Ma in her kerchief and pa in the garage assembling bikes

By some miracle, we managed to get 4 kids bathed, dressed and to church by 4PM for the candlelight service.  It was packed but it was a beautiful service complete with Ole and Lena jokes.  Singing Silent Night by candlelight is beautiful and puts you in the true spirit of Christmas.  Sadly, as soon as the kids raced to the car, the fight was on as to who stepped on whos foot, etc. and the beautiful feelings were over.

They argued the whole ride home, which took a little longer tonight due to the snow drifts on the road and the fog.  As soon as we got home, I hurriedly made dinner while Marc and Madison headed out to feed the horses.  Once dinner was shoved down their throats and into their belly's I ushered the two little ones off to bed so Marc could commence with his chore of bike assembly.

He only has two to put together, but I figure it will still take him a little while since reading the directions is always a last resort.  Somehow he always manages to have 'extra' parts leftover.  I suppose when the handle bars come off and the wheel falls off, we'll know where those pieces belonged.  But I think Marc is most excited that Thomas will be receiving the quintescential Christmas gift memorialized in the movie, A Christmas Story, that any boy could hope to get.  Yes, Thomas is getting an official Red Rider BB gun, sans a compass in the stock.  As I type, Thomas is watching that movie again and never seems to tire of it.  Well neither do I, but he can watch it back-to-back  and still stay engrossed.

So far, I haven't heard an onslaught of cursing from the garage so it's going well for Marc and the assembly process.  With any luck, Marc will be finished by midnight and we can catch some sleep before their stampeding feet rouse us from our winter slumber. 

Tomorrow afternoon Madison has a friend who will be spending the night with us.  She is a very nice young lady and I just hope that the shock of seeing what a house full of boys is like doesn't make her becoming violently ill.  She'll get to enjoy our Christmas dinner complete with inevitable argument, and followed by cake and indigestion.  I don't think we'll head to church on Sunday as the entire month of January I am both a deacon and a teller(money counter) and that is in addition to my confirmation class duties.  Sheesh, being on the church council has a lot of extra duties!

I can't stop yawning and so I bid everyone a good night.  Outside our window now, the moon is adding a luster on the crest of the new fallen snow and it looks to be perfect for weather for Santa and his sleigh to make a visit.  The cookies and milk are on the fireplace hearth and hopefully by tomorrow morning, santa will have taken some bites out of our cookies as evidence of his visit.  Jerome is soooo excited about Christmas that I hope he can sleep.  I really, really don't want to do present opening before 5AM.

To all a goodnight!