Class, Children’s Christmas Program, guests, tomorrow

Class yesterday was a great class. I felt like I was a little off my game doing the presentation in a slightly different format for an audience sitting with me, but it turned out well. Three of the five participants were from client companies. Two were from my team at Energy WorldNet. Everyone participated throughout the class which always makes the class more fun. In these face-to-face classes that is typically the case, which is why I enjoy that format so much better than online. It had been almost eight months since I did a face-to-face class, so I was a little out of practice, but having presented the online version nearly sixty times in that space of time, it was only a matter of making sure I followed the printed book the class was referencing. I had to make sure all the activities included in that book were offered to the participants. That is something we do not offer in the online class. I enjoyed the day and the participants seemed to do so as well.

Mama had spent the day out shopping so when we both got home, we hurried through the evening feeding to allow us time to get to church almost an hour early. The Master’s Club Christmas Program was last night, and Mama and I had to get our girls to the church for the final run through. Since I had not been a participant in any of the practices Monday or Tuesday night, I needed to see the order of service so I could get things coordinated for the adult choir which had several songs to sing as a part of the program.

The program went off without a hitch. The children who had lines in the dialogue all knew and spoke their lines loudly and confidently. Cheyenne had a speaking part in the program and even she did her part as though it were a small thing. All the songs they sang were very well done. (I have found myself wishing the adult choir would always sing with that level of confidence and volume.) For the adult’s part, we had practiced the songs we contributed to the production over the past couple weeks, so we were well prepared to do our part. Pastor preached a short sermon and passed out bags of fruit and candy to all in attendance, which was a sizable crowd. Who does not like to see a children’s program? It was a fun evening at church.

Later this afternoon we will be entertaining a family that has spent the past year at BBTI. They have been faithful attendees to our church and Mama and I have wanted to have them over for dinner for months. We finally were able to coordinate our schedules and settled on this afternoon/evening to get together. They are headed to the mission field in Mozambique. In a few weeks they will go on deputation fulltime so their schedule will – hopefully – be full for months to come. The couple and their three children have never been to the farm, so they are looking froward to their visit. The youngest child, just over a year old -born to them during their sojourn at our church – is a handful so we will need to be on our toes, but we will manage.

In preparation for their visit, we have a ham on the smoker, and I will be adding corn on the cob to the grill later today. Mama is making macaroni salad, green beans and scalloped potatoes. A pumpkin pie was purchased along with a variety of vegetables and cheeses for a snack tray. It should be fun. Our Christmas meal for the year. Friday evening, we have our Sunday School Class party, but the meal will be Mexican food – not very Christmassy. So, the meal this evening will substitute for that holiday tradition.  

We will not be doing much for Christmas, but we will drive over to Amarillo to see Chase, Makaila, Owen and Gavin during that week. It will be a short trip, but at least Mama will get to see a couple of our grandchildren during the holidays – a rare tactile interaction with our progeny. As much as we tried to plan a longer trip to spent time with children and grandchildren further away, none of those plans have worked out.

I will be teaching my last class of the year tomorrow. At least that is the plan. The only other class on the schedule will be taught by a coworker as his first time to present the class. So, I have a short break before hitting the ground running in the coming year.

I will try to make the most of it.