Sleep-over

Today we have a guest writer, Lisa's Mom.

Let the entertainment begin.....we love our 4-A's and the fun of an overnight stay. Thursday night our home was filled with girlie giggles once again. We enjoyed a nice dinner together (thank goodness for crockpots for working Grandma). The evening was fairly quiet with baths and Christmas movie and books to read. The girls were cautioned that it couldn't be too loud once Papa had to go to sleep because he had to work on our play day, to which Annalise quickly quipped, "he won't be able to tickle us".

Friday morning we started with a Christmas movie, hot chocolate and cuddle time....mixed in between a crocheting lesson for Nana. This was followed by a late morning breakfast of french toast and a surprise announcement from Annalise "deer" as we sat at the dining room table. We all zoomed to the windows to watch 6 deer in our yard. We had to call Papa at work to let him know what he had missed.Then they each made special Christmas cards for Lisa's Godmother and we boxed up some of our fudge and were off to her assisted living facility. There we enjoyed a musical program with her and then a walk to her chapel to see the lovely Christmas decorations and visit with the elderly folks who were so excited to see our beautiful girls and Grandma was so proud to tell everyone they were "hers". Grandma also assured our girls, with tears in her eyes, that she now possessed the most beautiful Christmas cards anywhere.

On our trip to our next surprise destination we just happened to come close to my office, so I had to stop in and show off my special girls to some dear friends who hear about them all the time. Understandably we had a long conversation about their experiences in the Phillipines and the girls shared their excitement about returning to start their ministry back there.

On to our "surprise" lunch at a Japanese restaurant where you get to experience them cooking at your table. Our chef was very entertaining but our girls exceeded this by their entertainment of our three other dinner companions seated at our table. Needless to say, they knew all about the girls and their ministry before we finished our delicious meal (all with chopsticks) and since the girls will miss their traditional one-on-one birthday celebrations while they are gone in the future, we enjoyed a special Japanese lighted candle fruit desert and Happy Birthday song from the staff in Japanese.Now for the game part of our day, a black light indoor mini golf.....of much delight to the girls, was that Grandma and Annalise each had the "little" golf clubs. Amazing how tall these girls grew eating rice every day. We had a fun time teaching how to line up the ball and at one point when Grandma hit a slammer onto the next court, the girls quickly reminded me this was "miniature golf, not big golf".

We finished off our big day back at Grandma & Papa's after some of the girls insisted on donning their "dress-up" clothes so they could go to the theatre like ladies...watching our favorite traditional Christmas movie, Prancer, while waiting for Mom & Dad to come. Our house is much too quiet now. My prayer is that today will be a lasting memory for them when they are so far away.

This note is to fill Mom & Dad in on our special time together. Hugs, Grandma (Mom) Nancy