MANY CHRISTMAS ACTIVITES!!!!!

Zachary, Elyse and I drove to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to see the play "A Christmas Carol," put on by CYT (Christian Youth Theater). It was a special homeschool performance during the day. After our 40 minute drive (which google said would take 55 minutes), we had to figure out something to do to waste time. It took awhile to find a parking place (actually, the same spot we parked in to see "Robin Hood"). We spent about 30 minutes waiting inside the building for the doors to open. While waiting, I decided we needed a group picture. With my arm outstretched, I took about eight pictures - all of them wrong. I either cut Zachary's face in half, or it was blurry. Then the lady across from us (having watched the whole eight pictures being taken) said, "Would you like me to take your picture?" DUH! She got a pretty good one:


After lunch, we headed to Gurnee for Zachary's basketball game. We got there a little early too (but not early enough to have driven home). Zachary was to play one game and he wanted to stay to watch three other games. It was a long night of basketball for him. After his game, Elyse & I headed to Zion, Illinois, another 20-30 minute drive to see my friend, Jane Shutske. She has chemo every three weeks at the Cancer Center of America. Jane's daughter, Christie, and Christie's two daughters, Nizaria and Xenniyah, were there too. Elyse LOVED the girls.

In order to get into the hospital, we had to have name tags. We entertained Nizaria by sticking our name tags on her face. She loved it! That's Christie in the background holding Xenniyah.


Outside the hospital, all the trees were decorated with a zillion lights. It was amazing.


These trees were my favorite:


All that took from 10:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. It was a long day and night. But, oh, so much fun.

On Saturday, our church held its annual Christmas Dinner for adults only. The kids stayed home and had pizza, popcorn and a movie night. We asked Zachary to take our picture before we left. He took about 10 of them and only one was good enough to put on here. I had asked him to take a picture sort of close up. The first few pictures we either weren't ready, or he got our whole body in the picture. The next one, he got only our noses. Silly kid! He finally got what I wanted and I picked out the best of the bunch.


Yes, Dad wore his "Grinch" tie.

The dinner was amazing. We had a salad, stuffed chicken, red potatoes, vegetable and three desserts to choose from. We had several people play music for us or sing. Then we had a few songs to sing. One of them was "The Grinch." When they announced that one, they made Dad stand up and model his tie.

We sang the "Twelve Days of Christmas." On each day, those that had a birthday in that month had to stand up and sing. Dad stood up for day one (January), I stood up for day two (February). It was definitely an exercise program. After about three times standing up and sitting down, I quit - my knees were killing me. I guess I am getting old - things don't work like they used to...

One of the activities was pastor handing out silly gifts to certain people. Because we have such a large family, he gave us a table game "Keys to the Kingdom." The games says, "Where players help each other to win!" Don't know if it is fun or not - we'll give it a try when you all get here for Christmas.

Dad & I signed up for the clean-up committee. I knew my feet would get sore, so I brought my slippers and an apron. We were at the church until 10:00. Another long night for us!

Our Saturday Advent activity was to make 36+ poppy seed breads to pass out at church tomorrow. It will include pastoral staff, SS people, Youth Group leaders, Growth Group friends and friends from church.

Measuring:


Greasing the pans:


Greased:


Pouring the batter:


Ready for the oven:


The finished product:


We make 12 of them at a time. The reason only 10 are in the above picture is because two bombed. Too bad - we'll have them for lunch!

Zachary did help with the baking - he was our photographer, so he didn't get a picture of himself. Did you know that it takes five hours to make 36+ loaves of bread? We did and do!