weekend wonderment

let me just say i am physically and mentally drained from this fun filled weekend! i had been hoping to get the kids pumped up for christmas and over the last three nights i'm sure i managed to do just that. friday night we went to todd and mary lous church. they were doing a walk through bethlehem and the neatest thing about it was it was actually meant for kids. i invited alyson and we took the kids on down to it. they really had a blast! i was thoroughly impressed at what they had to offer. it was a whole long strip filled with about 10 craft booths. all the members were dressed like bible times and every craft they had to do was focused on stuff from the bible. all along the walk down little bible characters would randomly talk out to you saying stuff about the birth of the lord. the first booth we stopped at they got to make necklaces. first they got little round metal medallions that the kids had to hammer out on a stone and then bedded them onto a necklace. the next one was a music booth, they got to color these wooden pieces which where then turned into tiny musical harps with rubber bands. and the last one we did they got to mortar actual frankincense and myrrh, and then put it in little cloth sacks. it really was a clever and cute event. my favorite moment was at the end of the walk path. there was a live nativity. i left with a smile because levi was so inquisitive about the baby jesus. he grabbed lexis hand and said "come on lexi, lets go meet jesus". it's so silly to me when such simple words or things my kids do bring tears to my eyes, but it sorta did. i must just say, i'm not only excited about christmas for all the material christmas things that go with it, but i'm excited to see both my older kids getting to an age where i can start to incorporate jesus into their life and what he did for us. levis understanding has amazed me this year. and it really is a great feeling to see him so interested in all that god has to offer and do for his life.

on saturday night brian was once again working so alyson (aka my other husband....hehe) and i took the kids over to jungle gardens night of lights. it is our local zoo (even though it's not a zoo at all, just birds!) they had it all lit up with lights and did a great job at finding things for kids of all ages to get involved in, although i found it to be a little chaotic with it being so dark and a hundred kids running around. the middle area was set up with games like throwing balls into christmas tree holes and real live snowballs at a wall of snowmen. the santa there was terrific! very friendly and giving of time. and unlike the mall i was able to take my own pictures, which was a huge plus and reason to go back again next year. it wouldn't be winter if they didn't have a fire pit to roast marshmallows, so we had to do that while we were there as well. i'm cracking myself up here now cause it just hit me that our kids are truly a "florida breed" cause all four kids favorite thing that night was feeding the flamingos! another late night, but we all had fun, so i guess it was worth it.

onto tonight! sarasota has a trolley that ride and goes to all the good houses with christmas lights in the area. this was by far levi's favorite activity. he got so excited when he saw the trolley pull up and he realized that he was going to get to ride on it, and even more excited when he saw pretty much my whole family pull up and get on it too. my dad was kind enough to get us all tickets so that we could have a "halverson christmas outing" together. we were definitely the loudest bunch on the trolley singing and laughing. but we truly had a great time. levi wants to go on it again, and isn't to happy that i told him he would have to wait till next christmas.
i say it over and over, but every time i mean it from the bottom of my heart. i am so filled with thankfulness. god gives me and my family so much, and just when you think he can't possibly give you any more his blessings just keep coming. i so love this spot he has me in, i wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!
now this super exsausted girl is going to go crawl into my favorite bed next to my favorite man in the whole wide world. :)