A Night in The City...

No, I didn't go to NYC, Chicago, St. Louis, or even the booming metropolis of Springfield MO...I'm talking about Silver Dollar City. That is where i spent my evening last night...but since I haven't blogged in the past few days, I thought I would just give you a rundown of the events of my blogging absence (please understand that I will be leaving out my trips to walmart because I feel like the organization has received enough love from my blog in the past couple weeks so I won't be mentioning that today.)

Friday was spent working...nothing out of the ordinary there. Friday night however I went to the church secretary's house and we had christmas dinner and played games. She taught me how to play this dice game that I totally Rocked at!!! I thinkI'm going to Vegas. My luck changed when we moved on to the Trivial Pursuit game. We started with the old-school Silver Screen Edition...oh man, I didn't know ANY answers. My mom would have been disappointed in my because I got one question about Gone With The Wind that I thought I would know, but I had nothing on that either. The we moved on to another edition of the game and I sounded a little smarter...but Judy definitely kicked my behind at the game.

Saturday was Christmas program practice and as my stress level increased, I was lucky enough to have several people here at church tell me that it would all work out and be ok. I chose to believe them. Saturday night my friend Aubrey and I went to the local youth leaders Christmas party. Oh man. We had it at one church's "youth room" It had pool tables, ping pong, fuseball, karoke, and my favorite, the Dance Machine. It was like youth group play time heaven. I had done the dance machine before, but it had been a while. Aubrey and I got on this thing and went to town. I highly recommend you trying it. The first few times you're just going to look like an idiot...but after that it starts to get pretty fun! It grades you when you're done and tells you how well you did. Aubrey and I did it like 10 times in a row to make sure we got the A. I think I want to get one for my house, and play it all the time!

Yesterday was the SS Christmas program. It was really like a "remodeled" Lessons and Carols, if you're familiar with what that is. I know that you can expect some kids to not show up and do their parts, BUT when there are only 7 kids to begin with, you really need all the help you can get. So when I was told that morning that one wouldn't be there, I was thankful for my friends who stepped up to help! I think it went pretty good and people really seemed to enjoy it...Did it come off the way I wanted it to??? Well not how I pictured it in my ideal mind, but I think the message got across and that's what matters. I was so proud of all the kids who got up there and read parts even though they didn't want to! It was fun to see them kind of break out of their shells. Hopefully next year the idea won't make them quite as nervous. I actually gave some kids microphones and let them speak their lines from a closet...never done that before, but I think it worked.

After that some of the youth group, and youth group supporters, went to take some gifts to the one family we adopted. This is one of my favorite activities for the entire year. It was so nice to see the kids see what it's like to help people. I realize that being a director of Christian Outreach is about getting the gospel out to the people...and giving Christmas presents doesn't necissarily say, "Jesus Christ died for your sins...call upon his name and be saved." But I think it does show a little bit of love to people who are in serious need of it. It's just good stuff.

And then my trip to Silver Dollar City. People come from all over the place to see the lights at Christmas. I have sat in "Silver Dollar City Traffic" almost every other night in the past few weeks. But we braved the crowds, and the 30 degree weather to see all the sparkle and christmas cheer it had to offer. I rode a rollar coaster, backwards, in the cold...we watched a christmas tree with dancing lights (an odd thing to have for a main attraction if you ask me)...we saw a very small part of a really strange presentation on musical instruments from the bible...I rode a fake camel...we ate A LOT...saw the parade of lights twice...the girls and I tap danced in the streets. A good time was had by all. I might have some pics to post later from our fun filled Christmas evening.

And now, I am going to clean my office.