wedding. It was lovely & everyone had a great time. I was officially the wedding singer & the photographer & have included a few snaps below!

This photo of Koltin was included because in the family photo above, he wasn't so cheerful... this photo was taken much earlier in the day before gloomy gus arrived.

So… 15 days into the month… 16 to go… this week we’ve got the kids ‘holiday’ presentation, a rehearsal, two large choir performances at two different churches, a meeting with teachers, two doctors appointments, payroll, and then… Christmas week begins… and did I mention that I am no where near done shopping yet? Did I mention...I love December madness!

Merry Christmas!