St. Mark Children's Christmas Play

Last night at church we had the annual Children's Christmas Play. There were about 30 kids total that were involved and it was so much fun to work with them. My sister-in-law and I were the dance teachers and my mother-in-law was one of the sign language teachers.

This is practice right before the performance. You can see Debbie going over the sign language with the kids.

This is right when the curtain opened. Basically, the idea of the play was revolved around gifts. Each child in the play represented a toy in a toy store. When the shop keepers leave for the night, the toys come to life. Sound like a familiar movie (i.e. Toy Story)?


These are the sign language kids. They signed the song "Silent Night".

These cutie-pies are the youngest kids in the choir. That little girl in pink in the middle is so stinkin' adorable! She kept waving to the audience.


One of the main characters was one of our dancers, Karla Turner. She was a bunny that was left in the store because she had a rip and ended up getting put on the discount table. She got a "make-over" and became a Christmas Bunny and sold.


The beautiful little girl (who I must admit is one of my favorite girls) is Madison Todd. She played a kitten and was also one of our dancers.


Another one of our dancers (who is also such a cutie and pleasure to be around), Olivia Martin, portraying a ladybug.


At the end of the play they express that the greatest gift of all is the gift we all got from God, Jesus. This is Elizabeth Baker portraying the virgin Mary. There are actually two angels that are next to Mary that were also dancers, Ashlyn is shown in the picture to Mary's right, but Olivia is not.

I posted the video of the dance section of the play below. These girls worked so hard and they only had 2 weeks to learn this dance, even though its a relatively short routine. And by two weeks, I mean one day in each of those weeks for only 45 minutes per day, so I guess a more accurate way of saying it is an hour and a half. They did such a good job and Jenn and I were both so proud of them. You will probably recognize the song. It's actually the music to "When the Saints Go Marching In", but just with different words.

Thanksgiving 2009

Ok so the Thanksgiving post is a little late. I've been busy, sorry! On Thanksgiving day, Justin and I (with the Giz in tow) went to his parents house for lunch with Debbie and Gordon along with Miss Marie, a member of our church and close friend. Gizmo likes Miss Marie a lot. She gives her a bunch of doggie bones. After lunch, we hauled over to the boonies (Chelsea) to my mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner, except we didn't really eat because we were so full already. We actually didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving day at all. I came back to my mom's house the next day to watch the Iron Bowl. Obviously Justin and I don't watch that game together :)

My sister, Jennifer, and her husband were downstairs in Mike's man cave watching the game with other Auburn fans while myself along with my other sister Lindsey and her husband watched the game upstairs. There were kids all over the place! Little Lydia was wearing her Alabama cheerleading outfit and Anderson was wearing his Alabama jersey. My other nephew, Bastian, was also present and switched between Auburn and Alabama gear. I love all those kids! Here's a couple of pics from the day:









All of those kids are adorable! We also had two more little ones there that I somehow managed to NOT get a single picture of!!!! Conner and Hayden are the kids of Shawn and Renn Carroll (Shawn is Mike's nephew). Hayden pretty much attached herself to me the whole weekend. On Sunday, we went to Bastian's Christening and when I left I was saying goodbye to Hayden and she just wouldn't let me go! It was so adorable. Here's a couple of pics from Bastian's Christening on Sunday:

# 94 - CHECK!

I must say, this may be one of my favorite things on my list! Number 94 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to surprise someone with an unexpected gift. I had a little help in this department. This past Sunday, we had the "Hanging of the Greens" service at our church, St. Mark United Methodist. In the service, they announced a very interesting and AMAZING way to show God's love to people you don't know. They had business cards made out, but they aren't business cards. The card has the St. Mark UMC logo with the address and phone number of the church on it, but at the top of the card it says "Thank you for allowing me to share God's love with you. I hope you and your family have a blessed Christmas season."

The idea they gave on how to use this card was that when you are going through the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant, ask the cashier how much the ticket is for the car behind you and if you're ok with the price, ask to pay for their meal and give the cashier the card and have the cashier give them the card. I thought this was BRILLIANT! So I did it this morning! I usually don't eat fast food, but I had to do an inventory count for one of our clients early this morning, so when I get scheduled to do that, I usually go to either McDonald's or Burger King to get breakfast. This morning I went to McDonald's and paid for a woman's breakfast. It may not be much money, but it is certainly an unexpected gift, especially since she has no idea who I am! I truly hope that made her day, because if someone did that to me, it would have certainly made mine! I have a couple more cards that I am hoping to find other ways to use since I don't do the drive-thru all that often ;)