It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's looking pretty Christmasy around here. Nearly every house in our neighborhood has outside lights and decorations and I love the mall and stores this time of year with the trees and decorations and lights. The whole town is lit up and sparkling.

Friday night I went with 2 other women on the First Friday Art Walk (I said before it's once a year but found out it's the first Friday of every month). We walked around downtown to 6 art galleries and some other shops. There were lots of people, live music and free food. There was some incredible art and one gallery in particular was filled with amazing paintings, sculpture, jewelry, pottery, glass, etc. Afterwards we went to a little cafe for gelato. It was lots of fun and very "Eugene."

Sunday was my Relief Society lesson on joy. I've never had a lesson come together so easily for me or go so successfully. Everyone wanted to participate and one woman bore her testimony afterwards, crying about how much she needed this lesson because she should have joy in her life but doesn't (someone I never would have expected to say that). The sisters really loved the angel ornaments we gave them too. Sunday afternoon we went over to the Creche Exhibit and saw over 900 creches. Unbelievable!! Nativities from every country you can think of and made from every kind of material imaginable. Also depicting every kind of animal as nativity participants. There was a live nativity there and singers and other musicians. Then Sunday night we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional which was so good and so inspirational. It was a wonderful day.

Yesterday we found a good used mountain bike for Jeremy for his birthday. He just needs it for occasional backup transportation so he didn't really need a brand new expensive bike, but actually, the one we found on Craigslist is pretty nice, just needs a little tune-up. And it was only $50 - a bargain!

Tonight we're having the missionaries to dinner (they requested Don's "Mexican Feast" which consists of chimichangas, tamales, spanish rice, and refried beans). We also invited over the new member whose baptism I just spoke at. I'm not eating with them because tonight is also our Relief Society "Night in Bethlehem" Enrichment Night so I'll be eating there. I'm really looking forward to it. Our enrichment committee has been working hard for a month so I know it's going to be wonderful.

Tomorrow night our Book Club is going to see "Twilight" - finally!! I'm really excited to see it and as soon as the movie is over I'm going straight to the store that sells Twilight t-shirts and get one. Lily got one after she saw the movie and I want one too.

Don and I are planning to go see a beautiful light display at Shore Acres State Park (they have thousands of lights in a beautiful garden) on the coast just below Coos Bay. The Shore Acres display is kind of famous around here because it's so spectacular and we've wanted to go since we moved here. It's a 2 hour drive so we'll spend the night because we don't want to drive back after dark (it's kind of a dangerous drive after dark - at least to us). Joshua's going to try to get us a good deal at a Comfort Inn in North Bend (just above Coos Bay).