A busy and rewarding weekend

Kendall and Emily at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, originally uploaded by MCuthbert.

We had an awesome weekend leading up to the week of Thanksgiving.

To start off, Misty and I celebrated our 7-year anniversary a few days early on Friday. I dropped off the girls with their grandmother and met Misty at the movie theater to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. We loved it, but we're glad we didn't bring the kids -- and not just because we wanted a night to ourselves. It's a very intense movie with non-stop peril (and a nearly naked Harry Potter and Hermione). Following the movie, we had dinner at Carrabba's where we enjoyed dining without having to take multiple bathroom breaks or plead with anyone to please stay in their chair.

Saturday Misty and I went for a morning walk through an adjacent neighborhood, then we headed out to Wylam to help our church serve an early Thanksgiving dinner to the community through Acknowledge Outreach Ministries. Afterward, we picked up the girls, finally relieving Misty's mom of her 24-hour marathon babysitting duty. In the evening, we went to a dinner at church which included a Q&A with marriage specialist Joe Beam.

Sunday morning, all the regular Sunday school classes were combined for another lesson from Joe Beam. He talked about how we've become accustomed to worshiping the created God, rather than God the creator -- or, in other words, that we love God when He fits the picture we've painted of Him, but become angry or doubtful when He doesn't.

When church let out, we rushed down to Montgomery to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, where we saw their production of Peter Pan (which Emily and Kendall helped me review). We had a great time, and all of us loved the show. There was a cast meet-and-greet afterward with champaign, cupcakes, and lots of other goodies. Kendall had a glass of "Sprout" (aka Sprite). As we watched a blue moon rise (at 5 p.m.!), the girls enjoyed running around in the field in front of the theater, pretending to be Wendy and Tiger Lily.