On the countdown............

The kids are on the countdown for Christmas! Only 9 more days! I am on the countdown for the end of my job. Only 4 more days! I'm probably not going to know what to do with myself. Yeah, right. Typically my New Year's resolution is to not make a New Year's resolution. This year I am making one to spend quality time with the kids and get this house organized!

Yesterday we went to see Santa at the zoo. Emma was sure to give Santa her list of things she wants. We then walked around the zoo a bit.

Today we ended up going to 2 church services. Between services anyone wishing to participate was allowed to join in the singing of Christmas carols in the chapel. I really enjoyed it even though I'm not a good singer. Typically we go to the 9am service, but they had special music being played at the 11am service so we went to that and I had every intention of leaving during the middle of the service; however, we were blocked into the pew on both sides in the balcony. The kids were not behaving very well the second time around. There was a special violin/piano piece that was played, and then The University of Mary's brass group played. The kids enjoyed that; however, it was the last thing before the service was over, so we would have had to stayed for the whole thing anyway. I guess it was a good note to end on, because I was totally prepared to start taking Christmas presents away when we got home. Even without warning them, they behaved on the ride home, and during lunch I told them I had every intention of starting to eliminate presents out from under the tree. There are only 4 for each of them under the tree, so it wouldn't take long at all for those to go away. We'll see how long it takes them to forget they need to be behaving.

Scott is out hunting pheasants today (which is why he didn't appear in the above "family" photo). I set the camera timer to take our picture. I wanted one of us in our Christmas attire before church, and since we won't be here next Sunday, I figured I better do it today, even if Scott was gone.

I've started making my list of things I need to do before we head out to Iowa on Saturday. I'm praying for good traveling weather and for peace and quiet (yeah, right) on the trip. The list is getting to be quite lengthy, so I best get started!