Winter

In reverse order, here are some pictures of what we've been up to this non-winter. Non-winter though it has been, we've still mostly been stuck inside needing to create our own busy-ness and fun.

Valentine's Day with two girls in the house. Miss Mouse made her Daddy a turkey complete with feathers that she found fallen from her boa. The glitter was a birthday gift and has already disappeared completely in one big exciting, glittery event!

This is so funny to me because Miss Mouse "smiled" the same way Sunny is at the same age. We've made lots of our own fun with the prairie dress for Miss Mouse and random pairs of shorts for Sunny.
Notice the concentration. It's almost visible just in her hand control (that's Miss Mouse working on a lego "garden").

This was serious business for Sunny, too. She was making a pontoon.

Working very hard at making a pontoon.

Neither girl quite appreciated Daddy's bomber plane. He actually attached little lego "bombs" with which he bombed their garden and pontoon. Of course, he repaired all damage, but neither girl was amused. Personally, most of my pictures of this are blurry because I was so very amused that I could hardly stop shaking with laughter. Give the Mice's little boy cousin (due in June) a few years, and he'll be fairly enthralled with the lego bomber plane, too, I'm thinking. Hmmmm.....it shall be interesting to see what the little guy comes up with for the girls' new set of dog-show-pink-and-purple legos that they got for their birthdays!

I guess we could just let Daddy take a go at the dog show pink legos; then we'd have a pretty good idea at what that little cousin/nephew of ours will be scheming up. I had to include this blurry picture just because I love Mike's expression so much!

Sunny does indeed love sunny weather....even when it is only the fluorescent kitchen lights.....

My smallest fancy girl.

And my blonde Dorothy looking so grown up!

Something Cute to Check Out

Not only is this a give away for a very cute bag (which also, most importantly to me, looks very functional!), but it's a blog of a friend/cousin (my husband's) that's definitely worth getting to know.

http://thecourageofcarsen.blogspot.com/2012/01/thirty-one-giveaway.html?showComment=1326574029159#c8261846149051702845

Frighteningly Thankful

The past week or so we've been following the disappearance of a teacher from the town where my sister and my brother-in-law live. Today at lunch our news announced that the disappearance has been ruled a "death" and that there are suspects in questioning. As I sat down, fairly squeamishly at that point, to eat my lukewarm hotdish, I was struck by how thankful I can be that I can sit today with my girls and eat lukewarm hotdish. The late teacher was out walking or running in the early morning hours one Saturday morning; how many times have I done that same thing myself? I'm trained as a counselor, so I'm pretty good at "empathic thinking" and can put myself into her shoes more quickly than I probably should. Having a history degree lets me be pretty decent at coming up with possible stories of how things happened, how she felt, etc. After a shudder, I attempted the lukewarm hotdish again and let thankfulness wash over me. Thankfulness for simply being alive today. Hence, number 62 is pretty straightforward even today where I miss my family more than usual. Continuing to be thankful for,

#62. Being alive

Merry Christmas!

Every year I convince my self-conscious hubby to let us take a family picture in front of the big tree at church on Christmas Eve or sometime close to then. Every year I have to twist his arm not because he dislikes himself in photos, though that is the case, too, but because he's always worked up about being in anyone else's way in between services. Luckily for our family memory preservation, I'm rude and could care less whether our 30-second photo session is inconvenient. I do jest. I'm just glad that we haven't been in anyone's way and have been able to get these pictures over the years. Tonight I noticed the girls' hair and thought back to a time with both of our slow-hair-growers when we couldn't picture a day with two long-haired girls!

