My hands hurt, in a good way, from clapping! The Packers beat the Chicago Bears in the last few seconds of the game, clinching the divisional title yet again. Yes! Lynn and I had a good time, sometimes an agonizing time, watching this game today, and at the end, did a victory dance together. My apologies to the downstairs neighbor for that brief, but thunderous, celebration!
After worship today (marvelous sermon, Pastor Schaefer!) we went to have breakfast as a group to Perkins. I had lunch there yesterday with Yvonne, but I sure don’t mind going again. Lynn treated us all---Mom, Alayna, Jill, and me plus herself to a wonderful meal. I got my standard fare of potato pancakes with crispy bacon of which I brought half home with me. Perhaps Mom will enjoy the remainders for breakfast tomorrow.
At the next table sat some old friends of mine from the building days, Mike and Judy. I used to joke that he paid us to leave town---there’s only so many new homes to be built in our small town and folks would get bids from the three to four custom builders, which ended up being a friendly competition. We shared many fond memories of conventions attended both in-state and around the USA together. Oh, those crazy home builders! And now they are grandparents!
Back to worship---my young friend, Naomi, was the organist today and really did a fantastic job. Especially noteworthy was her use of musical dynamics in the hymns, adding volume where the stanza texts called for it, and playing more softly when the text spoke that way. Our communion distribution hymn was “Where Shepherds Lately Knelt”, one of my new favorite Christmas hymns.
Tomorrow I am spending much of the cold, daylit hours at Linda’s house, taking my laptop with me to catch everything up online. Oh my, I have taxed my Internet usage on the cell phone, which Justin had assured me would be a sufficient amount. Oh no, it wasn’t! I will have to pay for overages but last year I had to pay Verizon for the Internet connection thingy which drove my laptop crazy, so I’ll pay this way, except for the time I spend at Linda’s on her service. She assures me it’s no problem at all and I have to take her at her word on that. Amanda, Linda’s little granddaughter, will be there, too, which could be fun. She is a little cutie pie, and quite entertaining. I will take pictures to share once I get home again. Can’t wait to share all my pictures, if not in my blog, then on Facebook. I shall have to wear every warm piece of clothing I brought along tomorrow as a cold blast is coming in tonight, dropping us to -8 overnight. Yikes! A high temp of 10 will be mine tomorrow---yes, happy birthday, Kim!
