Church
My mother-in-law and I walked to the church that my father-in-law is supplying and ended up being 15 minutes late, meaning that we missed everything up to the Gospel reading. Ray’s sermon was great and after church, we discovered that his parents were sitting right behind us. Oh joy. This was the church’s huge Christmas shindig so I ate really crappy Lutheran church food (the desserts were the highlight). The children sang us Christmas carols off key. Jon preached today in Newark. I’m sorry I missed it.

My Afternoon and Evening
When we got home, we chilled for a while and then we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was wonderful and I got to see Emma Watson who doesn’t have as good Hermione scenes as she does in the first movie (which is truly unfortunate), but it was lovely to see her again. The basilisk scene reminded me why I’m so afraid of snakes (and white cats who pretend to be snakes!!!!!!) We walked home afterwards and went to see some of the neighbors. After this was… Advent devotions!!! My father-in-law refused to get off the phone to join us so my mother-in-law stood in the hallway singing Advent hymns off-key at the top of her lungs, spooking many cats and causing me to laugh so hard that I was shaking and had tears running down my face. (Yes, I know these are run-on sentences. Deal with it!!!!) The devotion was very cat-centered — each of the four candles stood for a cat and their quality.

Now… off to bed so I can get up and pack in the morning. The little white mamba cat is asleep on my bed and he hopefully will stay that way!!!!!