It's sad, really. I just feel a little bit disconnected from the world when our internet is down. What, pray tell, did stay-at-home Moms do PRE-world of wide web?! Our cable (as well as our power) has continued to be a bit spotty since [TO BE READ IN THE MOVIE TRAILER DEEP MAN'S VOICE] WIND STORM 2006. Thankfully, despite freaking us out a bit every time the light's flicker, the power's not gone back off for good.

And another sad confession: it is 5 o'clock in the morning here, and while I was just up changing Zach's diaper and feeding him I couldn't stop composing blogs in my head. So, I thought I better come see if we were back on-line so I could type this up, get it out of my system and head back to bed for hopefully a couple more hours of sleep! That, and I'm still on such a high from the soon-t0-be-told experience, that I just couldn't wait to write about it.

On, Sunday afternoon we all went Christmas caroling at a nursing home in Seattle with several other of our friends from Engaged Encounter. It was amazing. I wore Zach in the front-pack while Matthew walked up and down the halls with our group for nearly two hours. Not only did the boys tag along but, of course, they totally stole the show. Matthew carried a shaker in one hand and one of my jingle bell bracelets from music class in the other and kept a steady beat the WHOLE time. At one point, Sister Beatrice (of our group) had given a resident (a dapper, older -- well, OK, they're all older -- fellow) a maraca to shake along with us. He came up with a fancier rhythm (not too crazy -- but something like: shake, shake, rest, rest...shake, shake, rest, rest). Matthew immediately picked up on it, and the two continued that way for the whole song. So, while Matthew was focused on being the heartbeat of our group (he really was very focused -- didn't smile much but delighted the residents with his percussion-skills none-the-less), Zachary was focused on being the heart-melter of the group. I finally had to take him out of the front-pack and let some others in our group carry him because I couldn't sing whilst wearing him for two reasons. One: Any time we'd stop to let a resident see him up close (and they'd tickle his feet and chat to him or whatever), he'd be kicking and leaping so much it was hard for me to sing. And Two: Any time we'd stop to let a resident see him up close I'd get so choked up with how happy he was making them that I couldn't sing!
It was an amazing experience and definitely made us full of Holiday cheer!