Sunday, December 15, 2013

Rose Sunday

Third Sunday of Advent, and the kids finally got to practice for the pageant (which will be next Sunday). Actually, there wasn't much to it. There are only four characters -- Mary, Joseph, an angel, and a shepherd(ess). Most of the children opted to be in the choir instead. The choir has quite a few songs. I have some concerns about how long the nativity crew will maintain an attractive tableau -- it seems quite possible that, halfway through the second or third song, the angel will sit down and Joseph and the shepherd will start playing "toss the sheep." (Of course, Joseph and the shepherdess wouldn't really dare, but I'm not so sure about the angel.)


Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. Not quite the honeymoon Mary had in mind, apparently.

The yawning little girl is our angel. She'll be dressed in a fairly decent angel costume, but I'm still afraid that the length of time up front and center, with nothing to do, is going to do us in.

After church we got our tree! It was Katie's turn to pick, and she chose the Perfect tree. We hardly minded that, in the freezing wind, she had us inspect every single tree on the farm. Nope. It was totally worth it -- our tree is That perfect. (It really is extremely shapely. And, unlike some years, we didn't have to take off the top to make it fit.)

 Here Ed is getting a ride back to the car with our tree!
 The tree farm belongs to a very kind couple from our church. They have had a very difficult year, but this year, again, they both, separately, asked when we were going to come get our tree, and then insisted on making it a gift. Very, very generous people.

We took it home, washed it, and while it drip dried, my parents & nephew stopped by for a little while. I love having them close enough that they can drop in just because they were walking by!

This evening we set the tree up and the kids decorated it. Not a single cross word, and they reminded me that the DVD player also plays CD's, so we got to listen to Christmas music!






 (This is as far as they got tonight. There are still quite a few ornaments to go on, but I thought it was a very good start!)


It has been a pretty perfect day!

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