A Day Of Firsts

 Today has been a day of firsts.  It's the first day of December, the first day of meteorological winter, and the first day of me doing my advent calendars. 

The first piece I added to my advent poster was the Little Town of Bethlehem. 

And the Bible verse accompanying it is, “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”  Matthew 2:6  

The song I'd penciled in was, naturally, O Little Town Of Bethlehem.  If I had my act together, I'd record myself playing it on the piano and would upload it to the blog, but obviously, I don't have my act together, so you get a YouTube video of someone else singing the song. 

The first Christmas card has arrived in the mail, 

the first blooms on the Whatever Cactus have opened,

and the first gifts have been wrapped and placed under the tree.

I've still got a few I need to wrap, but I'll get to those.  

Speaking of, remember the box I opened sort of accidentally?  I went ahead and wrapped it, but look at this -- the gift card that came with it:

There was no name on it.  Nothing at all to indicate who sent it.  I guess it must have really been from Santa Claus.  Or someone who was determined to remain anonymous.  Well, whoever you are, I'm going to love the gift (especially since I already know what it is).  

After a nice, leisurely morning sipping coffee and catching up on cheesy Hallmark movies, I girded my loins and went into the belly of the beast -- also known as Walmart.  It was as much of a madhouse as I expected it to be, but look what I found!  

It's the same gingerbread house kit I'd bought last year and had so much fun making.  This time, I got three of them so Cody and Brennan can do them, too.  That ought to be fun.

Oh, another first.  I got the cat her first Christmas gift.  Then I couldn't wait to give it to her. 

You put the treats into the penguin thing and as the cat bats it around, the treats fall out and she eats them.   So far, she hasn't shown much interest, but she will as she gets used to it. 

In other news, I have it on good authority that the plant cancelled work for tomorrow.  I guess they figured out half the employees would call in anyway.  I know a lot of people are going up to Oxford to watch the local high school team play for the state championship.  

Me, I'm going to have to fork over $12 to stream it...or else just listen to it on the radio.  I'm still deciding. I guess I'd better figure it out, since the game starts in half an hour.