Just a few pictures from our Sunday sleepover ...

It didn't work out for the grandchildren to spend Friday night at my house (long story) … so we decided that I could pick them up Sunday afternoon and have a sleepover (since I didn't have to work Monday and the children were still on break from school due to Christmas).

Christopher stayed at his house so that he could watch the Lion's game with his dad. They both love football. We worked it out so that I would come back after the game and pick Chris up. I don't have a television at my house (intentionally), and I didn't want Chris to miss the game.

Meanwhile, Emma and Matthew and I just played around the Beach house while the football game was on. We experimented with a little magnet kit I had purchased. Matthew and Emma had a lot of fun with this for a very long time, and learned about magnetic forces in the process. 

 And Emma showed me how she had designed her very own "pocket" (with the little loom I had given her for Christmas) by doing TWO potholders, one on top of the other, and "taking them off" together … very very clever for a 12-year-old who did not have a pattern for this and had never seen it done before. She showed me with such JOY too.

We picked up Chris after the game ended (a 30-20 loss for the Lions … yuck). We did our usual bedtime stuff, read a nice Christmas book together called, "Apple Tree Christmas" and then got ready for our movie. I actually ordered a very old favorite movie of mine off Amazon: "Heide" (starring Shirley Temple). I wasn't sure if the kiddos would like it, but … they did!

Monday morning we ate a nice late breakfast and then I taught them how to play KISMET, a fun dice game … but it also involves a lot of adding up of numbers (good for the kids' math skills). It was a really close game. Emma only won by 2 points over Christopher. She had gotten a Kismet of 6's (for 80 points) near the end of the game and Christopher had gotten a Kismet of 4's (70 points). Matthew and I did not get a Kismet at all and had to put a zero in that slot … so we did NOT win.

Our Bible story was about the shepherds of Bethlehem … actually we discussed shepherds in general from the Bible. We talked about some of the Old Testament shepherds, as well as Jesus being our Good Shepherd. We talked about the Bethlehem shepherds perhaps being the ones who cared for the lambs who were to be offered at the temple in Jerusalem. We talked about Jesus being, "the lamb of God!" And then, to make it more personal to us, we talked about the earthly shepherds in our lives--like our moms and dads. And we too, can be shepherds. There is a very dear verse in Isaiah 40:11 that I have always loved: "He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those who have young."

We talked a long time about the beautiful truths in this verse. Christopher asked great questions about … how can God have arms and a heart if He is a spirit? Ah, good question Christopher! So we talked about THAT for a while … about the great and loving heart of God! But mostly we talked about what it means to truly care for someone. I had looked up the word "care" in the dictionary and one of the meanings is: "watchful attention." I really like that. Caring for someone means to watch over them … give them your attention! God does that for us. WE can do that for people in our lives too. We decided that God wants all of us to be GOOD shepherds, to care for the people in our lives, to GENTLY lead them. It was a really wonderful time sharing God's truths … isn't He so amazing?

A few other December events ...

The RVO Christmas Party @ Egypt Valley Country Club took place on Friday, December 12, and was well attended. I have many pictures to look through and edit … but no time to do it until after the holidays are over. But I did want to include it in my December posts ...

 They served the BEST food … and it was nice to get to know people a little bit better on this occasion as well.

My cousin, Lois has another upcoming wedding. I attended the shower for Skye and Zach on December 13 and have many photos to edit ...

 Zach and Skye will be married on January 10 ...

Peggy's retirement party last week Tuesday ...

This was a very random post … but I wanted to include these three events in my December postings so that I will not forget to go back and edit these pictures, as well as print them out for those who have requested them!

Our LOGOS Christmas party

Our annual LOGOS Christmas event is usually a potluck, rather casual, and always nice. This year, however, it was hosted by a newer couple to our small group: Dale and Diana. Diana is a Pampered Chef hostess, loves to cook and entertain, so she wanted to SERVE us a dinner without us making any food contribution whatsoever!

All total there was 23 of us around this single LONG table (with 12 leaves!). We were served rather royally too! The punch bowl was at 4:30 and dinner followed at 5:00 on a snow-less Sunday afternoon, December 21. 

Many of us in this LOGOS class have been together for almost 10  years now. It is a nice group of people who have shared many similar life experiences … all on a journey of faith … together. 

 It was wonderful to share this lovely meal together, fellowship and just enjoy the time together.

 Our class leaders, Nigel and Gayla, led our group in singing some wonderful old Christmas carols ...

It was a lovely few hours ... 

Several of us got together and purchased an Olive Garden dinner gift card for Dale & Diana, to thank them for their kind invitation and delicious dinner. 

The day AFTER Christmas ...

I am happy to say that I had the day off work today … and many more between now and the new year … YAY! Kelly was attending a birth today, so it was deemed advantageous for grandma to spend a little love time with her Little Fellow this afternoon.

 This is "Little Bear," a good friend of Brendan's ...

 I kept trying this little hat on Brendan and he kept taking it off … so I put it on Little Bear for awhile and then I tried it back on Brendan. I kept telling him about what a CUTE hat it was!

But Brendan didn't believe me and would have nothing to do with this hat! 

It made a rather good hiding place, though! 

Brendan was excited to show me all of his trucks from Christmas ... 

We played trucks for quite awhile today. 

 AND we played with his bright yellow school bus … a real hit with Brendan. The lights flash, the door opens, the STOP sign can be extended … just like a real school bus!

For a mid-afternoon break, we drove over to Schuler Books over on 28th Street to have a look around and to play with THEIR stuff for awhile! 

 If you bounce this football, it lights up. Brendan was SO intrigued by this … HOW did the light work? What made it go on? Where did the light go?

 We read quite a few good books together … this little person is interested in EVERYTHING.

 We looked at some wild animals. Brendan readily identified many of them: flamingo, elephant, T-Rex ...

 Brendan saw these watering cans and decided to try them out ...

 "Here you go, plants!" Brendan said as he watered them. And then he carefully hung his watering can back on the hook!

Once we were back home, I asked Brendan to show me WHERE on his train table had he placed his brand new lighthouse … he was SO excited to show me! 

 Oh my word … isn't he THE BEST?!!! This face!

 "ALL ABOARD!!" Brendan says and then "chug-a-chug-a-chug!"

 And about every five minutes or so (with regularity) Brendan would say, "These trains are CUTE." And Dylan, who was sitting in a chair not far from us would respond, "Yes, those trains ARE cute, Brendan." 

We laughed and played ALL afternoon. Ah. Just exactly perfect for my day! Thank you, Lord, for precious little children!