Christmas Pictures

Wish you could have been here, too!

(Written Sunday night) Christmas is over but the aftermath is not! The house is still a mess, but we needed a day off. This afternoon we went to West Burlington to check out the after-Christmas sales and were able to find a beautiful tree and some ornaments for the church. We have been limping along on peoples' left-over decorations, but no longer; next year we will be ready to celebrate our season in style!

Last Sunday evening was our Christmas service with the open house following. I had so much food ready and it's a good thing. Over 45 people came! We were thrilled that 4 neighbor couples came. We've been praying that we can be a good testimony and can reach them with the gospel, and this allowed them to see us simply as friends and normal people.

We really enjoyed having the Vaughn and Rider families here, one family arriving a couple of days earlier and the other staying a couple of days later. We celebrated Christmas with the Vaughns on Thursday and the Riders on Christmas Day. There's nothing like children opening gifts! Lots of fun, lots of food, lots of excitement. Karen, Wayne, and Gloria came for Christmas dinner. Now we're back to reality and quiet. The only one happy about that is the cat who spent the entire week under our bed.

Our very exciting news is that we'll be grandparents again. Not only Elizabeth, but surprise, Jonathan and Josalyn!!! We're all extremely happy for them and for us. It's been really hard not to share this news for the couple of weeks we've known about it, but now we can. This means we'll have a new little one in May and then again in August. Any quilt pattern ideas for me?

We're planning to head to Michigan on Thursday to see David and Rachel. He was injured playing basketball and will have to have major knee surgery in early January. Hopefully we won't be needed to go right back for that, but we haven't really had a true visit with them since they were married. It's time they were initiated! Ed is officiating at a funeral Thursday morning (his second funeral since coming here but the first connected with our church), and we'll leave after that.

I hope you all had a special time in your own ways this Christmas. We enjoyed talking with those family members we could reach by phone, and hearing from a good number of friends through cards and letters.

Up from a power nap, we're ready to go watch a movie Ed received for Christmas and try out our new popcorn popper. I'm all warm in my new slippers and "lounging" pants - the cleanup can just wait until tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Our house is all decorated, cookies are baking, and snow is falling. What could be better? We love this time of year and hope that for you, too, it will be a wonderful time of family, friends, and most of all, celebrating Jesus' birth and all that means.

This is certainly a busy time. This week includes accompanying the Jr High choir concert, then the Sr High choir concert, and substituting for the ladies' Bible study leader who is in Germany. Sunday evening we have our Christmas Celebration at church (people have volunteered to do special music, readings, etc) with everyone invited to our house afterward for a Christmas Open House. We're also inviting neighbors, so I've been working like crazy on the food prep. So far I shopped for the groceries, made sugar cookies, some chocolate candy, spritz, chocolate crinkle cookies, angel macaroons, fudge, peppermint candy, peanut clusters,and a cheese ball. I won't tell you how much more stuff I still have to prepare - I'd depress myself!

Early next week Jennifer, Mark and kids and Elizabeth, Troy and kids will arrive for Christmas. We'll be celebrating on Thursday evening as the Vaughns must leave for home on Friday, then we'll do it again on Christmas since the Riders can stay. We have thought about going to David's for New Year's but don't know for sure yet.

We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel of major house projects. They are certainly not all done yet, but at least we are not feeling hopeless about it. I've learned a lot this past 15 months including how to use a compound miter saw, table saw, how to demolish kitchen counters, how to build a wall and lay tile and laminate flooring. All the floors are done except the entry which I hope to do after the first of the year, and the step down into the living room needs to be finished. The kitchen looks pretty good if I do say so myself after my first-ever attempt to do ceramic tile (the backsplash). We are feeling snug now with the much-needed new french doors in place (an answer to prayer!) and the garage made ready for the car to be parked inside. And just in time, too - we got our first snow this week and it's freezing!

We haven't really begun much downstairs, but slowly it feels more inviting and I painted and fixed up the guest "suite." That means we have great accomodations for you, so come see us. The price is right!

When David and Rachel were here for Thanksgiving, David wrote up a work-out plan for Ed and me. We've been doing the exercises (which are quite challenging!) and I'm waiting for those astounding results. I hurt for several days in places I've never hurt before which was a surprise as I had been working out for a while - obviously not hard enough!

Well, in case you didn't know, we'll be grandparents again in May. Elizabeth and Troy are getting ready for little Rider #3. I hope it's a girl this time, although the boys are so cute and sweet, another one would be just fine. Wow! That will make eight grandchildren!!! (I feel waaaay too young for that!)

There is so much to be thankful for as we look over the past year and so much to look forward to in the next. We hope it will be just as good for you.