You can see Sunny was far too cool for the photo session. She was so happy tonight with her presents (major squealing going on about the teeny-tiny pillow pet), and she was incredibly excited about the present she and her sister and dad got me. All day Miss Mouse coached her little sis to not tell me what the present was. I knew they had it hidden in the basement closet; I wasn't allowed to put away any laundry today. Poor Miss Mouse kept coaching Sunny with her mantra of "Don't tell Mom what it is, though!". I thought Miss Mouse was successful, but at the last minute, as they ran upstairs to get me to open the newly-wrapped gifts, Sunny shrieked, "We got you toffee!" Replace the "t" with a "c". I told Miss Mouse I couldn't quite understand her sister and that I was glad that I would still be surprised. Pretty sure Miss Mouse didn't believe me, but she's so sweet she didn't say much. I was truly surprised at the bird house they got me, though. Soon our yard will be able to be registered as a birding ground of some sort, I think. Miss Mouse loves birds; she knows I love birds; so her go-to gift for me seems to be invariably a bird house or bird feeder or bird food. I love it!

Obviously, the parents aren't seeing what the children are, and I guess we must both have very soft hair or something since each Mouse is fairly fascinated with her respective parent's hair.

Merry Christmas!

Traditions

Being a pastor's family, it became obvious immediately, as in our first Christmas as a married couple, that we would have to create some of our own traditions. A good friend pointed it out during one of my lament's in the fall of 2002 that I would likely never have another Christmas Eve at home, at the farm, again; she said simply, "You'll have to make your own traditions." She was right. The nature of the job is such that the holidays are busy times, difficult to take vacation during, and tough to plan travel in the climate our neck of the woods usually brings. Thus, we made our own traditions in Enderlin - the Kriskringlmarkt (which this Scandinavian still cannot pronounce or spell correctly), the holiday light train that rolled into town each year, eating a fancy-but-rushed meal in between evening services, toasting with grape juice for Christmas Eve dinner (the late service made even a glass of wine sort of, well, inappropriate for the pastor in charge!); we enjoyed the traditions we created.

Now we're creating some with our little Creations.

Sunny is waiting patiently for the kids' radio show to begin. How cool to be in the audience of a show taped for radio?! I told Miss Mouse this was perhaps as close as she'd ever get to the Lawrence Welk show. Next year, we might start a new tradition and allow the five-year-old in the house to accompany one (or both) adults to the evening radio show taping where she could see a bit more of an advanced musical performance. For sure if we can make it work, next year's five-year-old will accompany the adults to the symphony's Christmas show; just the two grown-ups went this year which was fun and relaxing and romantic, but that would be a great concert for a symphonic introduction for a five-year-old. There were many, many kiddos enjoying the music there this past week; we look forward to more symphony concerts and to including our Mice as they grow!

It was awesome to have seats in the first row of the balcony. Not only did we not have to strain to see around any tall people, but we also had a built-in "tv tray" and "footrest" (see pictures below).

Hanging onto her seat!

Like I said, a built-in tv tray. This was the day we had missed lunch, so we were snacking on raisins in lieu of lunch (we did have leftover pizza later in the day).

Did I mention a built-in footrest?! No one taller than I could have sat where we did. Even my knees nearly touched the wall in front of us. What was reassuring (Grammy) was that there was a plexiglass barrier covering the space that would have been in between the bars of the balcony. No vertigo issues in this balcony!

Miss Mouse was so pleased to see a mandolin.

Santa arrived by rising out of the pit while playing the organ. Pretty dramatic when you're small. Still cool when you're not.

She's "Red-Off".

I was going to wear the antlers when we delivered our treats today, but Miss Mouse told me "Mommy, you should not wear them in public! That would be....that would be.....silly!" I asked if it would be embarrassing to be with Mommy wearing reindeer antlers; then she felt bad and a few minutes later told me she'd really like me to wear them. Of course she would because she wouldn't want to hurt my feelings! This sensitive Miss Mouse we have.

On a note about Sunny, she's our hilarious one (note: Red-Off above), but she's also quite sensitive. I made her some big, pink flowers to decorate the purple mittens I made her; well, I haven't gotten the flowers sewn on yet (yes, I'm a bit behind....we'll blame it on Christmas-gift-creation), and she knows this. Well, the other day I made a friend some fingerless gloves and decorated them with the same style big, pink flowers. When I showed Sunny, she got a very serious look on her face. Suddenly I realized she thought I had sewn her flowers on my friend's gloves. I asked if that's what she thought and as she was nodding, I explained that they were not hers. Hers were still waiting to be sewn. The poor little thing burst into tears, sobbing "I thought you took mine away!". We're pretty sensitive around here. Even Miss Red-Off.

