Chillin' Like A Villain

Good morning, friends. I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I have been home all weekend, which has sent me over-the-top happy. I love to travel, and I love my calling. But after a really long stretch of hard work, it has been nice to just be home and chill this weekend. Wednesday or Thursday I hit one of those walls where I knew that if I didn't get a break soon, I was going to go bazerko. Not sure if that's a word, but I'm not going to look it up. I have already spent too much time figuring out how to spell villain.

I started off the week in Houston, leading worship for the Southern Baptists of Texas Conference, (which gave me the chance to hang out with many great friends). Then I came home and led worship Tuesday through Thursday at the National Christian Women's Leadership Forum at LifeWay, here in Nashville. We had a great time. I've led at that conference pretty much every year since I was 11 or so. Or maybe 30. I don't know. A long time. Anyway, I love it. It's like leading worship for family in many ways.

Tuesday night I did a concert for them, and I gave them a little "Christmas At The Forum" concert. I know...it's a little early for a Christmas concert. But I wanted to change things up a little bit for them this year. And I also wanted to give my new Christmas music a run-through, and practice through all my new Christmas songs. Lily Kate came with me and brought along a friend. They worked as little elves, passing out candy canes to the peeps.




We had a good time.

Once the conference was over, I went into chill mode and have been home ever since. When the kids went to bed Thursday night, a buddy of mine and I played Mario Kart Wii until the wee small hours of the morning. Something tells me I'm too old to be doing that. But I just tell that something to go away and bother some other middle-aged worship leader. I'm not listening.

Then on Friday, I could hardly wait for the kids to get out of school. IT'S FRIDAY AND I'M HOME! LET'S DO SOMETHING FUN! So, we went to Mellow Mushroom in downtown Franklin and had some pizza for dinner. Then we did what our family loves to do best: we went to Target. We wandered around the Christmas aisles. It was better than seeing the decorations at Opryland Hotel. Well, maybe not. No...YES it was. It was better. Target is always better.

We left with a $1.00 jump rope, some hot chocolate, a bag of marshmallows and a new copy of "Elf" (we wear a copy out every year).

We came home, made the hot chocolate, and watched Elf. And by "we" I mean "they" watched it. I was asleep by the end of the beginning credits. Mario Kart got the best of me.

Inspired by our friends at the Target, we got up Saturday morning, put on Christmas music, pulled out the decorations and put up our Christmas tree. I know. It's obnoxiously early. But leave us alone...it's how we roll, yo. And Ooo, it was fun. Football on the TV in the background (yes, there was music playing AND football on at the same time), friends coming in and out of the house...it was a sanguine's dream Saturday.

Although I must say that I had some choice thoughts about the makers of the pre-lit tree. They give you these replacement fuses and light bulbs to use in case a strand of lights goes out. Only they don't tell you that you will never find where the burned out light or fuse is. And then they will proceed to wrap and fasten those strands so tightly and securely onto the tree that you will eventually want to jump out a window in frustration over trying to JUST GET A TREE FULL OF PROPERLY OPERATING LIGHTS.

Actually it wasn't that bad. I thought at first that it was going to send me over the edge. But there were only a couple of strands I had to contend with. And I think it's the first time in our family's history that we started AND finished our Christmas tree on the same day. Woo hoo.

I have the cutest little five-year-old who has snuck down the stairs and plopped himself beside me. So I'm going to put this computer down and go have some fun with him. Happy Sunday to you all...