spoken for

Today was a full day.
This morning I got up and headed to church by myself. I almost didn’t make it, the alarm not waking me up when it was supposed to. Silly thing does this occasionally. I only made it to service. I went up to the tv control room and did the times for them then was asked if I would come back tonight to help tape the Children’s Christmas Program. I agreed and since they didn’t need me anymore in the morning, I went downstairs and sat with my families.
Then after service we went downstairs (me, Sheila, Sarah) and got our assignment for the Angel Tree Ministry (is a prison ministry that gets some gifts for kids who have parent(s) in prison) - there ended up being only 7 kids, so we just got one that was basically on our way home. We dropped off his gifts and then went back to my house where we ate and got ready to leave again.
From there we had to go over to my in-laws so that Sarah could change. After I told her not to get chili on her dress (after church before we left for the gift-delivering), she went and did it anyway. So she changed into jeans and got her other Christmas dress for the program. We went up to church at 4 and dropped Sheila off for her class and the rest of us went Christmas shopping.
We got our remaining people’s presents bought: my mom, R, M. M and mom weren’t too hard, R told me what mom wanted. But R - I had NO idea what to get him. So I hope he likes what we got. Or he can take it back. :-P
From there we went to church and I ran camera 4. Camera #4 is the one in the back of the sanctuary on the platform. I hate platforms. I’m not afraid of heights or anything, but with my bad balance, I keep feeling like I’m going to fall or pass out. It was okay though. Not as bad as the time I Had to tape graduation at the college on one of those. I had to stand that time (this was my first taping while sitting experience) and the platform there was not a permanent one like this one, so it kinda wobbled - it may have been higher, too. But it was good to be behind a camera again. :-) Camera 4 is also the only one that is not digital, so it has more limitations than the others. Funny thing was, it was me and K (he does camera #2, because he is awesomely steady and walks around with it) and two kids running cameras. :| I don’t really like the ideas of those kids running them because, well, most don’t know what they are doing, and certain kids I am thinking of take advantage of doing this to get out of other things they should be doing instead. However, tonight we had no choice. Oh well.
So from there, Steve and I went to Gordon’s and then came home.

You know, a little bit ago, I put Elijah to bed, and he was kinda awake, so I sat in the living room a bit before coming down here to see if he’d wake up or not. I got to looking at the Christmas present to us from Steve’s parents. It’s a thing called Adorenaments and I hadn’t really gotten a chance to really truly look at it until now.
This is what they look like:

And what they are is a set of 12 ornaments, board book style, that open up. They are each about a name of Christ. The set is designed to help you start a family tradition. There’s also a guide book to go along.
Anyway, I totally love this! I’ve got some great ideas for next year on incorporating these - hopefully by then Elijah will be able to understand better. I figure we can do one a day until Christmas Eve.
Also to go along with that I can use our “family ornaments.” Every year we buy one of those metal Walmart ornaments - yeah, I know, they’re not that expensive or anything, but they are special because we pick one out specifically every year and they each have the year on it. Like 1999 we have “Our First Christmas” with two hearts on it. 2000 has two doves. 2001 is different from the rest and has a heart, I think it says “love” inside of it - we engraved the year on that one. Then 2002 has three angels on it (our little angel was coming) and 2003 has three deer: a male, female, and baby. :-) Okay, so you are thinking “you are so sappy.” :-P to you, I enjoy it. I think it will be neat to see them all in 20 years or so. :-)
Anyway, I think I’m gonna go make some necklaces and bracelets for my family members… either that or go to bed. I got another full day tomorrow. Gotta get Elijah’s 5 month pictures, make a dirt cake, buy some stuff that I forgot like film, and then go to my uncle’s for the “De” family Christmas.