Miss Mouse has waited for this chance since last year! Sunny was not so sure about the whole idea; she clung to my hand the entire time we stood in line, but she was adamant that she wanted to sit one Santa and that she likes Santa.

After we saw Santa, the girls talked me into buying us a horse-drawn wagon ride. We'd never done one at the children's farm in the winter before, and it was cold. C.O.L.D. even in our mild winter. It was nearly dark by the time we hopped on, and the wind had picked up. It could have been colder, but still, it was cold!

Interestingly, I had given the ticket person four dollars instead of three; when she returned my extra dollar, I stuffed it in my pocket in my hurry to get our coats zipped, mittens on, hoods secured, etc. As we were waiting in line for the wagon, a grandma behind me asked the "crowd" (of 4?) if anyone had a dollar. She had one, but she hadn't brought her wallet and had no other cash or checks available. Welll, I had that one I had stuffed in my pocket just burning a hole there, so I gave it to her. On our ride I asked her to take our picture. She figured that was fair for a dollar! I'm glad she was teasing because I was just glad to have extra cash to help her out considering so few people carry any anymore. The picture was a bit shaky, but so was our wagon ride!

Miss Mouse explaining to Santa that she wants Pop the Pig unless he doesn't think it is made very well, in which case she'll take another game or a deck of cards (I haven't told her that we have ten in the closet in the basement!). She won't be getting Pop the Pig, mainly because Santa couldn't find it online for less than $35....but Santa found a couple other games; hence, Mommy's insistence that she ask for Pop the Pig with a caveat. I happen to know a little boy who bought his mommy Pop the Pig for her birthday, so I have no doubt Miss Mouse can play her fill at his house if she's really, truly enamored with the game!

These are out of order, too; obviously this one is from before I changed my white balance. Argh. The girls aren't the only ones who get all giddy to see Santa! In this picture, Sunny is telling Santa that she wants "whip gwass, eawings, and a peddo pet" (aka, lip gloss, earrings, and a pillow pet).

We love our Santa and were so glad to see him again this year.

This is a new tradition we tried thanks to Great Auntie Linda! What a fun morning putting this house together! What a mess! Notice the sliding front window peppermint? I'm trying to take pictures straight on these days and lean more on editing for the effects, but I find I can hardly help myself sometimes....I wanted to be sure to get in the Chinese lanterns and Halloween kitty in the background. There was a time in life when my seasonal decor was very, well, seasonal. Now I'm just eating up this stage where we can't pack down the kitty because he wants to ride around in Miss Mouse's front pack all morning, and the Chinese lanterns will stay up because they're beautiful and incredibly fun; and we'll just add the gingerbread house right next to the elegant Advent candle wreath! I love it!

A more straight-on shot of our masterpiece.

My thought is that I used too much frosting? As Miss Mouse and I were each attempting to hold peppermints on windows, we had a wall cave-in. We decided the walls were more integral than the peppermints, so we let the peppermint go and saved the walls instead.

Honestly, who would not want lightning rods made of gumdrops and a front walk composed of chocolate chip cookies, gum drops, sprinkles, and hard candy stars? Bliss.

This was a messy project. Getting clean was just about as fun....and messy.

Again, I love it! Sparkly bubbles shining in the sunlight cleaning sticky hands..... in my book, this is as close to paradise as we get down here.

We don't have much baking done....any really....but we did bake these from-a-box red velvet cupcakes (there's no point in my attempting a scratch red velvet cake without my Auntie Linda's recipe since she makes the world's best), cut them each in half, dropped in a half at a time, covered it with homemade buttercream frosting, and then dropped on another cupcake until the jars were squeezed full. We spent this afternoon delivering most of them with the girls wearing Santa hats (Miss Mouse's even had blinking lights; Sunny asked me if I could sew lights on hers....). Too bad only one of our delivery targets was home. We may bake some cookies this weekend, but with the beautiful weather, it's been more enticing to head out in the yard to play with the pup than to heat up the house baking sweets. I'm guessing, though, that the playing-in-the-yard tradition may not last considering this must be one of the nicest, warmest early winters ever! No doubt next year we'll be back to baking mass quantities of cookies, but this year these little jars were quite fun.

