Dallas

Thursday afternoon I headed to Dallas with a small group from the church for The Chorister’s Guild workshop for church music.  Matt’s mom watched Natalie and James from noon until Matt got home from work.  And Lisa picked up Joanna from school and held on to her until the evening.  What a wonderful thing it is to have amazing people take care of my children while I’m away.  I didn’t have to worry about them at all!

Thursday was pretty much just about getting to Dallas, but we were able to have dinner and spend some time socializing.  It was a nice get-away!

Friday morning we woke up bright and early to head to the church that was hosting the workshop.  I can’t believe it, but I just did not take any pictures of the church!  I do not know what has come over me lately.  :)

I went to different sessions to glean some ideas/tips/tricks/information about teaching children’s choir.  It was a great trip full of lots of information.  Aside from the knowledge I gained from the actual sessions, I was able to spend some time with amazing people from our church and learn much from them!  Even though I see these people all the time, there is something about being away from home and routine that changes things up.

Friday after the last session we headed to Main Street in Grapevine (where we were staying) to have dinner.

Of course I took a picture of my giant piece of cheesecake.  :)  Mmmmm mmmm mmm…

I believe Lori took a few group pictures during the trip, so I will hopefully be able to steal those from her at some point.  I will update this post when that happens.

As you all should know, January 6th is Epiphany and the 12th day of Christmas.  So historic downtown Grapevine still had their Christmas lights and display up (as well they should have!).  I just loved it!

This is an awful picture, but it gives you sort of an idea of the little square.  There was a gazebo and lots of lights around as well.  They went off and on in time with the music playing, which is why not all of the lights are on in the picture.

The GIANT tree changed with the music as well, and a face even appeared during a couple of songs.

I took a video of it singing, but I’m not able to add it to this post.  It’s cute enough for a post of it’s own though!

We stayed up late just giggling and talking – it really was a nice trip.  I sure did miss my family, but it was really good to have some grown-up time.

Saturday we attended most of the workshop day, then headed home!

Since yesterday was the last day of Christmas, I guess it’s time to go take down the tree.  I think I’ll go to bed first though.  Tomorrow is time enough.

Night!

I'm adding his as an afterthought from the iPod so I hope the formatting works out! This trip marked the first time I had been more than a few miles from James (I've probably only been as far as downtown Houston from him before.). And it was the first time since February 21, 2007 since I slept without at least one child around. I think I needed that, but I sure missed my babies!