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Taste of Madrigal
Thankful I brought wood in last night as it was only 6 degrees outside when I got up. The fire was started early and warmed the house up pretty quickly. There was no wind which makes a HUGE difference on if the house feels cold. We also had sunshine but interesting as the sun got brighter the temperature fell a few degrees. Ruth cancelled, she was up late babysitting but I went over to visit. With Diane gone we are not doing much walking. The golf cart was taken up to feed the cat and when I called the cat that answered was not our cat. He came running out of hole where our cat sleeps which is above the apartment. Our cat usually does not tolerate any other cat in the barn.
I kept calling and our cat answered from the back garage and when I opened the door came running.
Cats are a very necessary part of a farm and I would be happy if this other cat sticks around but I wouldn't be surprised if ours runs him off.
After breakfast Mark helped get the barn Christmas tree out of his back garage and over to the barn. We brought this tree off Facebook market place (I think for $20.00) because it came in a long box for storage. It isn't too hard to put together. While I was working on the tree Mark was sweeping the gym.
When he was finished with that he needed my help with the dryer. We were replacing the flexible duct pipe. I wasn't done with the tree but stopped to help.
He needed more tools and I needed to get a couple more strands of lights at the house. The ice cycles impressed me as we were walking in as the sun was lighting them up. We wouldn't want to stand under those. 
I was able to get that tree finished and the lights on it before it was time to go to mom's house.
When I arrived at mom's HER arsenal of ice cycles made mine look puny.
Mom had a downy woodpecker that wanted to grab a sunflower seed but a big red bellied woodpecker was flying in and scaring the other birds off. The downy just waited on the other side of the post.
The red bellied took his time eating.
Once he flew off the downy flew right in and took his spot.
At 6:00 pm Ruth arrived to help get mom in Joan's new van and we were off on our way to the Peoria Fellowship hall to enjoy the Peoria Academy performance of A Taste of Madrigal. We were met in the hall by the singers then the jester came and showed us to our table. Mom kept looking around asking where Joan was. The jester was strangely familiar and was bothering mom.
Once that jester left mom asked again, "Do you see Joan anywhere?"
We had to call the jester back and she promptly checked mom's ears pulling a smartie out of one of them.
About then mom realized that jester was Joan.
I don't blame her, Joan's really needs someone to show her how to apply makeup.
Sarah went over and pulled a smartie out of Lucy's ear.
Berlica was a flower girl and someone bought a flower for mom.
Mom shoved it into Sarah's nose.
We really had a wonderful time. The music was beautiful, the king and queen were quite funny and the sound of laughter filled the room during the dialog between the king and the singers. I'll get a video of some of the songs made later. The evening was a little late and by the time Joan got back it was after 10:30 pm. The moon was so bright I didn't need lights. I could follow it home and it reminded me of the Star of Bethlehem.
We were reminded of the Christ child, the baby in the manger, tonight. How our LORD left the glory of heaven to be born in a stable, lived His life as a poor carpenter then gave HIS life for ours. Oh what an amazing plan, this plan of salvation, this Gift above all gifts.
After taking the picture above I zoomed in to get a closeup of this full moon that was lighting up the night sky.
Tomorrow I will work on the video.
