Much Merriment

Here we are just 5 days away from Christmas and I am soaking up the holiday cheer.

This past Sunday night Dave and I sang in our choir concert. It was a standing-room-only crowd and the music was phenomenal. I can't tell you how much I love singing in our choir. There is a spirit of worship that I have never experienced anywhere else. We have some amazingly talented people but most of us are just average singers with a love for music and for Jesus. But let me just say this. On concert night, we raise the roof. This year was no exception. We had a full orchestra, Travis Cottrell's compositions and arrangements and a fog machine. The only weak moment was this one particular song. There's this poor girl in our choir who begs for solos and out of the goodness of our choir director's heart, he gives them to her. It's so sad to hear her struggle through. This year, she sang a song called "You Came". Poor thing. She tries. I'm sure Jesus enjoys it even if no one else does. (OK. That was sarcasm at it's finest and I only typed it to see if Melissa Radke was reading this. If she is, she will leave an equally sarcastic comment, I promise you that. In truth she is one of the best singers I've ever heard. The begging for solos part though.....totally true.)

Last night was Fruit Bowl night. We always draw names in November and spend our last girl's night out of the year going out to dinner and exchanging gifts. After dining at PF Changs we headed out to Shelly's palatial estate to enjoy sweet treats and hot beverages. This year Nicole drew my name. I have to admit I was excited because, of all the Fruits, we probably spend the most time together and she knows my gift wish list better than most. She did not disappoint. Here is what I found lurking in my gift bag:

First were these:

That's right. They're not just Milano cookies. They are CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY Milano cookies. Who knew there was such a thing? I will just channel my inner Boomama and say that it is my belief that the combination of chocolate and raspberry is an indisputable sign of God's love and richest blessings.

Next I found this:

First of all, I apologize for the annoying flash in the middle of the picture. I do not profess to be a professional photographer. I do, however, confess to being an Office fanatic which brings us back to the calendar. This will bring assurance that I will in fact smile at least once every month from staring at the faces of the fictional people that I have grown so fond of. Each month has a picture of a different character in the form of one of the motivational posters you see in offices. All kinds of awesome.

And last but not least was this:

Best. Gift. Ever. Seriously, my favorite T-shirt was my Office shirt. It is now a very close second. That's how much I love this shirt.

Since we girls tend to go on and on and on and on when we're together, I got home a little late. This was only a problem because I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to prepare food for Lydia's school party today. I would say that is was worth it because the kids had a blast but since I spent the better part of two hours wiping up spilled paint, glue, fruit punch and hot chocolate while listening to the boys have a belching contest, I will not deceive you. It was not so much fun for me. The highlight of the party was the Christmas Tree relay race. Lydia was chosen to be the tree (probably because of her remarkable performance as the number 8). Each child had to put a decoration on her. She l-o-v-e-d that as you can imagine. Here was the final result:


While at the party I got to spend time with my buds Nancy and Mary Beth:

They are commonly referred to on this blog as Nancy French and Mrs. Wahlman. (By the way Fruit Bowl, Nancy informed me that she too was at PF Changs last night at 6:30 with her girlfriends! I was sooooo disappointed that I didn't know. It would have been a hoot to introduce all of you at once to her.)

Can you stand all the merriment I've crammed into this week so far? And wait...there's more to come. Tonight is our choir party and Friday night is the moment I've been waiting for all year. Dave and I host an annual Christmas party for our whole gang and every year we have a different theme. I will not reveal what this year's theme is. You will just have to wait for Saturday's blog. I will just say that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas and I've had more fun planning it than you can imagine.

I hope everyone is having a fun, festive holiday season so far. Until next time....