December 17 – “Frosty’s Melting”

We had an interestingly quiet day yesterday.  That’s pretty much just a quiet day, but we did a few interesting things.  OK.  So maybe not that interesting.  But no crises to deal with, anyway.

 

Chris spent much of the day cleaning house.  It’s her usual Thursday routine, but we didn’t have home group last night.  Why? Well, we had the church Christmas party, but the cleaning was all about something else entirely.  This time she was doing her usual, “get the house clean before we leave on our trip because I don’t want to come home to a dirty house” cleaning. 

 

I took a few different approaches to the day.  Since we are headed to Waco, I didn’t have a sermon to prepare – Kel is preaching Sunday.  But I had plenty to do.  Before Chris woke up, I had a chance to do a little work on the carving for this year.  It is coming along nicely.  I’m in the sanding phase, which historically lasts right up until the last minute, as I keep finding places to go over … again.  The only way I have found to effectively exit said phase?  Wrap the gift.  Get it out of sight, out of mind.  Maybe today …

 

When Chris woke up and came to the garage to check on me, I shut it down and came back to the office so we could have our usual morning routine.  The serenity of routine didn’t last long, however.  I still had to pull together all the final touches for the Christmas party Reindeer Games. 

 

We started out with some of the games to give Corey a chance to finish eating his supper.  But when he got all hooked up, Jim and Corey and Doug all led us in some Christmas Carols.  Pastor Kel prayed and welcomed us to a special Seaside Christmas event.

 

The Visual Carols stumped a lot of folks this year.  We had a lot of new folks in the crowd.  And the new Hidden Clues game was a lot of fun as well.  As for the individual version of the games, we started out with the kids doing a candy cane transfer game.  They were all pretty focused, but Josiah came out on top.  Our resident blindfolded artists were next, and they drew some pretty impressive pictures of Santa and a reindeer.  And then came the Chubby Santa game.  Micah, Ed, and Robert all stuffed marshmallows into their mouths one at a time, then said “Chubby Santa.”  Very funny stuff – if you are just looking on.  I lost count of how many they crammed in.  Ed gave up fist, but the other two were quite determined.  And by the time we declared it a draw, they both looked a little rosier in the face and puffier in the cheek. 

 

Last of all came the Frosty’s Melting game.  That’s the one where everyone tries to unwrap the cellophane covering a myriad of toys and candy and this year - even a stuffed animal.  The grand prize was a $25 gift certificate to WalMart.  But hey … they had a lot of layers to wade through.  We had a hunch this year, so rather than make just one of Frosty’s body parts, we would bring all three in.  That put around ten folks at each of three tables, unwrapping the cellophane and gathering up the goodies.  It made for lots of laughs and squeals.  That one will make a return appearance, I am sure. 

               

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

 

Father, please be with Jason today as he goes into surgery.  He sure needs that shoulder to be an electrician.  Guide the surgeon’s hand and direct the nurses’ hearts.  Amen.