December 22 The Pageant at Holy Trinity

Sunday:  Ever since Brendan was a wee boy and made his first appearance in the Christmas Pageant at Holy Trinity, I have looked forward to seeing and enjoying it every year. I took a bunch of pictures of the children (duh!).

This year, Cal was agreeable to participating in the Pageant. Last year, he was not going to have anything to do with it whatsoever!!!! And Aidan was much more agreeable this year too! Last year, he refused to wear the head-gear and announced he was a COW without having to dress up like one. Okay then!

Erin had expressed ANXIETY over this year's pageant to me while I was with her on Friday. She was worried, that since she is now a First Grader, that she would be made to be an ANIMAL in the pageant. I asked her why that would be so terrible and she responded: "Cuz the costume will mess up my hair!" Oh! Erin then told me that she REALLY wanted to be an angel again. Cal told me he would much rather be an ANIMAL. Well ... this is how it all played out yesterday.

It's difficult to see Cal and Erin in the picture below amongst all of the other angels ...

Here--this is better! Look at Cal's angelic little face!

Of the animals on stage, Aidan is the "cow" on the right ...

There he is! Actually wearing the costume! Good job, Aidan.

Brendan told me on Friday that in year's past, the middle school kids were not part of the costumed stage but were used for the readings; but this year, it turned out the middle school kids were needed for shepherds!

Brendan is the handsomest and dearest shepherd of them all.

The Christmas story is read as the children listen ...

The children all sang a beautiful song about His coming to earth ...

Everyone did an excellent job. The littlest kids were super cute. At the bottom of the picture (below) was the smallest of donkeys (wearing the grey hood) who was SO stinkin' cute through the whole thing ...

The children sang more than one song with their beautiful voices.

Our Erin really loves music. She comes by this naturally!

Cal's angel wings were starting to bother him ...

Cal! You look a bit grumpy in this picture. A very serious angel indeed.

Dear Erin ...

Aidan even let me take a few pictures of him dressed up in his costume!

I love these pictures of you, Aidan Paul!

Here is our happy angel boy!

He is something else altogether, isn't he?

Afterwards, there were snacks in the fellowship hall. The children now have their own special snack tables with coloring sheets to supplement their food. So nice.

Erin was so into coloring her picture that she didn't need a single snack!

Dylan and Brendan enjoying some refreshment. I didn't get a single picture of Kelly, unfortunately.

Another Christmas Pageant for the books (or blog) ... so thankful for this family!

December 21 with KT

Saturday:  On the way to my house, Kaity and I stopped at the Grand Rapids Popcorn Company to see if I could find a little "treat" to attach to the Christmas card I was giving to my neighbors. It's been awhile since I've been inside this little store--what a delightful place; and more than that--what delightful people! And the delicious smells! I was able to find the perfect little something to give with my cards! We even got treated to a free bag of popcorn and a slushy!

We didn't do much once we got to my place. I made us our "usual" to eat, and we chatted awhile and shared some videos we had saved to show each other. We were very low-key. I think I was still tired out from Friday--even though I dropped into bed and promptly fell asleep at 8:45 pm!

We did stop by Altitude, but only for about 30 minutes. None of Kaity's usual friends were able to meet her there. We learned that Ayden's dad is down with COVID--so Ayden is kind of keeping away from people because of that. Jace couldn't come, and we didn't really recognize many of the kids who were jumping.

I didn't even take ONE picture (so I've inserted one of Kaity from a few weeks ago). It was good to be with Kaity, though; she is a very dear granddaughter.

December 20 This foursome

Friday:  We had such a nice time together today! These four kiddos are truly loved by their grandma. They are delightful little people, and I am so thankful for them.

Aidan had never played my Battle Box game. He found it very amusing!

It's difficult to see him in the picture (below), but he is cracking up (see him in the bottom right corner?).

I don't think I won a single game of Battle Box with any of the children today! They were very good at it!

Little Cal was trying VERY hard to disrupt our games by placing his little fingers on the board to block our shots ...

Aidan is an intense little person. He took this game VERY seriously. But yet ... he still had fun, and he was willing to do some outrageous moves if it made me laugh.

The kids built with magnets for quite awhile too. Here is Erin showing me her pretty flower ...

Isn't Erin's dress so sweet? I love it!

Naturally, we HAD to have ice cream mid-way through our afternoon.

We watched a few "short" videos I had saved to share with them from Twitter. This is one of my favorite things to do with these guys--because they are patient enough to see a 60 second video through until it gets to the funny part and then we all laugh like crazy.

We drove back to their house by about 4:15 and played for a little bit more until Dylan and Kelly returned home. I don't think I actually sat down in a chair for about five hours today, so I was completely tired when I got home. I went to bed at 8:45 and fell asleep until about 6:20 the next morning. I must have needed the rest, so I didn't feel "guilty" about sleeping TEN solid hours.

December 19 We decorate more cookies

Thursday:  I made up another batch of that shiny icing for Kaity and I to do a little more decorating today. Here are a few pictures:

I think we've gained a bit of skill over the last week when we were doing this! I will admit that some of the cookies LOOK a little bit ... crazy ... but we surely had fun decorating. We'll keep trying this during the different seasons--i.e. Valentine's and Easter ... maybe we'll get really GOOD at this!

I have NO idea what this face from Kaity is about! Yikes! I must have said something that annoyed her!

I'm so glad I can put these fun days in my memory bank and look back on them with JOY.