School's Done!

 This week has been all about getting our school done so we can have a clear Christmas break. It took A LOT of work - the girls finished their last piece after 10pm Friday night! Of course, that means there isn't exactly lots of enthusiasm for holiday planning at the moment...

Still, this morning we got up and went to a free rock climbing session. It was at a different venue than last time, and fewer climbers in the session we signed up for, so the kids came away with shaking arms and hands with hardly a grip left in them from all the trips up the wall.  They also got some encouraging remarks of their climbing skills from the team. There is hope that a kids climbing team will be forming in the new year with coaching for skill and speed improvement. We hope to join if cost and location is compatible with our location and situation.

A few other things than school work did happen also: 

Grace and Mom attended the 9 Carols and Lessons evening at a downtown Anglican church, which has sort of become a tradition. The choir singing was amazing in that they remained masked and there were no mikes but we could still hear them, and even the words were pretty clear.  Afterwards, Mom took Grace for her weekly date meal.

Tuesday night we had a new family over: one with a possible PhD advisor link, two young kids, and an interest in worship studies and music.  So Dad and Grace had good talks - naturally interrupted with fielding their baby's and preschooler's needs! - about the Gift and worship respectively. Aiden surprised us all by, after discovering the kids weren't interested to play with him, went to bed and fell asleep about 7:30pm!

We attended a drop-in Christmas party of former missions colleagues on Thursday, which happened to be Dad's birthday, so we celebrated with him in grander style than usual. Mom had made him an experimental cake (attempting to match a family joke) that turned out very blue... but we shared it with everyone anyhow, and they sang for him.