Day 357: Cake and Lights! And a job!

Today was a lot of fun! The girls, Keturah, Everly and Nora, got to go to a very special (and expensive) cake shop with Grandma and Grandpa. What a special treat! The pieces of cake were huge and they got to watch cakes being made. I'll have to go sometime so to see it! Then the boys and I met up with them to go up to Reynold's Farm Equipment store, where they have a huge, beautiful display of Christmas lights. It was free, but they were collecting money for a local food pantry. Then we even drove downtown Indianapolis so that we could see the famous “Christmas Tree” that the Civil War/Revolutionary War Memrial in the center of the city is turned into. Plus all the other lights and fun decoartions down there. The girls and Abishai in our car were all thrilled. The older two boys (who rode with Grandma and Grandpa) tolerated it. Now the middle 4 get to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's so we can have our Johnson Christmas in the morning before Gary has to go preach in all 4 Christmas Eve servcies. Benaiah gets to work behind the scenes at church, too.

Busy times ahead! I do want to update everyone that Jared is officially starting full-time employing with the e2 ministry that his dad is a part of on January 1st. E2 is a ministry where they go to churches and train not just any leaders, but specificially elders. Jared will be their operations director, which will leave the 3 other guys to focus on their teaching during these trainings. E2 will have a location inside of Indian Creek Christian Church, but it is not a part of the church itself. It's a totally seperate ministry. It's been a very rough year, but God has been faithful, as always, and has brought us full circle. Praise the Lord!

Meanwhile, Jared tweeted a funny joke I said this morning. The kids and I were discussing Christmas gifts and IF they were getting Legos for Christmas. Well, I said, “I didn't know Christmas was spelled L-E-G-O.” It's a running joke that we say every year for Christmas and birthdays, NO MORE LEGOS! But, that's what they always want, and that's what they usually get. It's a much better gift than electronics devices, right? But my little joke made Jared laugh aloud from all the way in the other room! Mission accomplished! I don't say many funny things, so it's good to write it down when I do. Also, my precious husband went to the grocery store on the way home from his 6am men's weekly breakfast meeting, without being prompted, which saved me tons of time later. It means a ton to me when he does these kinds of things, especially when I know he should be at home earning money in order to afford the groceries. He's a very special guy and I love him so much!

You know you're the baby of the family when...your parents are ok if you sit on the counter to eat.

Justin prepped his room for Christmas gifts.  At first he complained about it this small project, but I knew he knew how to do it.  And he did it very well!  He made a pencil and ruler holder out of a gum container (it's towards the left in front of the lincoln logs).

Everything is on display.

Obviously Justin is expecting a huge Lego set to go with his x-wing.

Abishai found some great Lego vehicles to mess with in baba's room.

Little stinker! The orange is pumpkin flavored cream cheese.  

Justin thought he needed a treat on his bagel, too, Christmas MM's.

Aaron and Shauna visited for awhile after they met Gary and Leah here for the girls to go with them to the cake place.  Boys talking about their toys.

The girls!  Aren't they cute?  At the Cake Bake Shop in Broad Ripple!

I love these nutcrackers/guards!

Looks gorgeous!

Check out those cakes!

They had to make reservations so they could sit here, eat cake, and watch the bakers work their magic.

Wow! They got to see the whole process of making cakes!  They said that one cake got stuck in the mold!

Very fancy drinks!

Check out those rose petals IN their drinks!

Keturah choose a black forest cake.  None of the girls could finish their piece of cake, so they brought it home in very fancy cake boxes.

Everly choose a coconut cake!

And Nora choose a peppermint cake!  Grandma had a nut bar of some kind for her treat.

Fizzy water/Sprite with some food coloring and rose petals.  Mmm... 

You can see their boxes with their leftovers in them in this picture.  Yes, those boxes are for ONE SLICE of cake!  Think about all those calories!  Oh, and each piece cost $11.  Wow!

One nearby business, a quilt shop, had this cool light display on their building.

A church and the Cross, prominently displayed!

They had several racing cars on display dating back to 1918.

Special Indy symbols.

We let Abishai out of his carseat, but just for the drive around the parking lot, and his voice "cracked" when he saw the MOVING train!   FOO-FOO!!

So many beautiful lights to drive through!

The nativity scene was so big!

A carousel!

And of course a barn and lots of farm equipment since this is an actual business that sells farm equipment.

A hay baler and the way the lights turned off and on showed it baling hay!

The kids loved the abominable snowman!

Wow, Reynold's has been around for over 60 years.  Cool!

A tractor "working" at harvesting corn!

The cross was the tallest display there.  Awesome!

The "tree" downtown. 

Gorgeous lights all around.

Indy has lots of horse and carriage rides.  I even went on one with Jared when we were daring.  They put these fancy canopies on them in the wintertime.

Pretty horse, too!  Keturah said she saw one with a braided tail!

Some of the buildings downtown change the lights on the sides of their buildings to different pictures, like this tree.

Only one more day until Christmas!  Although, I saw that Santa had already delivered off some gifts at Grandpa's house while we were gone this evening.  It's going to be a full/busy couple of days!