Seriously, the longest post I've ever written....

Isn't this a hectic, busy, crazy time of year? It seems that we are all frantic, filling our every free moment with completing our "list of things to do." Whew! I'm exhausted! Last week was one crazy week. So brace your self. This post is going to be a long one. Hmmm.. Let's see... Where do I start?

Last Week
Well, I was going to start with the beginning of the week. But to be honest, it's all a blur. I can't even remember what I did yesterday, not to mention a week ago. Oh yes. Let's start with Tuesday.

Tuesday was a nice day. It was the Christmas party for my Young Mom's Bible Study at church. We took a break from our Beth Moore study to celebrate the holiday. Everyone signed up to bring food. Guess what was the only thing left for me to bring? A breakfast casserole. Now there is something you should know about the breakfast casserole. They are a yummy concoction of eggs, meat, veggies, milk, cheese, flour or Bisquick, and sometimes potatoes. Warm and savory. Yum! I don't know anyone who doesn't like a good breakfast casserole. They are the first thing to be snatched up at most breakfast potlucks. HOWEVER....the thing about breakfast casseroles is.... everyone loves to eat them, but NO ONE WANTS TO MAKE THEM!!!!!! You would not believe the number of breakfast casseroles I have made since September. Hold on, let me count. Counting the ones for MOPS, I would estimate about SEVEN BREAKFAST CASSEROLES!!! Ok ladies, I have paid my dues. I have made enough casseroles to last at least the next 7 years. And why am I always the poor sucker who feels bad that the only lonely spot on the sign up sheet is the breakfast casserole, and then seeing the spot, always puts my name down? Attention ladies of the Fellowship Chapel MOPS group-please sign up for a breakfast casserole! I for one, am tired of making them.

Whew! I guess I had a lot of pent up feelings about that one. Actually, the party was very nice and we made a really pretty bracelet to wear to remind us about the Bible Study we are doing. Beth Moore wants everyone doing the study to wear a blue cord around her wrist as a reminder of the fact that we don't just believe IN God, but we BELIEVE GOD. There is a difference. But that is another post entirely. I am only on Tuesday, you see!

Friday was another busy day. I started the day with a play-date at my friend Jenny's house. Jenny and I went to high school together but we did know each other then. We met at Emma's soccer class last June. 165 miles from where we grew up and went to high school together. Small world, huh? After play-date, we buzzed over to a store where I had a mystery shop to do. (I later found out that I did the wrong location and will not be reimbursed. GRR. Serves me right for trying to cram too much into one day.) After that, it was back to the house to tidy up for the babysitter to come in the evening. Babysitter comes, I leave for my Body Shop party. Said party was VERY interesting, but that in another post too.

The Weekend-O-Fun
I know what you are thinking. Praise the Lord, God Almighty! We are finally at the weekend part of this ever-long post! But it is not even close to being done. You see, we crammed so much into this weekend, that I'm dubbing it the Weekend-O-Fun.

We started Saturday morning out by packing the girls into the car and driving north about 1.5 hours for a birthday party. Emma's friends Amanda and Katelyn share a birthday party because they are only 12.5 months apart. My friend rents a big hall for their party, which is at a campground. The hall has an attached indoor pool and hot tub which everyone went in after the girls opened their massive pile-o-gifts. I have seriously never seen two children receive such a large amount of gifts for their birthday. I mena, it's not even Christmas, which, might I remind you, is only ONE WEEK AWAY!!! I shudder to think that this shall be repeated in just a week's time. Let's just say they decided to drive their full-size covered pick-up truck up there instead of their mini-van for the sole purpose of bringing the gifts home. It was unbelievable. Kind of made the My Little Pony we got each of them seem a little miniscule.

The second thing we did on the Weekend-O-Fun was to take my wedding rings to get repaired. This has been such a long time coming. I got them CUT OFF about 4 YEARS AGO when I was expecting Emma. Well we finally took them to get fixed and I am so excited! My wedding band is a channel-set band with princess cut diamonds. We just got that one fixed. My engagement ring is a solitare which contains my mom's original diamond (Dad upgraded Mom's diamond a while back). This ring is being re-done entirely. I decided I wanted the setting changed because my original ring didn't fit together very well with my wedding band. So the new ring is going to have a taller prong with will make them fit together snuggly. They should be ready on Saturday and I am thrilled at I will be able to wear them again!

Next up on the scheduled Weekend-O-Fun was our trip to the Henry Ford Museum for their Holiday Lights event. I don't even know where to start talking about this except to say that we had sooo much fun. I didn't really know what to expect because I had never been there before. But basically, they have this thing called Greenfield Village. It's a turn of the century village that is set up with real buildings from the time of Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, etc. There are people in period costumes walking around and it was like stepping back in time. I'm sure if the kids were older, they would get more out of the history part of it. But they had fun just the same.

It was a cold night, but mild, especially for this time of year. We first went through a couple of "shops"- a hat-maker's shop and an old fashioned toy store. Next to the hat-makers's shop they were roasting beef over a fire barrel and chestnuts over the barrel as well. I've never eaten a roasted chestnut, but OH MY GOODNESS! They were amazing. We then noticed that people were walking around with hot drinks, so we decided to get some ourselves. Next we walked by this adorable little ice-rink that actually had skates for rent. Emma begged to go skating, but we pacified her with promises of "Maybe when you're older..." and such. It was just so nice to be together as a family and enjoy the carolers and being outside. Everything was free once you paid the admission to get in. They had Model-T replicas that people could ride in, and horse-drawn wagon rides as well. We opted for the wagon rides.

After the wagon ride, we decided to head over to see Santa. Now we've been trying to tell Emma that Santa is just pretend and something fun that people do at Christmastime. She hasn't been convinced, and this didn't help any. Santa was up on the balcony of one of the houses and he was shouting "Merry Christmas" to the kids down below. There was a lady caroler who came over and started talking to Emma, asking her name and what she wanted for Christmas. Well she no sooner walked away and Santa yelled out, "Merry Christmas Emma, Merry Christmas Ellie!" Emma just looked up at me with the widest eyes! She was stunned speechless. I don't think she's going to believe me that Santa is pretend anymore.

Well, this post has seriously gotten out of control. I got to do some scrapbooking late into the night on Sunday, and that about wrapped up the Weekend-O-Fun. Now I'm off to reality- dirty diapers need to be changed, clean laundry bekons to be folded and put away and lunch is right around the corner. Until next time....