Now I can breathe...

Well, we survived the week. We started last weekend with the Purdue Christmas show, a New World Youth Orchestra concert, and helping with our church's Christmas project (packing boxes of food for children who will not get breakfast or lunch over the Christmas break). Monday was a presentation day for Clara. She recently finished her first real research paper, and the students were invited to share a presentation based on their research topic. It was held on Monday (a day when there are typically NO students at the Learning Center), and there were about 15 students who participated. Grandpa even stayed to see Clara's presentation before heading back to Ann Arbor. Tuesday we hosted our small group for dinner. We had a great time preparing for it, even though we did have a few snags along the way (we had to re-make one dessert twice and the other one once!) Everything was yummy and other than the fact that my feet were killing me by the end of the day, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Wednesday morning found me serving coffee, hot cocoa and tea to the teachers at the Early Learning Center. What fun to be able to give them a small treat of thanks for all the dedication and time they give to their students! Of course, by the end of the morning my feet were REALLY killing me. Wednesday night went by in a blur...helping at church and the kids having their last AWANA of the year. Thursday the kids and I tried to get all caught up on school so that we can really relax over the break. We almost succeeded...just a couple of art lessons to finish up this weekend. Thursday night was Matt's office Christmas party. Friday was spent at the elementary school, helping with the 2nd grade gingerbread house party and Friday night we drove up to Kokomo for a truly amazing concert. This morning we finished up the very last event of our crazy-busy week with our Angel Breakfast. This event was inspired by the same event that takes place at Church at the Crossing each year. We missed the event so much when we moved to Minnesota that we decided to host our own as an outreach opportunity for our kids' friends. The two that we had in MN were for the classmates of Quinn and Clara. Now for the last two years we have invited Zane and Millie's friends and Clara has been the Christmas Angel.

I love this time of year, but this week was truly over the top!! I'm thankful that we are having a quiet afternoon at home and we still have 6 days till Christmas!