Dallas Weekend

Last Thursday I went to work in the morning and left for home at 1:00. David took me to the airport at 2:15 and I took off for Texas at 5:30, arriving at 10:10, their time. Heidi met me without any problems. It was going to be so fun to have some Christmas fun with the De Harts this year! 

Here's a look at my photo album...

The tree was beautifully decorated! They have these Frasier Firs that are stiff and look kind of like the old "Charlie Brown's Christmas Trees" I remember, but very full. It was really pretty.

I really enjoyed seeing their "Christmas House," as we're normally visiting in the spring 

rather than at Christmas. They have a very nice collection of Christmas cottages 

that they keep lit 24/7 during the holidays.

Madeline and Abigail were up when we got home so we had fun talking. 

Friday morning Abby and Sam went to the bus and we dropped Madeline off 

at her orchestra room. She had a long day ahead and would be having 

dinner at school and a performance in the evening.

After dropping her off, Heidi and I headed to Panera for breakfast, then to her office to do a few things. This is her office, which she shares with Lisa, her supervisor. It was really fun for me to see Heidi's organizational chart for all her early childhood volunteers and paid workers and see how quickly she whips out signs, coupons, messages and posters when needed. She is always getting texts from people about whether they can work or not and people also call with this idea or that or with info about something wonderful they found at the Dollar Tree. She is very patient, 

interested and is good at making decisions and deciding what to do when 

things change. I loved seeing her in action.

We looked around the kids' area and I thought these great seats made out of tires were so fun! 

They do lots with recycling there and you can see it in various ways around the church.

Their church bought a HUGE building, a former Boeing plant, in the nearby city of Corinth, and they've done amazing things with it! There are lots of long halls like this one and if you walk 

from here to there very often you've logged a mile or more!

We came home and both Heidi and I took nice naps while it rained outside. Dinner was Lentil Soup with ham and cheese biscuits she had made the day before. Yummy!

Here's Abby eating her dinner.

Friday night at 7:00 was Sam's concert and he had to wear a white shirt and black pants. 

He looked very snappy! Here he is practicing before we left. They played about 

4 songs with the plucking technique plus another exercise with the bow, and the teacher 

explained what they had been learning. It was a "short and sweet" concert and I'm so glad 

I was able to go to it! Sam is doing so well on the violin!

You can see Sam at the very far left, in front.

Here we are after the concert with him holding his violin and book. Nice!

Afterwards we had some time to kill until it was time to go get Madeline after her show so we went to Mi Casita for a few tacos. We sat there until they closed at 9:00, then went over to Madeline's school and snuck in the back of the performance to see the last 20 minutes. Very well done!

Saturday morning was our "Christmas morning" with Panera goodies and scrambled eggs with ham.

I had jammed their presents into my carry on suitcase so we had fun opening things! The girls were a little bit scandalized by some unmentionables I brought, and that was kind of fun.

Madeline opens hers...

Sam got a book full of Lego ideas which he was happy about...

And here we are. They gave me some nice dangly earrings and a matching bracelet, 

a very pretty candle and a new family picture. Thank you!

While Madeline's instrument is the violin, she's also learning to play the cello. For one of her classes she has to do something new and journal about it, so she's journalling about learning the cello. I enjoyed hearing her play it a bit. After all our Christmas fun we took Madeline to school to prepare for their 2:00 performance, which would be judged. We would be going to the 7:00 performance. I think they will have 16 performances in all, and all the while keeping up with other classes!

Heidi, Abigail and Sam wanted to go straight to Target to spend their gift cards so we did, 

and it was fun to see what everyone wanted. Heidi and Abby wanted make up, 

Abby was able to swing an iPod docking station on sale and Sam got this "bug" toy 

where the two bugs fight each other on this track. Very entertaining!

He used additional money he had from Grammy and Poppa to buy 

one more bug, making it all the more fun!

Finally it was time for us to go to the "Christmas Carol" production at Denton High School! 

It was truly amazing and so well done! I loved it.

Madeline is in the pit orchestra and they play really hard music for this beautiful show. 

Madeline is right in the middle of the picture... a little hard to see... 

After the show, here we are with some of the sets behind us. 

The students in art classes made them and they were truly beautiful.

Sunday morning we had to leave for church at 7:45 and it was a scramble but we got out of the house by 8:00. Heidi needs to be there early to make sure all is ready and in place with her various classes. She and I ended up staying in the 2's class to help the paid worker as there was a new special needs child that morning and 5 other rambunctious boys. Here she is in action.

Abigail and Sam stayed after church for a practice / a class so we took Madeline and went to a deli for lunch. After picking Abby and Sam up at church after their things we all came home and crashed for naps. Here are the dogs, Mander and Dolce, wishing they could come in the master bedroom, but they know they can't! An hour before it was time to go I started cramming all my stuff and some other family gifts to bring home into my carry-on bag. Such a sweet weekend! 

Heidi took me to the airport and just as I got through security here came William... getting off the plane that I would soon be getting onto! He had spent the weekend in Southern California with his family as they had a memorial service for his uncle and I returned on the same plane... 

he was in 11D and I was in 11C. Nice. Heidi dropped me off and picked him up!

Thank you Lord for air travel, for loving family, for your guiding hand on each of us wherever we are, for providing for us, and for sending Emmanuel - God with us.

Merry Christmas!!