My Favorite Thing About Bananas...

 

 Is that when they get ripe enough, they make really good banana bread.  The loaf no longer looks like this.  Paul and I made a serious dent in the warm banana bread!  And I know Hope will enjoy some for breakfast tomorrow morning.

 

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Christmas Lights

 

Today was a very Christmas-y day!  After church, lunch, and nap, the girls and I decorated gingerbread houses.  I found a great set with five small gingerbread houses at Target last year, and we bought it again this year.  So each of us had our own house to decorate.  We supplemented the candy in the kit with some of our own.  And I must say we made some mighty fine houses.  We still need to set them up all together.  (Maybe that will be tomorrow's pic!)

After some Pizza Hut pizza, we loaded up the Suburban and went to look at Christmas lights.  Our first stop was a nearby house that has an amazing show set to music!  They do a fantastic job, and at the same time, they present the true meaning of Christmas.  We then drove to a group of three houses in the country owned by members of the same family.  The pictures at the top are from those houses.  Our favorites are the oak trees.  We drove through a local park that had some fun lights, and then we saw a few more neighborhoods.  We finished the evening with our traditional "Christmas light looking" (as the girls call it) snack:  ice cream.  This time from McDonald's because they girls like their McFlurries, and they have a small size that only costs a dollar.  Faith and I really wanted a Chick Fil A milkshake, but, of course, they're closed on Sunday, so we had to make do with a McDonald's shake.  It was good, but not as good as Chick Fil A.

Now it's bedtime, and since we still have a week of school before we take a break for Christmas, I had better get some girlies tucked in!

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The Cattle Are Lowing

 

I've had a busy day!  On my way to pick up my younger three (and some friends) from their sleepover, my car died.  Paul came and, with the help of a friend, pushed it into a parking lot.  He got it running again, but it felt sluggish later, so I think it needs some more work. 

We had two extra girls here all afternoon.  They had a great time playing outside.  I think their favorite part of the afternoon was when our neighbors' puppy escaped into our yard!  

After supper, we went to see a live nativity at a local church.  The girls all liked petting the cows, sheep, and donkey.  I was impressed by how soft the cows were! One cow mooed and tried to lick Hope, and the other cow gave us a special show, if you know what I mean. So I feel like we got the whole barnyard experience.  It certainly makes the messy reality of the manger hit home when you see barnyard animals doing what barnyard animals do within feet of the (pretend) baby Jesus.  It's amazing to think that the Son of God came to earth to be born not in a sterile hospital, but in a smell stable. I guess it's fitting.  Jesus lived his life among the mess of our sin, eventually taking it upon Himself.  The manger points to the Cross.   

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Co-op and Cookies

 

We had our monthly co-op meeting today.  The girls decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies for their cooking class.  And we even have icing left over to decorate some cookies at home!  After a simple lunch, we watched a video of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  Even though I've read the book several times, I don't know that I've ever seen the movie.  It was cute, and the fashions brought me back to my childhood.  (Knickers, anyone?)  Joy and Grace's class has been reading and studying the book this semester, so it was a fun way to end the co-op semester.

The younger girls were all invited to a friend's sleepover, and Faith and some friends were hired to do hair for the sleepover guests.  (It was a spa party.) So Paul and I used our time away to eat some good Tex-Mex and do a little shopping.  We ended our date with some really disappointing bread pudding from a local restaurant.  Then we picked up Faith and her friend, who is sleeping over at our house tonight, and I brought them to the mall.  We had gone so that Faith could decide what perfume she like best for Christmas, but we ended up trying on formals.  That's a sentence a man would never write!  Now we're home and in our jammies and ready to relax.

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A Cozy Evening

 

We've been experiencing some cold weather the past few days.  Tonight we enjoyed a cozy evening on the couches watching a Christmas movie.  Patches even joined us!  She doesn't usually sit on the couch with us, so this was a fun treat.  

We watched The Polar Express.  We had never seen it, and, although we did like it, we probably won't put it in our annual Christmas movie rotation. I did think that the scene where the boy who didn't believe was surrounded by believers at the North Pole was a good picture of how unbelievers feel at our churches.  They see us believe, we've told them to believe, but they still can't hear the bells.  It was only after he decided to believe that he could fully experience and enjoy everything around him.  We want our church to welcome unbelievers, but we know they won't get everything until they believe.   

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Mischievous Christmas Kitty

 

Several of my Facebook friends are posting pictures of their Elf on the Shelf shenanigans.  Since my girls are older and we've never done the Santa thing, we're having a mischievous Christmas kitty.  I'm thankful the real cat has never tried this stunt!

The girls and I will take turns finding fun and funny places for kitty to be.  They're very excited about all the fun places she may turn up!  I think we may have a fun new Christmas tradition. 

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We Made Dog Biscuits

 

At our 4-H meeting today, I made dog biscuits with the group of middle schoolers I lead.  They were really easy to make, and I think the kids had fun.  One girl actually tried one!  She took more than one bite, so I guess it wasn't too bad.  Our dog, Callie, also gave them her seal of approval.  

The cookie on the right is supposed to be a bone.  The dough stuck a little sometimes, so some of the cookies were a little misshapen.  But I'm thinking the dogs won't care!

 

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