T minus 2 days and counting!

2 days and 19 hours to be precise until Dave GRADUATES! He called me today after his last test and almost sounded like a different person. I was told by everyone, and kept reminding myself, that this hard time while Dave was in school really would go by fast. Now that we are so close to graduation it does seem like the time went quickly. I think we were blessed with selective memory! A lot of the bad, stressful times have been forgotten.

YEAH DAVE!!! I am so excited for him! He is an awesome Doctor of Chiropractic and I think he even has a job. I'm not going to jinx anything so no formal announcement yet. Good things are coming his way!

It's been an entire week of accelerating celebration. Tuessday night Dave and I went to his senior dinner at Scott's in Jack London Square in Oakland. We had a nice meal and listened to a few speeches from the Dean and several students. Dave got a certificate in a cheesy frame for being selected as a "Who's Who Among Students" in American Colleges and Universities. *whew* It's a long name for a recognition that basically gets your name in a book that you can buy for a nominal fee ($70!) and your name in the local paper. Those people recognized are nominated by their teachers and faculty so that's cool that they honored Dave. I think he's been amazing with all he accomplished during school and it's nice that he's been recognized for it.

My Mom sang with a choir at this Christmas Creche Exhibit in Palo Alto on Sunday. I'm just now getting to the computer to write about what I was thinking about on the way home from the concert. (where does the time go?) Dave was sick so he stayed home with the boys and J and I made it a girls night. It was awesome- beautiful music and amazing creche scenes!

The hour-long concert was superb. I wish I had a recording of a lot of the songs they were that good- they sang more difficult arrangements of Christmas songs that I, as a long-time choir member, appreciated very much. There was a bell choir, violinist, flautist (yes, that is a word), fantastic organist and the choir. Mom sang a happy solo towards the end and I wished it was longer. When the choir director announced Mom's name as the soloist Aunt Lauren turned to J and said, "Do you know her?" J said NO. She only knows Mom as Gramma Evie so hearing her formal name didn't register. Plus she was too busy talking to Uncle Dan on his lap.

There were nativities from all over the world on display. It seemed every large room in the church was filled with glowing tables of nativites. The highlights were a picture of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus made out of Legos (incredible!), nativities carved from wood, made out of foil paper, formed from clay, made out of bottle-brush and beautiful ornaments with the Madonna and Child on them. It was a feast for the eyes!

My favorite nativity was a contemporary scene carved out of different colored woods from China. J-bird loved the Lego creation. She thought it was cool that it looked funny up close and then came into focus the farther she stepped away. It was good I didn't take my camera because I would have been SO tempted to snap away even though photos weren't allowed.