Guadete!

The 3rd Advent candle is the Joy! or Guadete candle. This did fairly well sum up our last lap of Advent. It was full of varied joys.

Kindergarten is much more serious than it was when I went. Look at them learning syllables and fractions!

We were invited by friends to celebrate the 4th night of Hanukkah with them! We heard the Hebrew prayer, lit candles, played dreidel and enjoyed piles of potato latkes. Such joy!

We then left Miles at their home for the night, because one of his best friends of all lives there, and she had invited him for his first slumber party!

They didn't do a lot of slumbering, but they had a whole lot of fun.

The fun included a face-painting session, so this is how Miles looked at dance when we met him the next morning!

Adele was finally allowed to wear her tutu for her lesson.

That evening, we held our dress rehearsal for A Charlie Brown Christmas!

People have been astounding me with their creativity and generosity at making props and costumes. 

Rehearsal went swimmingly. I was so proud! We only had to repeat one part the kids weren't quite nailing, and then no sooner did we get our costumes off than some church members arrived with a delicious home cooked meal for the kids! I was maintained in a surreal level of joy and victory that weekend of the 4th Sunday of Advent.

After rehearsal, we swung out to have a look at the Living Nativity down the road:

A real sheep! Adele was thrilled

The kids remember: Angels always say "Fear not!"

Even this one.

Here are some pictures of A Charlie Brown Christmas, as performed completely perfectly and movingly by the Christ Church children and teens. We did a shortened version of the script, but we got a lot of the laugh lines and sweet moments in, including Linus' recitation, the decoration of the Christmas tree, and lots of dancing to Vince Guaraldi! Jon was the soundtrack man.

You can probably identify Lucy, Sally, Violet, Linus and Charlie Brown.

The Nativity Ensemble were the kids Charlie was supposed to be directing. They spent most of the "rehearsal" just dancing, but did a lovely mime of the Nativity story when Linus began to recite.

Observe Snoopy and his doghouse!

And our poor little tree, that only needed a little love. 

Singing, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing":

Dancing their Peanuts dances

We got laughter, tears, and lots and lots of smiles from the audience. It was, as I so hoped it would be, a gift to the congregation we love so much. I cannot begin to enumerate all that this experience preached to me. I had reinforced to me that when we go out on a limb and do something new that we feel called to do, the strength and resources to follow through will be provided, and the blessings will be endless. We had some folks who aren't ordinarily too involved in church connected closely with this project, and I had the chance to see some of the extraordinary gifts of the people in the community. I learned, too, that I really don't have to do superhuman things all on my own; the product was the result of everyone's voluntary generosity and support. They were good lessons, pleasant to receive, and I will make use of them again very soon, as I go out on a limb in the direction of Guatemala in just over 2 weeks!

(I could still use prayers for the trip, though...)