The kids and I stepped back into Victorian England this year with a repeat production of The Gospel According to Scrooge.  It was such a blessing to be involved, once again, in this massive musical.  It was a lot of work, but it was so much fun. 

Nigel sang the solo this year.  He had stepped into the Scrooge role at the last moment last year and had not had time to learn the song.  This year he nailed it. 

Tabby and I had a rare lunch out, just the two of us.

I don’t have great images.  I sat too close to the front and too far off to the side.  But I enjoyed seeing my SIX kids singing from the platform. 

I’ve been watching CBS Christmas concerts since December 2002.  That’s a lot of concerts.
That’s a lot of joy.

This unflattering photo is to prove the big kids were there, too.  ♥

We celebrated my birthday on 12/5.  It was almost 60 degrees and dry.  That was a gift in and of itself!  I do think I might be in the running for Mother of the Year as I asked to celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese’s.

I LOVE their salad bar.

We all love crowns.

And the kids all love games.

Marie really wasn’t unhappy.  She was trying to smirk.

There’s a tragic funny story about this cake. 
I wanted carrot cake. 
I worked hard to make my multi-stepped, four-layer carrot cake.
And after I made the homemade cream cheese frosting and slathered it all over the cake I took a taste of the left over frosting.
It was bad.
My buttermilk powder had spoiled.
I didn’t cry.  But I came close.  And I went and found a box mix and made this instead.  With mayonaise and cinnamon.   It was a good consolation prize.

Afterward we went next door and peeked around the furniture store.  Johanna fielded a bunch of misguided “Happy Birthday” wishes before she questioned why she was getting so many greetings.  I removed her crown.  LOL.

The kids test drove some furniture and offered many suggestions.  We took none of them.

It was a super fun evening.