Hallelujah Advent

This evening we enjoyed yet another Advent Activity... this one was at my parents church (The Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church... yes, that is the official name).  Christmas program.  Above, Ben and Carly on one of the staircases in the grand foyer.  Prior to the show, we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Jake's Hamburger joint... and the Nativity Display in the church's library. 

This was a pretty cool display... people loaned their Nativity sets from all different countries, etc.  The second from the left (top) is my mom's gourd from Kenya... She had a few in the display.  We really loved the Alaska nativity, and wished we had seen one while we were there!!!  And of course, our biggest favorite, Charlie Brown.  Got to find that one. 

We loved the teenagers Show Choir (front) and the church's choir is pretty impressive, too!

LOVED this part, these guys came out to play for the Hallelujah Chorus.  It was really quite moving. You know, jamming, so really cool, but also REALLY worshipful.  Loved it.  Earlier this week, I was listening to The New Young Messiah CD and was just so moved by this song... of course, it's a great song, but all I could think about was our grandparents and other people we know who are already in Heaven, standing around God's Throne, worshipping... whole, healthy... singing, "the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"

The reason we chose THIS night to attend the Christmas program (there were 3 nights to choose from) was because of this group that came to sing...  Selah.  I really love this group.  Mostly because I have found the blog of the wife of one of the members (get all that?) to be so encouraging and moving...   You can check it out HERE.   Anyways, we enjoyed their set so much.  Super talented, and songs with really great lyrics.

And I will leave you with one last Nativity:

Real one, on the stage. 

Other Advent Activities we have been enjoying...
McDonald's for breakfast... Making Christmas Candy's (this idea was on my cousin's blog... only we used Red and Green M&M's instead of the pecans ~ we didn't have any nuts!)... Driving around and looking at Christmas Lights... Movie and Sleepover with Grammy and Papoo.

Oh!! Speaking of the Christmas Lights... the night before Caroline made a certificate to give to the house with the best display.  We were GOING to just leave it in the mailbox, but decided last minute that it might be MORE fun to go up and ring the doorbell.  You know, I was WITH HER, she didn't go up alone.  It occurred to me that it might be fun to be SOMEONE ELSE's "not so random" encourager.  Anyways, we truck up to this house and knock on the door, completely freaking the people out, but then they laughed and accepted Carly's award.  On the way home, we were happy to have made someone else giggle... and we thought that they might tell their friends/co-workers the next day about Carly's award, and perhaps THEY would giggle, too, so our being complete dorks was well worth it!  Spreading a little Christmas Joy... McGregor Style!