My Kids Surprise Everyone

Last night the kids and I went to NCC to help set up the Christmas tree.  We used to call this Decorating the Church but apparently there was some kind of basement flood disaster not too long ago and now we are down to a Christmas tree, lights, 2 strings of garland and a few ornaments that the younger kids Sunday School class made.  Not to worry, the tree takes about 5 people to set up  because it is the most luxurious artificial tree ever with lots and lots and lots of branches to attach.

The only kids there were my two and an older boy named Caleb.  Caleb is...I'm not sure?  13? Something like that.  Caleb is smart as a whip and an only child.  Jeremiah and Sierra love him.  They like to tease him and chase him and generally just bother him.  Last night they had their shining moment in the history of Caleb-bothering-ness.  Caleb's mom sent him to the scary dark dank church basement (not your typical church basement with kitchen, rec reoom, etc.) to put something away.  Jeremiah and Sierra followed him, of course.  Caleb came back up and told his mom there was some kind of electric eye on the light for the downstairs and it wasn't working.  She said there was not an electric eye, and please to go downstairs now and put whatever it was away for her.  Caleb came back again, same story.  Finally after a third try he realized the Alomoto brats were messing with the light switch every time he got to the same spot at the bottom of the stairs.  Caleb could have just tied them up with duct tape and left them in the basement, but he's a nice kid and instead he came up and told his mom what they had done.

I adore Caleb.

While we were setting up the tree in the chapel, the Jewish Student group was preparing the coffeehouse area for a Hannukah dinner.  Last night was the first night of the Festival of Lights, the miracle of the light that lasted 8 nights.  Someone was in the kitchen preparing the meal.  Caroline caught wind of cooking going on and couldn't resist a peek:

 But as it turns out, macaroni and cheese made with bacon is SO not kosher so she had to refrain from taking over the cooking of the meal.  

Ok, back to the surprises of the evening.  After decorating and heading home and being convinced to let the kids take pictures of some of the most lit-up homes in our neighborhood:

Jesus is the Reason for the Season it says.  Is Jesus the reason for that much electricity being used?  Whew.  Inquiring minds want to know.  Here is another house where I think they understand that wasting electricity is a truly secular matter:

I'm not sure how many Santas are in that yard, but I'm pretty sure it's more than 50.  (That's on Hovey and Grove if you think you must drive by and count them yourself.)

Where was I?  Oh yes, the surprises at home.  The kids wanted to go out in the back and mess around in the 1/20th inch of snow on the deck.  I said yes, but for 10 minutes only, then they needed to come in and get ready for bed.  After 8 minutes the back door opened and 2 children who claimed to be mine came inside practically swinging at each other and one of them was shrieking enough to give me a headache.  I sent them to their rooms.  They were both then mad at me instead.  But at least they were quiet long enough for me to get to the medicine cabinet for some excedrin.  (ok, poetic license, yes, I'm exaggerating). 

Later Sierra showed me a new phrase in sign language she had learned while in her room and looking the words up in her ASL dictionary.  It was "I am angry, sort of."  But when I made the "I love you"  sign back she smiled and made the "I love you" sign, too.  Isn't nice you can still love someone when you feel a little angry, too, I asked her.  She smiled and I tucked her into bed.

Jeremiah asked me to scratch his back while he drifted off to sleep.  Then he said he wanted to tell me something he'd thought about the day before.  He hesitated a bit, not sure if he wanted to talk about it or not.  Finally he said, "When Wolf dies, I hope it's because he has to go to the vet for one of those shots and not because he gets hit by a car."  I asked him why he felt that way.  He answered, because I want to be there with him when he dies.  I asked what he would do for Wolf while that was happening.  He didn't know, but when I suggested he could have Wolf's head in his lap and pet him, he thought that would be okay.  But then he said really what he wanted is for Wolf to live as long as he does.  And I think that in Jeremiah's heart Wolf will indeed live forever.