December part 2

Jess and I went to a nearby mega-church's Live Nativity.  It was incredible!  Jessi's classmate and her family participated and invited us, and it was a truly special night.

There was a huge outdoor marketplace with snacks and hot drinks, all for free!  And there were lots of craftspeople doing carpentry, sewing, spinning wool and knitting, etc.

The angel visiting Mary was our friend!

The three kings

Angel appearing to the shepherds, with cool light and sound effects

Kings' caravan to Bethlehem, complete with camels!

The Holy Family, with a live (and crying) baby Jesus.  It was a very cold night...poor baby!

I got a membership to our city museum this year, Van Hoosen farm.  They host a great mini train display each December, and this year it was bigger and better than ever b/c it was in the newly renovated calf barn.  We also got to eat chestnuts roasted on an open fire, and popcorn popped on a fire.

Later that day, we visited Santa!  The girls talked to him one at a time, then we had a great group shot:

After Santa, we walked over to the Robot Garage for another free drop-in day:

Our city mall's Christmas tree:

We drove nearby to see a super cool light show, set to music playing on our Jeep radio.  I'm too lazy to post our videos, but you can go to: http://www.ourdancinglights.com/Holiday2015/Videos.html if you want to see the display.

Katie has joined our church's handbell choir.  They had their first performance in mid-December, and did pretty good considering they have four newbies!  It is supposed to be for high schoolers, but they let a few 8th graders join this year.  And they have to fill in the holes with adults who are really nice!

The lady in the middle is so nice.  She was the musician at Sarah's funeral, and is a longtime choir member.  The handbells were purchased in memory of her son, who was killed in Afganistan about 5 yrs ago.  This bell choir is really special to her, as you can imagine!

One day of Christmas break, the girls had the idea to get out every puzzle we own and do them all!  I have dozens of pics on my phone from that day!  Here are just a few:

We went to the MSU-Oakland basketball game that was held at the Palace.  It was a nailbiter, with #1 ranked MSU needing OT to get the win against unranked and unheralded Oakland!  It was a fun night with two other families.  We got tix a week or so before the game, and these were the best seats left - the nosebleed section in the endzone!  Oh, and look at Chris wearing an MSU shirt - his first!  It was an early Christmas present from the girls.