Michael and I were able to end our day with
a sofa sleepover in the lounge, and while Mom and Dad didn’t mention anything
about it with a gang of kids around; there’s no way that they didn’t notice
that Rowen must have fallen asleep while tucking Tim into his room for the
night after leaving us in the lounge. I
don’t get to report any major or minor make-out sessions too, but that’s
because Brianna woke up needing a diaper change; she wanted to cuddle and have
a bottle after that; and she was still with us for the first part of our sofa
sleepover. That was really special for
all of us, so I won’t regret the lack of alone time with Michael; and there was
the added fun that went along with Mom and Dad finding us together there when
they got back from Sheldon’s Pub.
They had fun teasing us about leaving
Brianna with us for the night and then letting Aunt Leanne know that her baby
girl had already had her first sofa sleepover with a boy. While the eventual decision was to put Brianna
back in her crib for the rest of the night after Mom and Dad had a bit of
cuddle time with her too, they had already taken pictures of us; and that
choice didn’t keep them from having fun with Aunt Leanne, Uncle Adam, and
Brianna today. Michael had the worst of
the teasing, since he was ‘caught’ having a sofa sleepover with two beautiful
girls, but he managed to survive the jokes; and is learning to handle moments
like those better than he did when we were tweens.
Indoors Tai Chi was a bit crowded with
Naomi and Aiden here for bonus exercise buddies, so Michael and I went with the
same forms that everyone else was doing instead of trying to continue our
Pushing Hands training. That was fun –
and also the last bit of quiet we had through until we arrived at church for
the morning service. Rowen and I were in
charge of getting all of the younger girls ready for the day and fed; Michael
and Tim did the same for the guys; and Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne
tagged-teamed the kitchen work with the men cooking and the women cleaning
up. Mom and Aunt Leanne had some teen
support for their job, so that wasn’t as bad as it might have been after
feeding our gang; but it was still quite a challenge to get everything done and
be at church on time.
The highlight for the start of the service
at church was the welcome home hugs and kisses for my grandparents – at least
for all of their kids and grandchildren.
They came home from Arizona yesterday; but didn’t get into town until
late last night after getting to spend most of their last day in Arizona
enjoying the comparative warm before coming to spend the Christmas holidays
with us. They look great, and while they
were a bit tired this morning after the late night; the same could be said for
the rest of us after a late night of babysitting or Christmas party fun. I haven’t had time for any vacation stories
from my grandparents yet, but I’ll get around to doing that story time with
them sometime while they’re home.
For me, the main fun during the service and
Sunday school was the work we did for the Christmas musical. That was mostly getting things ready so that
the sanctuary could be set up starting not long after the service ended this
morning, and while Michael and I couldn’t stay to help out with that part of
the work too; we did help to make sure that the transition from our normal
sanctuary stage to scenes from Israel-past would be as easy as possible. We couldn’t stay to do that with the rest of
the volunteers because we needed to be at the Inn to help with the lunch rush,
and while the service went long; I still took the time to run home and get
changed before meeting Michael at the Inn.
Our day from that point until we needed to
be back at the church was a lot of busy without much time for fun. The Inn was full for lunch; the two buffet
sittings started early because of the concert at the church; and Michael and I
didn’t get much break time mixed in with all of the work. I was eventually set free a bit earlier than
Michael was so that I could go home and get cleaned up and changed before going
on to the church; but that was only because my hair takes longer to dry after a
shower than Michael’s does. He went home
for a quick shower and change too; and I met up with him there before we walked
over to the church together.
For the record, since that statement earned
us some teasing from Tim and a few of the other guys; I did not meet up with
Michael in the shower. The guys left the
jokes there, though; so they didn’t find out that I was there in time to help
Michael out with getting dressed; since he wasn’t done with that quite yet when
I did get there. ;^)
While that was mildly fun, and I might have
used a short time phase to allow us a bit more play time; we didn’t get
side-tracked; and we were at the church in time for make-up and costumes – and the
teen praise team warm-ups. I’m not going
to do a major review of the musical, since I’d rather leave the reviews for
others; but I can report that we had a lot of fun putting on the show. My duets with Michael were awesome too; and I’m
only reporting that from the perspective of how wonderful it felt to do those
duets with my boyfriend – though I’ll also modestly admit that we were pretty
good too. Including the pre-musical part
of the show and the extended sing-along we did at the end of the musical; the
show ran for a bit more than an hour.
For me, that time breezed by; and I hope that our congregation loved the
musical as much as we loved putting the show on for them.
Since I’m about to move on from this part
of my day, let’s include my Christmas song pick for the day – which is one of
the few YouTube videos I could find of our musical. Our rendition was definitely more
teen-friendly than this one, with the comedic moments hammed up more than a
little; but watching this video did help us with getting ready for our show; so
that’s why it’s my Christmas entertainment choice for you tonight. We also picked other songs for our
sing-along; but that was mostly because we wanted that music to fit in with the
rest of our holiday season music this year.
We had a reception after the musical, but
before we – the teens, kids, and adult helpers – could get to that, we had some
work to do first – including getting out of make-up and costumes; part of the
sanctuary clean-up; and tear-down of the extra musical instruments and other
tech gear that was on loan to us – like the lighting. Michael and I didn’t even make it to the
fellowship hall until a bit after nine-thirty; and the ‘party’ was more than
half-over by then. We were okay with
that, since the delay helped to cut back on the one part of our singing
together that makes us uncomfortable – the praise from our families and
friends. That isn’t because we’re shy or
too-modest, but we don’t sing and play our music for the attention – we do it
because we love music.
It’s late, so I should keep this story
moving along. Our day wasn’t done after
the reception. We needed to go over to
the Inn after that so that we could help with the clean-up that had been
on-hold while everyone was at the church.
That work still needed to be done to get ready for the Monday breakfast
rush, and while Jacob and Miranda took a crew there after just a short break at
the reception; we still needed to work there until shortly before
midnight. I went home with Michael; we
had a bedtime snack and drinks with his parents and Rebecca; and then we had a
bit of cuddle time together in the living room before I came home at a
quarter-to-one. Everyone at my house was
sleeping by then, so I stopped in for kisses with Ethan and Ehlana on my way up
to my room; I got changed and ready for bed; and then snuggled in for a
mid-length winter’s nap with Mandy.
My computer work needed to come first, and
thanks to some family business work that needed to be dealt with; I’ve been
working on my computer for more than an hour now. That’s not a very exciting way to end my day,
but it needed to be done; and I’ve saved up one really great bit of news from
today to make sure that my report for today ends on a high note.
Congratulations, Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark!
That’s unofficial, of course, but they’re going
to have some amazing news for our family that they’ll get to deliver in time
for Christmas – even though the actual gift delivery won’t arrive until
sometime next August or September! ;^)
With that to look forward to next year, I
can’t possibly top that with a look ahead at next week, so that’s all for
tonight; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
