Thursday, we got up bright and early to drive 3 hours to attend Harold's Christmas Party for work. It was just Harold and I and the two girls. As we were driving, we were listening to KLove radio, and they were talking about the new Narnia movie schedule to open that night. We had intended to take the kids to see it, and had talked about it several weeks earlier.
We Googled show times and found that one was opening an hour and a half from our house at midnight (well, 12:01 to be exact). But that hour and a half was the other direction. First we would have to drive the 3 hours home after the party and pick up all the boys who had stayed with Mom and Dad.
Later, while we were still driving to the party, Harold remembered he had had a message from Aunt Robyn the day before inviting us to come up to see the Christmas light display that was in her town, which happened to be the same town where we would be seeing the movie.
We Googled the city website to find out information about the light display and found out they were having "Pizza and Karaoke with Santa" as well as a trolley ride through the light display that evening--for FREE!
Robyn had obligations at church, but Uncle Dale met us a the train depot where we were to see Santa and go on the trolley ride. MaKenzie was especially excited to get to see Uncle Dale!
This first part of the evening was a little less than exciting for the 4 oldest boys. They were good with having free pizza, but didn't want anything to do with getting pictures with Santa. That's okay. We never have really "done" Santa, and I certainly don't intend to now, but it sure was fun for MaKenzie and Jared to sing with him. (Lena enjoyed it too, but it wasn't quite as magical for her.)
Jared and Santa sang "Jingle Bells" and MaKenzie and Lena joined in to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
For a second, we thought MaKenzie was going to break out into a dance and everything! She was singing and wiggling all over the place!
Finally, MaKenzie decided that she should share the mic with Lena. Before long it was time to board the trolley. We were the last trolley trip for the night, so we didn't have very many others on board with us.
This display was my favorite of all of them. "Peace on Earth." Of course it made me think of Haiti and all the unrest over the elections--and reminded me that TRUE Peace on Earth won't be known until Christ's return.
John Wesley (and his mom and dad) were having a hard time stomaching the money spent on these displays. Each LED light bulb in every display costs $1.05. So, in this next picture, you can see John Wesley counting the lights just in the letter "H" on this display. Approximately 60 bulbs. So, 60 X $1.05 means that JUST HE LETTER "H" cost over 60 DOLLARS. Imagine the cost of the whole "Peace on Earth" display--not to mention that this was just one of about 100 more very similar and most were much more complex than this one.
In fact, there was one display that had been vandalized last season and to repair it cost $8,000.00 EIGHT THOUSAND dollars for a light display--just ONE light display.
As the man who led the tour talked about each display and how much money had been donated by the people and businesses of the community for it, I had to just keep reminding myself that we had come to ENJOY this light show--not to think of how these THOUSANDS of dollars (and the tidy sum we spent later on the movie--which truly IS a rare treat for us) could be used to help people who have no money for food, who are living in tents, who have no money to send their children to school--or a COUNTRY who hasn't enough money to treat the thousands who are suffering from cholera and so many other PREVENTABLE diseases every day. I kept telling myself, "Just enjoy it for what it is." And for the most part--probably because for all my life I HAVE, so I'm good at it--I did. But like they say, once you see and KNOW about the needs, it's hard to ever think the same again about the things we take for granted every day here in the land of plenty.
After the light show, we went to Robyn and Dale's church where they were having practice for their "Living Christmas Tree" program. We got to visit with Robyn and Ari and Ray a bit. Then we went to Taco Bell, cause we still had about 2 hours before we needed to be at the movie.
We were all already SO TIRED. But we were in hopes that we could stay awake through the movie. We all did great through the previews and the first 30 minutes of the movie, but pretty soon, William elbowed me, rousing me from my own story line going on in my dreams. I stayed awake with the help of popcorn and coke for the next little while, then dozed off and on for the next bit, waking at one point to see that William was asleep now, too. So, without his disapproving jabs in my arm to shame me, I promptly fell asleep and continued to sleep until the ending scene of the movie. Harold and MaKenzie were also dozing in and out, but everyone else, including Ari (who had to get up early for a full day of school the next morning), was able to stay awake for the whole thing.
We drove Ari home, and then headed for home ourselves. By the time we got home a little after 4:00 am, everyone except Harold, me and Jonas was asleep. The next morning, a very tired Harold made me promise to remind him never to go to a midnight movie again. Are you kidding??? This is one of my favorite memories already!
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