Christmas celebration JOY!

When we got to Jill's, we unpacked the car and then jumped into the car to go pick up Claire at school.  Claire wanted us to see her room and her desk!  

Adam brought Sophia home from cello lessons and picked up Claire to take her to ballet practice.  This is a busy family!  Hannah came home for just a bit before heading back to the school for her program "Night of Silence".  

After supper, Jill, Allen and I went to the Worship Circle.  Worship leaders from 5 various churches lead people in the community once a month in singing and worship.  And Sophie is a part of it, playing cello and singing with the group!  Anyone in the community can come and sing.

This is a small taste of it.  

Wish we could have stayed longer, but Hannah's Night of Silence was starting so we headed there.  Adam's parents and grandmother were also there.   A pretty spectacular program!

It involves the symphony, jazz groups and the various choirs.  Our hearts were filled with JOY!

The next day, Claire had the "Ice Cafe" open for orders.

We went to the Arts Center for the Festival of Trees.

Various trees with different themes were auctioned off.

Cookies were decorated.

The Cardinal Singers sang.  LOVE!

We took a carriage ride!

Claire even got to have the reins for awhile!  Such joy!

We all went out to eat at a new place for us.

Joy and laughter!

In the evening, Claire had her ballet program.

It was in an old theatre.

LOVE it!!

Adam took this photo.  He has portrait mode on his new phone.

She brings JOY!

Early the next morning, Allen and I left to head home.  Al had to go to work on Monday.  We went through a drive-through for some breakfast.  So did a successful hunter.

I texted Jill that I hoped in the midst of all the craziness and hustle and bustle, that she would find JOY.  

Shortly after that, we passed a house that had this sign in front of it.

Then we listened to Adam's sermon on-line.  

He spoke about joy.

(see Sophia on cello?)

We listened to our church on-line.

The children had their Christmas program (How I hated missing it!!)

 followed by Jack's sermon - you guessed it, also on JOY!

God trying to tell me something?

We passed a house that had a train in their back yard, complete with a caboose!  I bet those people who did it find lots of joy in it!  Entertaining their grandkids perhaps and having parties there!

We had to get back home all in one day, but some time when not pressed for time, I HAVE to go up that hill and take a look-see at these homes with such wonderful architecture!!

South of Des Moines, it began icing up.

But joyfully, things did not get slick and we made it home in the fastest time we have ever done this road trip.  11 1/2 hours!  Yay!

That evening, I was reading and my bookmark had Psalm 16:11 on it:

"...You will fill me with JOY in Your presence..."

I mentioned to some people that I sometimes will take a verse and emphasize one word and repeat emphasizing another word, and so forth...

YOU will fill me with joy in Your presence.

You WILL fill me with joy in Your presence.  (a promise)

You will FILL me with joy in Your presence.

You will fill ME with joy in Your presence.

You will fill me WITH JOY in Your presence.

You will fill me with joy IN YOUR PRESENCE!!

Time with the Lord is the key to JOY!  Circumstances can go awry, so keep your eye on Him.  Keep your hand in His.

Quick trip to Wisconsin

We've been on the road the last 2 weekends.  This past weekend we went to Arkansas and Missouri, but a couple of weekends ago, it was up north again to Wisconsin.  We had just been there the beginning of November to see Hannah's senior play.  This time we were going to see the kids in their Christmas activities.

It was a rather murky start.

It stayed cloudy all day, although the fog cleared.  

In Des Moines, we stopped to fill up with gas and a quick stop at Kohl's to look for a birthday present for our daughter-in-law.  No luck.  But I found a really nice pillow for my porch 60% off!

During the drive, Mindy sent me the sweetest picture of the girls!

We drove as far as Cedar Rapids that night.  The next morning we woke up to snow.  We saw that there was a Target close by so we stopped to look for a gift again, and found just the thing for Staci and some things for my husband's staff.

Near Mt. Horeb, we saw a couple of people in the ditches.  They seemed to be okay and were on their cell phones.  We stopped in town to use the restroom and saw a highway patrolman.  We told him and he said he would go check them out.

This is a cute little Scandinavian town.  

Little Norway.

The population is about 7,000.  In the 1800's many Norwegian immigrants settled here.  Our son-in-law has Norwegian blood in him.  And French Canadian.  And German and Native American.  He is quite the mix.

Mt. Horeb has many trolls, those mythical little creatures that are a part of Norwegian folklore.  Evidently, you can hunt for trolls in this town.   https://idkmommy.com/how-to-go-hunt-for-trolls-in-mt-horeb-wisconsin/

I would love to spend more time in this little town.  Pretty cute!  Maybe we'll get a B&B here sometime!  And do a scavenger hunt for trolls!

We continued to see cars/trucks off the road.  We counted 17!  We stopped to see if we could help but there was help there already.  Didn't look like there were any injuries, although it could have been bad!

The  snow stopped after Madison and it was clear going the rest of the way.

I had just been telling Allen that every place seems to use the saying "Join our team" and then we came upon this sign.  I rather dislike cliches like this.

We arrived safely around 2.  Ready to have some holiday celebrations!!