My Keeping Room

(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!