Looks like Monday is my “blog day”…so here we go.
Last Wednesday Cara, Nate, Danae, Kirk and I volunteered with at Salvation Army with the Toys & Joy shop. We met at the old thrift store downtown, got hooked up with an 8 or 9 year old child, got our envelope with $$ from Salvation Army ($8 per family member of the child) then hopped on a coach bus to Shopko North and helped our little kiddo find gifts for each of their family members. My little girl only had 4 people to buy for and she had a list of what to look for which was very helpful. Danae and Cara got a boy….with 9 family members….and Kirk and Nate got a girl with 9 family members to buy for! After getting our shopping done we jumped back on the bus shuttle to Salvation Army and wrapped the gifts, then had cookies and milk and the kids colored “thank you” pictures while waiting for their parents to pick them up. It was a wonderful evening. We will be doing this one again!

Thursday was Girls night and band for Kirk. I had the day off which was totally awesome. I a lot done. I finished making my Christmas cards Thurs evening thanks to Jackie and Melissa! Now I just have to finish writing notes and addressing.

Saturday night Kirk and I finished up our Christmas shopping (except for one thing I’ll get tomorrow). After shopping we met friends at Applebee’s for a beer and 1/2 price appetizers….a great way to end the night. Cara spent the weekend in St. Paul with Bethel friends and at a banquet. Nate got dressed up and took his girlfriend, Michelle, to dinner and to see the play Peter Pan at the Civic Theatre and Danae hung out with friends at various places around town. Danae was shocked that she was home before her parents…too funny.

Sunday Kirk’s band played and Nate was on lights….awesome job guys. Our pastor announced that the Salvation Army volunteer coordinator called him and said that our church did 70% of the volunteering this year….now that is something to be proud of. I spent all of Sunday wrapping presents and cleaned, organized my new shelving in my craft room and was on my feet til 11 pm. I was so tired when I went to bed, but it felt good to get so much done.

I had today off….I love it! I got some more baking done, 3 kinds of cookies (thank you Cara); took a long walk with Kirk, and did laundry. Danae’s “math study group” was here tonight studying for a test tomorrow. They are always so fun to have at the house. We didn’t have frozen pizza for them tonight so they requested grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Back to work tomorrow – all day – darn. I’ll be leaving my “honey-do” list for Kirk this week, since he is off until 2007!!

Tomorrow