I can't imagine that there will be a more perfect Christmas moment (and picture) than this one right here...

That's our little angel right there on the front row, singing her heart out at the Christmas play last night. She did such a great job; she's one of the youngest in the group and you would have never known it. She sang and danced and did all the movements (after it was over I told her she did a great job. She just smiled and said, "I know all the motions!"). She didn't even attempt to run off stage to give me a hug (which she'd done at every practice) or boss the other kids around (which she'd also done way too many times during rehearsals!).

After the play, I had several people comment on her dancing ability (asking if I'd taught her all those moves; I proudly said I had, LOL) and one say, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?" (I'm pretty sure he was alluding to the fact that her two older sisters are known in the church and at school--and pretty much everywhere!--as gals who'll do anything up on stage. I live with drama queens!)

The Christmas play was definitey the highlight of the weekend--it totally and perfectly set the stage for the month ahead--but there were some other memorable moments. Some of them include...

* Shopping Friday night and getting a TON bought! We went to Target and Books-a-Million and were shopping fools (so much that by the time I got home all I wanted to do was sleep for HOURS and not wake up!). But on Saturday morning we had to get up for another special memory...

* Having McKenna wait on us at the pancake breakfast we had at Applebee's. It was fun getting to boss her around a little bit...

* On Sunday afternoon, we spent some time decorating two of our trees. I had all those presents to wrap, so I needed something to put them all under!

Gary worked first at trying to get our stockings up...

And then we got to decorating our tree. Everyone got involved and it is absolutely one of my favorite activities of the season...



* I finally found the white tree I've been wanting to buy! I found a GREAT deal on one at Big Lots of all places and got it home to decorate. But then the plastic legs broke off, I threw pieces across the room in frustration, then Gary saved the day by buying a tree stand for it. All's well that ends well when I got some fun, retro, funky decorations for it and got it decorated...


* I watched college football on Saturday and all I can say is, "What a crazy ending to a crazy, crazy season!" Numbers 1 and 2 lost and after all of the mess, LSU and Ohio State are in the national championship game after all. Bama is going to a bowl game, but who really wants to go to Shreveport, Louisiana? Yuck! But I will cheer for them, of course!

* I got my first three presents for Gary bought (yay!) and he wrapped two for me and put them under the tree! (I love to GIVE gifts to other people, but I do selfishly love to get gifts too! Now, I can get very excited about a pair of socks or some cheap earrings--I'm very easy to please!!--I just love having presents to look at and shake. Gary knows to get them wrapped early so I can have a nightly shaking of them!

* I got to see and hear some of Sydney's growing excitement about the season. She asked last night, "How long until Christmas?" I said, "About three weeks." She answered: "Okay...1, 2, 3. It's Christmas!"

* All of the fun and excitement was...well...fun and exciting! But, it was also EXHAUSTING! All I really wanted to do was get a good long nap, but I didn't quite get it. This morning I woke up and deliriously asked Gary, "What morning is it?" I seriously didn't realize it was Monday. Aargh!

* In the midst of all the activities, perhaps the most exciting was that I got a NEW CAR!! Now, it's not really new. It's actually a 2000 model, but it's new to me! And...it has a leather interior, sun roof, automatic everything, and low mileage. I'm VERY excited!!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL weekend!! I'm off to get a big long list of household chores done, and try and get a little bit of rest if I can!

(And, oh, check out my new feature on my sidebar. I'm going to put up a Christmas thought for each day of the month. It may be spiritual or heartwarming....maybe even humorous! Just thought it would be a fun little feature to add here to my little bloggy home!)