child. I used to sing in it myself, and I can close my eyes and just soak up the beautiful harmonies. Nobody notices if I hum along with some of the choir songs that I know!
Next we had a special Youth service project - we went to Target and bought ribbon and ornaments, headed to a malt shop for supper and tied ribbons on all the bulbs, then went to the Good Samaritan home where Grandpa Roger was, and sang Christmas carols and handed out a decoration to each resident.
Afterwards, we took the kids to see and hear the light show at a house near ours that is incredible, and wound up at the Mocha Monkey in town for hot chocolate/mocha/??? It was a really fun time, and something that I think might become a tradition with the youth.
You can park in the culdesac, tune your radio to a special frequency, and watch the show as the lights change in time to the music - incredible!
We started working on the children's Christmas program back in October, and it FINALLY was time to perform - sharing the Good News of the Gospel with the kids is such a lot of fun. Our program this year was written, again, by Karen Kowalke. It was called Waterbrooke's Got Talent.
We had three special guest judges, Andy, Kristin, and Mark - not QUITE ready for Hollywood - and a great group of kids.
I was proud of the boys for their enthusiasm singing AND doing the actions for the songs. Of course, it helped that I created actions for songs like "Dude, You Hear What I Hear?"
OK - we'll take one crazy picture - some are crazier than others!
We gathered at Mark and Karena's for the annual Casey gathering on Friday, Dec. 23. Lots of good food and time to hang out and chat. It was great to have Christie home, but we missed Tessa in California, Elaine who was in Tennessee visiting her kids, and Annie, Tyler and Scarlett all had strep throat - bummer. The spirit of Grandpa Roger was very present as you will see.
Hmmm - an interesting bunch of white elephant gifts. Now for the fun ...
Brenner always organizes the picking of the numbers. Looks like magic.
Oh boy, Anna and Alison can't wait!
Let's get going - who has number 1?
Drew picked Grandpa Roger's hat - along with a bottle of stool softener and some Boost energy drink. Just the right person for that bag of goodies!
Christie got a Minnesota mug, and lots of fun toys ( just the thing for my school "store"). I got a power drill and a seal for some plumbing pipes - what's with that? Good thing there is a round #2!
After the gifts were done, Drew and Paul spent some time schmoozing about Drew's organ ...
Phil played with Tibbs ...
... or should I say Tibbs played with Phil?
Then Drew got going on the organ - Chicken Dance, anyone?
Yep - here's a couple of cool chicks!
We wrapped up the night with a round of dominoes - and I won!
On Christmas Eve we had a beautiful service at Waterbrooke, and then back to the house for Swedish meatballs and opening presents. We had a quiet and lovely time together. There's plenty of fatigman for a bedtime snack, thanks to Christie helping me make them on Friday morning. I'm looking forward to spending my Archiver's gift card and making a Casey history book with Alison sometime this winter. 
I think Christie won't be needing this hat this winter - maybe a beach umbrella would be more appropriate for her upcoming trip to the beaches of the Caribbean! 
After church on Christmas Day we headed to Corey's uptown apartment to get together with the Catlin/Bracken remnants. Jenna, Andy, and Charlie were winging their way to Pittsburgh, Teddy, Angie, and Matthew were celebrating with Angie's folks who came down for the weekend, and Tom, Kim, and the kids were in Illinois waiting for Ted and Pat to come for New Year's. But the rest of us enjoyed a chili feed, and Maddox and I played LOTS of games in his room! 
It's tough being the only little kid - BUT - he got lots of presents!
Corey has been going gung-ho on his art hobby . I think he'll need to rent space soon to display all these cool pictures.
The hallway is filling up! Maybe this will turn into a profitable business someday???
We headed out to see War Horse while Corey and Maddox saw Tin Tin. On Monday, Paul and I met Jane and Chuck at the Minnesota History Museum to check out the 1968 display and The Greatest Generation. Afterwards we had lunch on "the hill" in St. Paul. Fun!
And finally ... we HAD to make Grandma Linburg's bread during vacation. Jane gets things going while I drive to Cannon Falls.
I get to add the molasses and flour. We were so busy talking, we forgot to put in the raisins and lost track of how many cups of flour we put in!
The dough was a little stiff - did we put in too much flour?
Let it rise - let's go shopping and then play duets. The video I made is pretty funny, but I can't figure out how to download it yet. Hmmmm.
It's not rising like it usually does - maybe the yeast is the problem????
The baby loaves needed more time in the oven, the eventually ... success! I've been enjoying Grandma's bread for toast every morning this week. Paul and I got our new year's letter written and the cards mailed - now I can go back to work. Happy New Year, everyone!
