'Twas the Dream Before Christmas

Josh and Staci's house was all decorated for Christmas.    

I like this idea!  But as more and more people just post a picture on Facebook, Staci says the tree gets more sparse each year.

 Milk and cookies served nightly?!  I'm afraid it's a lie.  But it's cute!

Emeri was getting her hair done for the Christmas musical.

And Elijah was so very ready to take Papa on!

 

After dinner, we went to the play.

Emeri and Staci had gone earlier.  Staci helped backstage.

'Twas the Dream Before Christmas

The children in the family in this play were so selfish and just thinking only about themselves and what they were getting.  Their father is ready to cancel Christmas!  He's so fed up with their attitude.  They fall asleep in the living room and then they have this dream about the real meaning of Christmas. 

   

Emeri was a pirate. 






When I was in grade school, we did the play of "Mutiny on the Bounty" and I was a pirate too!  My brother Doug was Long John Silver.  Definitely not a major production like Emeri's play.  We only had around 15 kids in our one-room school house.  Emeri took classes for this production as an elective at school!

My favorite part was where the children are asked if they can even recall what was on their Christmas list from last year.   Hmmm.  Do you?

  And here are gifts that last forever.  It was sung to the 12 days of Christmas tune.

1. New life abundant and free

2. Joy in my heart

3. Peace in my soul

4. Love for the world

5. God's Holy Word

6. Hope for tomorrow

7. All my sins forgiven

8. Gold streets in heaven

9. New songs for singing

10. Grave that's amazing!

11. Life filled with praying!

12. Life everlasting!

Yes, the gift of Christ is the BEST thing ever!  But one must receive this gift.  If someone gave you a gift but you didn't accept it, it isn't yours.  

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

The robot costumes were amazing!

The next morning we went to church and sang about the birth of our Saviour.

Because we were celebrating Staci's birthday, we let her pick where to go out to eat.  Olive Garden!  We ate sooooo much and were stuffed!

 Off to pick out Christmas ornaments for this year.

 And all too soon it was time for us to leave for home in Kansas.

 Silly waves!

Our journey and hawks

 We went on a quick over-night trip to Arkansas this past weekend.  It was a cloudless day.

 Love driving through the Flint Hills!

 As we drove into southeastern Kansas, we began to notice so many hawks!  They are grand to watch! 

 Al pulled over so I could get a close-up of this one.

Some were soaring, others hovering.

Some were diving after prey.

Others were sitting on posts, in trees or on lines, hunting for food.

We didn't count but easily we think we saw around 80 hawks!  

Red-tailed, cooper, broad-winged, and sharp-shinned hawks.  

 We saw several as road kill.   (I didn't take pictures.  Didn't think that would be appropriate.) 

One almost flew into us!

This one is blurry, darn.  Funny though.

"Red-tailed hawks are monogamous and may mate for life. They make stick nests high above the ground, in which the female lays one to five eggs each year. Both sexes incubate the eggs for four to five weeks, and feed the young from the time they hatch until they leave the nest about six weeks later."

Hawks are accipiters. They have short, rounded wings and a long tail and feed chiefly on small mammals and birds.  We have had them come land on our deck post and even on our bird feeder.  The little birds fly into the bushes and make such a ruckus!  

It made our trip to Arkansas fly by.