Week of Thanksgiving / Barn Dance

This Thanksgiving weekend went fast. :) Since Wednesday I've been running, which has been fun. I got off Wednesday at noon, which made it great for going to do some shopping. That evening I helped my family make pies for Thanksgiving dinner, clean house,& got the vegetable platter put together.

Thursday – Thanksgiving. We had two young people come be with us for the day, because they're in college and couldn't go all the way to New York with their folks & visit relatives. We also had a gentleman that just started coming to church with us this year. He doesn't have family near the area. The young people are a lot like my family : lots of fun, a little bit loud, and full of love. The older gentleman hadn't been to our house before so my friend decided that she was going to see if she could make him feel more at home, & she did an excellent job! I think by the time he left, he felt a lot more comfortable and had enjoyed the afternoon. The young people hung around until later in the evening and we all played games and laughed a lot. A joyful heart is good like a medicine. We should all be very healthy. :)

The next day was Friday, the day of the Barn Dance. If you have not read my other barn dance posts you need to. It will explain a barn dance. (to read it click on the header for this post and it will bring you to the barn dance post). I'm always amazed at how much fun it is. We had this one in a gymnasium, which was so much better than outside. It was definitely too cold to dance outside! The ocassion was for 3 young ladies that had birthdays this last month. It went really well. The dresses as usually were amazing. I got there at one in the afternoon, so I could help decorate, girls with their hair, & dresses. It was a riot in the girl’s bathroom; hoop skirts everywhere,( you have to realize that hoop skirts with crinoline take up a lot of room. Once you are in one you take up 3 times as much space as you usually would, if not more.) :) there were also dresses hanging on stalls, cabinets littered with hair accessories, makeup, and pins. :) There were girls one right after the other lining the walls, waiting to get changed, their hair done, or just watching the mess going on. I am sure that we were hilarious to watch. I never got to actually stop and just watch everyone, but from what I could see going on around me, it was amusing. After we were all ready, we went out to learn some of the dances, or visit. I had a wonderful time visiting with the people that were wandering, or as the evening progressed, the people I danced with. I really enjoyed getting to know some of my sisters in the Lord better! I met a neat couple from Virginia. They were my age and been married for about a year. They had a little girl that was adorable.
We had a competition during the last dance, to see whose circle could dance the longest. It was invigorating & tiring. ;) It was my favorite dance and the young man I danced with knew what he was doing, so he could actually make the part where you spin around fast go faster. I love to spin! We had a fabulous group;as a matter of fact it was so good, we won. Lol… The gentleman were wonderful gentlemen as usual. They checked on all the young ladies to make sure we weren't going to fall over, and then went to get us water. It was a perfectly wonderful night. During one of the dances, (this one is done in long lines) the young man that I was dancing with started doing a jig (or at least I think that is what you would call it. I do not know a lot about dances). It was neat to watch! He was fast!! :) I got to dance with my little brothers, and father again which is always so special. I love the fact that the families are the focus and everything is done as family groups! The little children are included for almost everything. It is the way it ought to be. We ended up going till sometime after midnight, and I was personally ready to stop. We all helped clean (it is amazing how much more quickly it goes, when there are so many helping). What a blessing! We all started to leave about then. Some of the families had to travel two or more hours home. I am so glad that they were able to make the trip. I can now connect faces to blogs that I've read, or people that I have heard about.

My funny, but crazy brother decided that it would be fun to go home and watch a movie after we got done cleaning. I do not know how he does it. Anyway, he had a friend come over after and they watch Chariots of Fire. I tried to watch it with them and made it about 30 minutes and had to desert them. I could not keep my eyes open anymore.

Saturday, we all slept in, which was wonderful. There was a bunch to clean up from the night before, such as our clothes, hair stuff, food containers, and so on. All of that stuff was basically in piles in the house, or still in the car. We spent the afternoon doing that. My brothers and 2 of our friends then went to see a group in Springfield that does improvisation. We had a great time. We went to get coffee afterward, need I say more. :) My family even got home and into bed rather early compared to the rest of the recent evenings.

Sunday was very restful and a really nice day. I talked to a few of my sisters in the Lord about what the Lord has been doing in our lives. It is fascinating that so many of us are dealing with the same things. I think it has to be the fact that we are all so busy with the holidays and the things that go with them. We all in different words basically said that we were having to constantly, persistently remind ourselves to be faithful in our time with the Lord, and stay focused on Him first. It is so encouraging to know that there are sisters in the Lord that understand what you are going through and are willing to share what they are going through. We can then all pray for one another and lift one another up by sending verses, notes, or giving each other a call if the chance should come up. The Lord has been good to me, by giving me this body. He is faithful, even when I am not.
After our church activates were over; verses, orchestra, bells, and choir. A group of us went to one of the family homes for chili and pictures of the barn dance. It was great getting to see picatures of things I missed. The pictures turned out beautifully and it looked like everyone had a good time. The people that took the pictures knew what they were doing, because they were perfect. The photographers captured what was taking place during each part of the evening. Fabulous…. After we looked at the 398 pictures!!!..... (if I have that amount wrong there, I am sorry. I think that was what they told me the amount was. : ) We all spent most of the evening eating and played a few family games. In all it was a busy but unforgettable weekend, and I came away richly blessed.:)