I think we have some good traditions started. We'll see what ones hold through for next year!

I ended up putting these pictures on here backwards for some reason....It couldn't possibly be the extremely strong, though very small, glass of wine that's keeping me company here. They'll still tell the story of a good day, though.

Honestly, it was one thing to take pictures here dumping leaves on each other in mid-November, but here it is post-mid-December with us still able to be out at the park playing! This is incredible! Every now and then I find myself thinking that after three record-setting winters with remarkable spring flooding issues that we deserve a winter starting off like this.

And then I correct myself and remember that these good things are not deserved. They are blessings.

53. Fresh, warm air to breathe after a two-week in-house isolation with coughing spasms.

54. Incredibly, record-setting warm air in which to play.

This is how the morning started. Well, no, the morning started with Mommy putting in two braids for Miss Mouse (and ringlets - she was adamant that we needed to wet her hair all down so that it turned into the ringlets of which she is so proud!) and three braids for Sunny. Yes, three. That was a battle I chose not to fight, so she did indeed have three braids for her first Christmas program.

For interest, these pictures show only about half of the children in our Sunday School hour. We are the second, and smallest, hour of Sunday School at our campus on Sundays. Wednesdays are larger. The other service on Sunday is larger. This is why our "program" consisted of this mass of children marching in and singing two songs. If anyone is interested in organizing several thousand kiddos into angels, shepherds, and wisemen, I can put you in contact with the appropriate people!

We spent Saturday evening at the church. In our pajamas.

We, as in Miss Mouse, needed to practice knowing where to stand, how her voice would sound in church, where she would walk in, where Mommy would be, where Mary (the overall leader) would be, just working out all the details. Miss Mouse was also incredibly worked-up because she feared that at the end they would be encouraged to "jump around" (apparently there was an encouragement to jump around after they carrolled at Daddy's Christmas party....Sunny and I were home enjoying each other's coughs at the time....), so once we realized that, Miss Mouse's nerves were pretty much able to be soothed.

Still, Sunny was pretty forceful about wanting to stand right by her sister. Whether that was because Sunny knew Miss Mouse needed her or because Sunny needed Miss Mouse, I'm not sure. Perhaps they just needed each other.

Plus, they matched. Why not stand together when you match?!


My sweet group of girls waiting to go into the church. We were missing one little boy, the brother of the girl in blue. He joined us from his parents' lap in church and promptly returned to their laps after we sang.

What a fun day today turned out to be! Miss Mouse asked me several times throughout the day if she could please, please sing every year?! Last night we weren't sure we were going to get ONE year out of her, but now that she's seen that singing in front comes without any directions or suprises about jumping around, she's ready to go! None of the pictures show the girls doing any actions because I switched to the video camera for that, by the way....Yep, I was definitely that mother!

Really, though, glass of wine notwithstanding, today was a good but exhausting day. For years here I've considered the two-song-Christmas-program to be far less than a "real" program. It's been something I've really mourned about being at such a large church. If someone had told me I would be sitting in the front row, video camera in hand with the other camera slung over my shoulder, grinning like a nut, crazy-proud of my two little Mice for singing two songs....I would never have believed it. Never.

I would never have believed that I would have spent Saturday evening near tears missing my parents. I miss them often, but thankfully we get together usually once a month or at least once every six weeks. But the buildup to today was tough. Way tougher than I would have imagined. See, it never occurred to me that it would be hard not to have my parents here for a program that wasn't even a Christmas program.....Until it became a Christmas program....Until Miss Mouse got nervous....Until it started to really matter to me. Once those things happened, it became very clear that my parents would miss their oldest living granddaughter's first Christmas program ever.

