Black Friday date!

Black Friday was a little more special for us this year.  No, we didn't go out super early (or stay up late Thanksgiving night) to go shopping for a spectacular deal.  Although, I did go out for an hour or so with a friend.   Our special day included going to a theater production in Lancaster County at a theater called Sight and Sound.  Josh's parents had gotten tickets from someone who had extras.  The show was Jonah and they asked us to join them.  Having wanted to go for several years, we were thrilled at the opportunity!  However, finding a sitter on Black Friday was next to impossible.  High schoolers didn't want to give up their shopping day and college students were home on break.  Finally, we asked a friend with her own 2 boys and she was willing to watch all 6 boys for the day!  Our boys were excited to go spend the day over there, so we prayed everything would go smoothly!  It took us 2.5 hrs to drive down to south-eastern PA and the traffic wasn't bad until we got within 15 miles of the theater. We had to drive through a very commercial area... on Black Friday.  Yeah, it was pretty bad!  Josh's parents got there first and his mom sat down inside while his dad waited outside for us.  The attendants at the theater would only seat for the first 15 min of the show, then no one was allowed in.  We prayed and got there with a few min to spare (10 min late) and ran across the parking lot and into the dark theater where the show had already begun.  It was fine having only missed a few minutes.  The sets were amazing! There were lots of live animals.  The singing, dancing and acting superb.  The underwater scene was unreal-- having a huge whale that "swam" through the auditorium and lots and lots of tropical fish on stage.  We were highly impressed at the quality and professionalism of the show.  We were equally impressed with the spiritual side as well.  Even though they ended the show unlike how Jonah ends in the Bible, they tied in Jesus and the gospel message which was great!  We left there happy and refreshed.  We had dinner right next door at an Amish buffet place-- a little after 3:30pm.  It was ok since neither of us had eaten lunch.  The buffet was fabulous and not gross like sometimes buffets can be.  We got our money's worth by eating ourselves silly!  The chocolate fountain and cheesecake put me over the edge.  I was sure I'd have to be rolled out of there!  The drive home was a little sleepy, but we talked and made it home w/o incident.  The kids did a great job away from us for 9 hrs, but were definitely tired when we picked them up.  By the time we got home, everyone was running for bed!  We all went to sleep around 9pm grateful for a very fun day!

 This is the stage at intermission.  They do not allow photography during the show.  The picture below shows the side stage with the curtain drawn.  There were side stages on both sides that they used for a surround effect!

 A Christian based theater has the iconic Lion and Lamb outside.  Very cool!

Loved the chocolate fountain for dessert!  I even found a way to dip my cheesecake in it!