December 5 with my girls

Saturday:  I picked Kaity up first Saturday and then we swung by to get Emma. We spent about 4.5 hours together in the mid-afternoon to evening. Once again, we did a lot of stuff in that short amount of time. Kaity and I played a few rounds of foosball, Kaity winning two out of three! Emma was not interested in playing that particular game because ... she admits to being a sore loser AND she stated Kaity and I have had much more practice time than she has, so it was not an even playing field. 

Kaity and I also played chutes and ladders. My particular version of it is a puzzle that has to be assembled first, and then the play can begin. Emma let Kaity and I assemble the puzzle, but then she played with us and won. Kaity kept getting swept down the same slide -- 3x in a row! The only thing that comforted her a little bit was that I had been leading until I slid down the longest slide on the board, putting me almost back to the start.

We also played a few Memory games. Emma won both of them without much trouble. I always lose in Memory ... I'm not much competition, but it is a very good game for me to play (being that I am an old lady and my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be).

We also played a few rounds of "LIAR, LIAR" which is a really cute game. Kaity was patient through both rounds of that game, even though she lost both times. Good job at losing, Kaity. It is a wonderful quality to be able to lose a game and be a good sport about it.

I totally forget to take pictures until nearly the end of our time together--then I grabbed my camera and just snapped a few.

I love these girls so much. I won't even try to explain the kind of year they have had--so much has happened in their family, so much interruption and disappointment due to COVID, and just life being hard in general. I'm thankful they still come over for visits. I love my time with them.

Our star search:  On our way out the front door, Kaity reminded me that tonight I promised we would go looking for the star. To explain--last Christmas season, we noticed a very beautiful and brightly shining star (not a heavenly one) just to the north of where I live. We would notice it once we drove out to Canonsburg and got beyond a little bunch of trees. When Kaity and I went hunting for the house where it was attached, we absolutely could NOT find it last year. We tried 2 or 3 different times. We concluded that somehow some way, people must have attached it to something BEHIND their house--not able to be viewed from the front when driving down their street. 

Anyway, this time Emma was with us. She reminded me how completely direction-challenged I am (thanks, kid) and told us we would find the star's owner nearer to the golf course. So we drove that direction using various side streets, but lost track of the star amongst the trees and couldn't find it again. By this time, we were on 7 Mile--no star to be seen. I heard dear Kaity in the back seat: "Dear Jesus, please let us find the star tonight!" After hearing that, there was NO WAY I was giving up our search until the star could be found. I told the girls that I had an odd feeling that we should continue east on 7 Mile and  turn down Chauncey heading south back in the direction of my house. Because ... isn't Chauncey a very curvy, crooked, rather wind-y street? 

Sure enough! As we turned down Chauncey and went around the first curve, we could clearly see the star shining through the trees. We passed it by, drove into the back entrance to the park where I live and followed the streets back as far as we could get. There was the star above and behind us ... apparently attached to a garage ... how could we get to that house? I drove back out of the park, back up Chauncey, and the first driveway to the left was a very dark and L-O-N-G drive, curvy too, SO SO dark ... should we turn and take it? YES! The girls were both in agreement that we HAD to find out for sure if this was where the star lived. We drove up the long narrow road to the very top, where security lights immediately went on as we drove past an out-building and right next to that building was a garage with the star (as big as the side of the garage) shining super bright. Thank-you, Lord! Mystery solved. We all slept better because of finding it!