And my grandparents never missed one of my programs. Ever. From 1984-1998, they never missed a program.

So the four hundred miles separating my parents from this little two-song program today seemed extra empty and extra long this weekend.

Then, of course, once it became real to me that this was a program, that this was the first time I would have little girls in fancy dresses with butterflies in their tummies standing up in front of the church, then it hit me that it shouldn't be.

This should have happened two years ago with another little girl, who, I think, would have been tall with curly ringlets, too. There should have been three matching dresses up there today. But,

54. I'm thankful for the two adorable blonds in matching dresses, seriously singing their Christmas songs, holding hands.

Even while I feel the absence of the third,

55. I'm thankful for being able to do two sets of braids, pull on two sets of tights, buckle (inspect the buckling of -) two sets of black dress shoes.

And I'm thankful for my mother- and father-in-law who were here, grandparents celebrating the two-song program, enjoying the beautiful (spring?) weather, playing on park equipment.

56. Living close enough and being close enough to a set of grandparents that they can take in "first moments" like this.

Indeed, even while there are absences, permanent and temporary, that are felt so strongly at certain points, there is still so much for which to be thankful.

57. A friend in charge of our Sunday School who understands when Miss Mouse needs to escape a video-showing to go sit with Daddy in church

58. Playing fetch with the dog in the yard...even if it means stepping in doggy poo.....

59. Grandparents on park equipment. On park equipment.

60. The physical health and strength as well as the emotional ambition to take two girls ice skating by myself. I know enough people with enough difficulties to not take this for granted. What a privilege!

61. Neighbors and friends who can be called on during week-and-a-half illnesses to bring kleenex, honey, thermometers....

It's Going to Snow

Finally, I have the answer to our crazy, strange, odd, mixed-up weekend! Thank goodness a friend of mine enlightened me this morning after Sunday School! Otherwise, I would have returned home still shaking my head at how my group of six shy, quiet, reserved kiddos turned into a screaming mass of child hiding under our classroom table tossing off shoes, screaming that they needed to get away from the "crocodiles". Had Mary not filled me in, I would have come home still thinking that was strange.


But now I know.


It is going to snow.


And that, that itself, is to what I'm chalking up this entire weekend.


The weekend started off on Thursday night. I'm going to lump it all together. One big, loooooong weekend. So, Thursday night we hosted Bible study at our house. Since I'm figuring we'll be alone for Christmas this year, something in me went crazy. I decided that not only were we having venison stroganoff (a crockpot creation) over rice; we would also enjoy a "Holiday Wassail" (created in a crockpot), roasted cauliflower and carrots with olive oil/garlic/lemon/parmesan sauce, and a peanut butter chocolate cake with chocolate sauce dessert (also in a crockpot). Our amazing neighbor began her involvement in our weekend by lending us her crockpot for this festival. We really rocked the crockpots that meal. Astonishingly everything turned out beautifully and all at the same time.


Unfortunately, the meal preparation was not smooth. It was nothing short of brilliant to make a grocery store run mid-afternoon to buy the fixins for that evening's dessert. Brilliant. Truly. The Mice are champion "helpers" in the kitchen, so there were definite hurt feelings when I suggested they do some putting-away-of-toys as I threw the cake ingredients into the crockpot. I did settle down and let them help with the chocolate sauce topping; I'm not entirely brainless or hard-hearted, after all.

After we got the cake safely ensconced in its crockpot, we tackled the "wassail". The fun really began then. It called for frozen concentrates of apple, cranberry, and raspberry juice along with orange and lemon juice. The Mice giggled and squealed as the frozen concentrates, which were truly still frozen, plopped into the pot. The made a fun "squwerplf" sort of sound as well as creating tiny splashes. Safe, tiny splashes. Safe and tiny, that is, until we added the "grape/apple" concentrate.....which made a too large "squwerpfl" followed by a much-too-large splash. All over my skirt and dress shirt, all over Sunny's fancy dress-up dress, which she was borrowing from Miss Mouse, all over the floor went the bright purple, sticky-sweet juice concentrate. All. Over.

