Weekending- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

What? Before Thanksgiving? I blame it on our little 'Boro, specifically on the annual Christmas in Springboro festival that always takes place the weekend before Thanksgiving. As a denizen of Springboro, living less than a mile from the festival in our historic downtown, I couldn't help but get in the Christmas spirit (though whether that necessitates decorating the house before Christmas is another story).  The house isn't completely decorated but I got a good bit of it done.

Friday evening was a low key one spent at home. Donnie had a meal left over from an event he went to so he had that for dinner. I decided to have popcorn for dinner- stove popped for the win with a Little Debbie Christmas tree snack cake for dessert. So good!! 

A friend texted Friday evening offering us two tickets to the Indiana U v. Ohio State football game on Saturday which was going to be in Columbus. My alma mater, IU was (as of Friday 😏) undefeated and ranked an astonishing 5th in the nation. While OSU, almost always highly ranked and good in football, had one loss (to number one Oregon) and was ranked number two in the nation. My brother John (a HUGE IU fan) had been planning to come to our house to watch the game on Saturday. Then he found out that he had to work. He was upset when he realized that he had to work and couldn't come to our house.  A part of me didn't even want to tell him that I had access to two tickets if I wanted them (he and I would have used the tickets- Donnie had no desire to go!). I did end up telling him in case there was any way he could get out of work and he could go but he could not; he was extra upset that he had to work. 

With the way the game ended up... we were both glad that we hadn't braved the terrible football traffic (Ohio Stadium has one of the largest crowd capacities in the country and Alyssa, whose dorm is near the stadium, attests to how CRAZY the traffic and whole atmosphere around the stadium is on home game days), stressed over finding place to park- likely paying a huge amount and still having a two mile walk to the stadium, sitting in hard seats in the cold and a light drizzle, while surrounded (likely) by some of the most obnoxious college football fans in the country? It all worked out for both my brother and me to be in our respective Ohio towns during the game- not in Columbus!

On Saturday, Donnie and I stayed home almost the entirety of the day. Donnie moved some items out of the dining room so that I could begin transforming the room from a mere dining to room to the Christmas room. (Of course, pics to follow when it is all complete!) Donnie turned the TV on to the football game on noon to watch it; I was busy with my Christmas chores in the dining room but Donnie kept me apprised. In addition, I could tell by the fans screaming whenever something good was happening for OSU. Things were looking so good for IU in the beginning. They scored a touchdown first... but it went downhill from there. Like I said, I was super glad to be in my cozy home, listening to Christmas music and enjoying getting my Christmas items out to decorate. 

We were going to go to the Christmas in Springboro festival with friends on Saturday but the weather wasn't great and when we texted about it with our friends, they said they were decorating their house as well. We made plans to go out to dinner and movie with them later but the festival was a no go. 

We ate a fairly new Mexican place in town Tres Amigos . I had eaten lunch there with a friend but no one in our group had eaten dinner. Good service, good food, reasonable prices- we will eat there again for sure!

After dinner, we went to see the movie Bonhoeffer. It is produced by Angel Studios (the same studio that produced the movie The Sound of Freedom). I had talked to my sister on the phone earlier in the day and told her we were planning on seeing the movie. She saw it already and told me that she had joined Angel Studios as a member which gave her access to a variety of movies, comedies, and shows that Angel Studio has produced to stream. She said that by joining, members get two free movie tickets to every theatrical movie release that the studio does. She told me they were running specials, so I went to Angel Studio's website to check it out. For a discounted price of $4.99 a month, I joined (that price is good for three months) and was able to get two free tickets to see Bonhoeffer. The theater that we saw the movie in charges $12.75 a ticket so two tickets would have cost us over $25. Anyway, just an FYI- I think the discounted price of $4.99 for the first three months ends at some point this week. If you're interested, check it out.

The movie was good though if you know anything about the man Dietrich Bonhoeffer, you know things didn't end well (on earth anyway) for Bonhoeffer due to his role in trying to assassinate Hitler. Definitely not a typical Hollywood movie since this movie stayed true to what really happened to Bonhoeffer. At the end of the movie, while the credits were rolling, information was displayed on the screen. Some of the information pertained to the increased rise of antisemitic acts and rhetoric that Jewish people are subjected to today in the West. Indeed, unfortunately we saw that in the aftermath of October 7th. Many people around the world including the United States not only thought that Hamas' kidnapping, torturing and killing of Israelis (and American and people of other nationalities) was a positive, they decided to take to social media to declare to the world how great they thought those barbaric acts were. And many progressives around the country, especially in colleges, denounced Israel for retaliating and began barrages of assaults- both physical and verbal against Jewish people. {Yet, I am a fascist according to many based on whom I voted for- make it make sense...}

On Sunday, I woke up around 6:00 and decided to go on a run. Thought maybe seeing the festival in the dark would be kind of neat. I ran to our downtown and then slowed down to a walk to walk through the festival. So weird to be the only one at the festival (obviously nothing was open!). I took a few pics.

I saw a photo backdrop so I decided to take a selfie. I will likely only do this in the dark (not a selfie person but being the only person at the festival necessitated one!)

A peak inside the kids' tent

Definitely not open!

Once home, we watched a church sermon. We have been watching Abby's preacher in Oxford on YouTube. His sermons are so good and we can understand how many college students and non college students attend this church. 

When watching the sermon, I had my phone facedown near me on the couch so as to not be distracted by it. When we finished watching the sermon, I turned my phone around and saw that Alyssa had texted me to tell me she was coming home that afternoon! She'd caught a ride home. I had been planning on picking her up on Tuesday. In her text, Alyssa said that her one class prior to the break was optional(?) and the other was going to be online. So Alyssa felt comfortable coming home on Sunday. Worked for us! I wouldn't have to drive to Columbus on Tuesday and we'd get to see Alyssa sooner.

We hadn't teen proofed the house, though, since we weren't planning on seeing Alyssa that soon. We realized we needed to run some errands to get some food items that Alyssa would want during break on Monday. We also needed a car battery for my car (we hoped that was all it was as my car didn't start on Saturday). We picked up a battery and ran to Sam's Club. Got some food and came back home. Donnie put the new battery in my car and thankfully, the car started. 

Alyssa arrived home mid afternoon. We chatted for a while and then Alyssa and I quickly went to Charismas in Springboro before it ended (it closes at 5:00 pm on the Sunday of the festival). We hoped that our favorite food vendor, Louisiana Grill, hadn't run out of bourbon chicken. Thankfully, they hadn't! We got some to take home for dinner. 

Just a few Christmas pics- it is always fun to see the new items that I bought after Christmas on sale. How cute is this tree skirt! Unfortunately, the area around the tree that I got it for is not that big; I have to tuck the white wrapper ends under. I still love it!

The Christmas room is coming along nicely!

Though Donnie got a lot of boxes out of the room, the room is still storing some items for the outdoor project. Obviously these will need to go before my room is complete!