A Good Weekend

We had a fun and busy weekend. On Friday night we attended a great Christmas concert at Dordt. On Saturday night we attended the Dordt faculty/staff Christmas celebration. My division was in charge this year, so Dwight and I and the kids spent some time Saturday morning helping with the set up and decorating. The kids enjoyed helping and everything looked just lovely for the party Saturday evening. Of course, the kids stayed home while we went and enjoyed a nice evening with colleagues.

Maria also got to spend time with a new friend this weekend. Regina, the bringer of so many good things, introduced Maria to M on Monday night at the Christmas dessert night. The two girls were practically best friends from the moment they met. They are both 12, both in the sixth grade, both adopted. Maria tells me they like all the same things and dislike all the same things. They don't attend the same school, but M only lives a few blocks from here so the girls can still spend lots of time together outside of school.

Maria went over to M's house on Saturday afternoon and the two girls did whatever 12-year-old girls do. I'm sure it involved lots of giggling. They also went sledding as it was such a beautiful day. Maria ended up staying there for supper and going with their family that evening to a living nativity event in a nearby town. They were transported in a horse-drawn wagon to each stop. Maria loved the whole thing, but especially noted the inclusion of a live llama. I would like to think that this was because she was wondering about the likelihood of llamas being present at Christ's birth, but I'm pretty sure it was because she had never seen a live llama before.

We are still working out the church thing. It has been suggested that we spend about six weeks at each church and I think we are going to try that. Jacob says that whichever church we go to first will be the one we join as we won't want to leave after six weeks. We plan to start the extended visit thing after the Christmas break. I don't know yet which church we will start at. I'm guessing it might be hard to get consensus on that.

As usual, Jacob and Tony also came by to spend the evening with us. I love that they enjoy doing this. A colleague lent us a new game to try and it was a big hit. The game is Ticket to Ride. The maximum number of players is five and we had seven, but Maria and Jon Felipe were tired and not very interested in playing so that worked out. For the record, Tony and I tied for first place. We may get this as a family gift this Christmas. For those of you familiar with this game, do you prefer the original version or the one set in Europe?