Holiday Spirit Runneth Over

I'm feeling very Norman Rockwell-ish with all of the fun holiday activities the town of Parker and our church have put together. Downtown Parker has some really fun little activities for Friday and Saturday evenings in December, and we went down last night to check it out before the arctic cold they've been warning us about arrives tonight. All of the activities are totally free too - bonus! There were carriage rides, visits with Santa,little bonfires up and down the sidewalk, carolers, popcorn and cider...all very high on the quaint scale. And we didn't even see everything, like the coffee shop where librarians were telling holiday stories like The Polar Express because Max wanted to get home and see Frosty on TV. I know. Priorities. It was just fun to see so many people downtown against the beautiful backdrop of all the lights - working to build a sense of community and all that (and yes, I know, drum up business for the downtown merchants).

Then this afternoon we headed over to our church for A Night in Bethlehem, something that I think they started while we lived in Utah and I think we missed last year due to a ski trip. It was a very well-done "Jewish village" with tons of hands-on activities for the kids, like making rope, making sandals, grinding grain with rocks (Max really enjoyed this), petting animals, etc. Here's Max making a mosaic, and here he is making jewelry. Shocker that Ben didn't want to do any of the crafts. He was more interested in collecting the gold coins that the angels were dropping and occasionally having to pay the tax collectors. What a cool idea to bring Bethlehem to life for the kids (and adults too for that matter)! We've always been thankful for our church and all that it has to offer, but especially after our year in Utah, we're just grateful for all of the neat things going on in our church.

And tomorrow morning, Max has his Christmas pageant, The Christmas County Spelling Bee. His line: "And the government will be upon his shoulders" plus all of the songs with the angel choir. So excited!

A totally different subject: Andrew and I reversed the handle on our fridge door today so that it no longer clunks into the counter about a hundred times a day. We figure it is only going to take us about 10 years to get used to grabbing the other side of the door!