Sunny was stripped, bathed, and redressed. Rather than a skirt and dress shirt, I was wearing a t-shirt and capris when our guests arrived. The floor had been washed by that time, which meant the dishes were still piled near to the ceiling in the sink, and the clean laundry heap in the living room had not moved itself. Shockingly, it had not moved itself.

Thankfully, one of our guests swept it up into the basket and hid the basket in Miss Mouse's room. One of our other guests kindly reached the fancy plates on the top cupboard shelf and helped set the table. All this while poor little Sunny sobbed for me to "stand wight by me, Mommy!" as she was attempting to snack on a frozen banana in her highchair. It was not such a good night for Sunny. A certain incident with the elliptical machine, a too-playful Miss Mouse, and Sunny's toe turned out better than it could have later in the evening. It was a tough night for the Sunny Mouse.

And Daddy was gone for three days. That should be mentioned.

Even with all the excitement and tears, we really did have excellent dinner, conversation, and Bible study. It really was pleasant! The two dishwasher loads full of dishes and the hour-and-a-half sink-washing we worked on the next day weren't even so bad; Miss Mouse even finished them up for me later in the day! We had a treat on Friday night with pizza delivery to celebrate a November birthday (not mine, by the way) with a friend...and then things headed a bit south yet again. Thankfully, it was "Neighbor to the Rescue" day again, so she was over attempting to help me figure out what was wrong with Sunny. Sunny did not appreciate our questions of "what hurts? where does it hurt? are you sad? are you scared?"; by the end, she was just sobbing, shouting, "Nooooooo! Nutting!". She and I crawled into bed early that night.

Thankfully, the next morning she crawled out of bed a new girl, remembering nothing of the every-two-hours-waking throughout the night for water or a nose-blowing or a cuddle. Tired, yes, I was, but also so happy to have cuddled my baby (who rightly so will not allow that monicker to be used on her anymore) all night. We all had a wonderful morning; the Mice spent it with their babysitter, who also happens to be a relation, and I spent it enjoying a Christmas brunch at church. I have to say our table was pretty cool; our table host is our church's other Compassion International Advocate, so she decorated our table with aluminum pie plates and red dishcloths for placemats/napkins. We had a spoon but no other silverware, and we drank from canning jars. It. Was. Incredible. The other tables were beautiful, too, though, and the "feature presentation" was amazing. What a privilege to have a front row seat to watch as a pastor (not one of ours - a guest) painted a massive mural in one hour, from scratch. That was also incredible. I'm not sure I blinked the entire hour. Awesome.

Saturday, noon, rushing home. I made it home in time to get the girls' matching Christmas dresses on and curl their bangs (we were being *Fancy*, note the capital "F") before we needed to leave for the next Christmas item on our agenda for the year. We three girls headed downtown to a taping of a kids' Christmas show made for radio. It was neat. The atmosphere was stunning; I've been in the theater but not for a looooong time. It was magical; the Mice sat in awe of the regular theater-lights as well as the stage filled with Christmas decorations. I noticed the little boys down the row from us were playing games on their grandpa's cell phone, focused solely on the electronic noises it was making; I reminded myself to be thankful that their grandpa had brought them and not just sad that they were focused so hard on the technological toy instead of on the beautiful, historical surroundings.

Did I mention we had missed lunch that day? Yep, the Mice were nibbling peants (Miss Mouse) and raisins (the choice of Sunny) as we waited for the show to start. We were front-row-balcony; picked those seats ourselves, we did. I chuckled as I thought of how much my Mom would hate those seats (right, Grammy?!). We loved it, though. The show was short - 45 minutes or so, but the girls enjoyed it and were beyond ready to head home to eat leftover pizza by the time the 45 minutes was up. We, of course, had to wait for a train which had blocked us off from our car, but my little troopers wandered around a variety store with me for 5-10 minutes happily (or perhaps in a lack-of-food-induced-haze).

