December planning

Ram's parents returned home today and life is getting back to normal after a short Thanksgiving school break/eating too much/and grandparents spoiling the Lambs. We have some turkey left but most of the other Thanksgiving Day leftovers will be finished tomorrow if they aren't gone yet. We were able to help decorate the church for Advent tonight because we didn't go out of town this year. The Lambs had lots of time to play outside this week even though the weather was rainy and cool. They will miss their neighborhood friends returning to school next week. I feel ready to put the Thanksgiving/fall decorations away and get out the Advent wreath and Advent calendars.

It is nice that Advent begins on Dec. 1 this year-most store bought Advent calendars and Advent resources go from Dec. 1-25. Most years we have to wait until Dec. 1 to begin the Advent calendar even though Advent begins earlier. It was nice to celebrate my baptism birthday before Thanksgiving too.

This month Ram, Ewe, and the Lambs each have a few doctor appointments-trying to do these before a new calendar year and a new deductible to meet. It seems like Dr. appointments throw our whole school day off. We will keep plugging along in our school work even if we don't accomplish as much as normal in school this month.

I did a lot of Christmas shopping/getting stuff for Sunday School treats in October and early in November. I have a couple more small gifts to pick up but I am mostly done. I already mailed my parents and my sister their presents. I have the few other people that we mail to ready, I just need to wrap and put them in the mail.

Our Sunday School Christmas Service and our Ladies Advent Tea are both on December 8. I have much to do for both of these and have worked on it before Thanksgiving and will finish this week. After that Sunday School will do some crafts for the next few weeks so I won't need to prepare to teach a Sunday School lesson. I will make something for our Advent suppers but I don't have any other commitments. It will be really nice to get the major events done early in the month and spend the rest of December focusing on Advent and Christmas when it comes. I am expecting Christmas to be very relaxed at our house as we decided not to celebrate Christmas with Ram's parents until New Year's week. Perhaps we can spend time doing some of the Christmas traditions that I would love to do but we never seem to have time.