The Wednesday before that our small group put the Bread on the Water boxes and laundry baskets together with food and toiletry items for 20 families that belonged or had regularly visited our church. Pictures of the fun and wild chaos that ensued bringing all the items up from my small group leader's basement into his garage to box and then take back down to his basement for storage until last Sunday are at the end of this blog. The boxes and laundry baskets were delivered last Monday and Tuesday.
This past Wednesday night our small group gathered for our white elephant Christmas gift exchange and food. I didn't really have a white elephant gift so headed to my favorite "white elephant gift" store - Tuesday Morning and found the perfect item - but forgot to take a picture of it. Highlights were my small group leader getting a large roll of wire and one of the older men in his group of things getting the "Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy".
Saturday I helped decorate the school's gym for our Christmas program. I hadn't decorated a Christmas tree in forever. Mike and I put the tree up the last time when we had just the two cats Babe and Smokey and that was over 20 years ago. I was definitely out of practice and my ribbon layering on the first tree showed it :) Pictures of setup and the kidlets during the program are below. Pastor Josh told all of us that when the first group of little kids (the Puddles group) got on stage to keep the camera flashing to a minimum - it wasn't the Super Bowl :)
I needed to get to church early yesterday to put the candy cane Christmas tree together but when I got there some of the guys had already done that for me. And they told me the tree didn't have a base so they duct taped the tree to some wooden frame they made and came up with a "skirt" to hide all their fixings. When the song service started Barb and I headed out to place the candy canes on the tree. As we were doing that, I noticed the tree starting to list and I said, "the tree is listing." People looked at me and said, "what's that mean?" I'm thinking to myself - really?? So I said, "the tree is leaning to the right." Then they got it - wow. So between more duct tape and rope the tree was secured so it wouldn't fall over during the service. Then Barb and I handed out candy canes to the kids as they were leaving. As I left Pastor Josh grabbed me and I told him about the tree listing and he's like, "it was leaning?" and I said I was glad he knew what listing meant :)
Saturday evening we are having a Christmas Eve service which I'm excited about. I think the bulletin said candlelight Christmas Eve service? But I don't think fire is allowed in the school gym.......
Tonight "Marley and Me" is on tv. Mike and I never watched it because we couldn't - it's a dog movie and everyone knows how dog movies end. I always said if I posted on Facebook it was a "Marley and Me" night that meant I had put Butler down and I was already so upset I might as well watch the movie and cry for Butler and Marley at the same time. So I'm thinking about watching the movie tonight - and hugging Butler like crazy as I cry - and then again maybe I won't watch the movie.
Enjoy the pix.
The next blog will be Christmas or after so I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Food and toiletry items were everywhere in the spare bedroom!
Then they were everywhere in the garage :)
Back in the spare bedroom boxed and ready to go.
A week ago Sunday morning with all the boxes and laundry baskets in front of the church.
Some of the Christmas decorations for yesterday's Christmas program.
Our youngest kidlets - Puddles.
This is the group I help with crafts - WAVES!
Our oldest children's ministry group - Dive.