Upon arriving home, we devoured our lunch, and, yet again, called on our neighbor for assistance. I should mention my cell phone charger has gone missing, leading me to consider cancelling the babysitter and Christmas brunch on Saturday morning because I couldn't have handled thinking a possibly-sick-Sunny was crying for me at home with no way to get in touch with me. When our neighbor found out about that, she brought over her own cell for me to use on Saturday morning. Problem solved; Sunny was well, and I was happily pacified by the idea of having a cell phone attached to my person. Anyway, the overworked (my words, not hers, she's far too gracious to say that!) neighbor came over again so that I could run to the store and mail our adopted-soldier's package without dragging the Mice out another time. After standing in line for 10 minutes behind a man wanting a peculiar type of cigarette, I was told only letters can be mailed from our grocery store internationally. Bugger. Another project for Monday.

Reflecting last night, I was completely content with our hectic, crazy day. Miss Mouse was unbelievably pleased that we had not only attended a radio show, which I told her was probably the closest we could get to being at the Lawrence Welk show (an unfortunately impossible goal of hers), but we also picked ourselves up a free children's desk on the way home! By the side of the road, yes. My aunt says I come by it naturally because my uncle (her brother) does the same thing, except I think the latest thing she said he picked up was some type of plumbing equipment rather than a desk. Anyway, this is an older-style desk with the little chair attached to it; super cute; super free; super great to have at my parents' place considering I was downstairs this afternoon forcing items out of our overcrowded basement closet. So, yes, it was an exciting and productive day in the memory-making department. It was also - thankfully! - the day Daddy came home.

When I woke today, I thought for sure it would be a calm day, the chaos of the past few days behind us, a new week before us. And then we got to church 5 minutes late. Sunny dropped her shoe on the way in; I carried her, her shoe, and a box of Compassion International brochures; the kind greeter offered to go find her shoe when I laughed that she had lost it in the parking lot. I can't help but think she must have been relieved when I pulled it out from under the bundle that was Sunny's jacket/the CI box, but it was a very sweet offer. Church really went well; the Mice seemed happy to play quietly, ignoring eachother.

And then we got to Sunday School, and the crocodiles came out. Apparently. So I'm told. By all six of my charges.

But Mary said it was going to snow. That's the reason for all of this, from the grape juice on the floor to the crocodiles in my Sunday School room. It was going to snow today. There were a few flakes. There really were.

38. Thanksgiving weekend at my in-laws where I could curl my caterpillar-like self into a cocoon to grieve for a more-like-family-member-friend whose funeral we realized we missed after it already over; the usually perceptive Mice had far too much fun playing with their grandparents to notice their mom; this was good.
39. Beautiful weather for our Christmas light parade.
40. Seeing "our" Santa back waving at the end of the parade.
41. Miss Mouse commenting that "Santa and I smiled at each other. I will never forget that."
42. Sunny recovering from a nasty cold before she even really got it.
43. My husband who responded to my question of would he like to go driving to look at Christmas lights with, "Sure! I'd love to do that!" even though it meant he would have needed to jump from his car to our vehicle for the light-drive after he had just driven 400 miles.
44. Ezekiel's crazy-weird calling from God.
45. Attending a Christmas brunch at church and really knowing many of the other women there this year.
46. My front-row seat at the brunch to watch a massive mural painted in 60 minutes.
47. Being able to return to our previous home for an incredible Christmas music show Sunday night.
48. Spontaneous fireworks to watch through the front window on the way to the show Sunday night. Amazing, beautiful fireworks.
49. Driving by the firework-lighting-site right when a huge red one burst in the air above us; Miss Mouse had never before had occasion to see one of the "big ones" from that close.
50. A fairly uncluttered calendar staring back at me. It's beautifully clearish for our family.
51. For the three pillars of the church who have passed away this fall - thankful that we knew them, that we were privileged enough to be part of their lives and they part of ours. Our former church looks so different now with most of that older generation gone; what a blessing it was to have known, loved, and been loved by those who are now gone.
52. For Christmas...Because the promise of Christmas makes #51 not nearly as permanent as it seems like it is right now.