Christmas

It's a fact. Christmas next year will look very different for our family. No white Christmas, no need for hot cocoa after cutting down the tree, no big family dinner.  In a way, we are excited. Christmas doesn't exist based on these things that make it seem familiar and "right". Yet we do treasure these things in our hearts and they will be missed.

In light of this, and the desire to well root our children in their home culture, we had a blast this month creating Christmas memories for them and enjoying our last cold Christmas for a while. Take last week for instance.

Sunday night we took the kids along to the student council Christmas party. No one does a white elephant party like a group of high schoolers! Among the creative gifts was a fire alarm, all ready to be plugged in and flipped on! We're waiting to see who is missing the alarm, however...

Tuesday we took the kids to a surprise dinner at Wendy's to use some certificates we had.  After filling them up on french fries and chicken nuggets, we spent an hour driving around town looking at Christmas lights. There are a few houses here that were so much fun for the kids.  One is done by a former teacher at the high school, and they open up their driveway so you can drive through. We saved this one for last... and drove through twice!

Then on Wednesday, the day I've been trying to keep just for the kids, I had a cookie decorating party for them. We had nine moms and nineteen kids come through to have some Christmas fun with us. The kids had a blast, the floor didn't collapse, and everyone left loaded with sugar. It was a wonderful time to spend with friends that we cherish and will miss next year.


On Friday night we had dinner with the Corman's, our missionary friends that have been amazing mentors and encouragers while we are in this stage of preparation.  We always have a time before we travel to other family to celebrate Christmas as our own family of four together, and we often have someone over on our "Christmas Eve".  So we had some African Peanut Soup (I'll blog that recipe soon), some chocolate pudding sundaes (had to do something with the leftover sprinkles from the cookie party!) and had a little time under the tree and exchanged presents.

Kaeden and his chocolate pudding sundae

Here are the five kids!  What a happy bunch!

Joel and his special new scooter... what a treat!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours, whether it is cold or not, whether your house smells of fresh tree or the box it came it, whether you are surrounded by many or few.  We hope you find meaning in Christmas despite all these things, and that your new year is blessed.

Missionary Friendships

Over the last few years, Jim and I have crossed paths with a number of missionary couples here in Woodland Park. Recently, we've been able to share meals with many of them, and learn from their experience. The ministry that each of these couples is involved in is very unique, but their hearts share a strong passion for reaching the lost.

Jeff and Jen Musgrave are involved with Push International. They collect and distribute wheelchairs to people in need around the world. Many of their trips have been to Mazatlan, and they often bring along their two young children. I have worked with Jen at MOPS, and Jeff owns his own business building antler chandeliers and sculptures... this allows them to commit so much to missions.

Tim and Laurie Thornton moved in two doors down right before Joel was born, answering a long-prayed prayer for another young mom to be close by us. They have a music ministry, reaching others through the powerful lyrics and music of the songs they write. They are incredibly talented musicians and vocalists. You can hear some of their music on their website. We have been introduced to a whole new side of missions that happens right here, and is incredibly culturally relevant.

We then met Chad and Nicole Corman a year and a half ago, after they returned from Malaysia. They are currently taking an extended furlough from that ministry as they work out some citizenship issues for Nicole. They have been in long term ministry overseas and are just an incredible resource for us. They also live about a block away!

Chad and Kristin Tabor work with e3 Sportreach. Chad uses the universality of sports to bring people together here in the US, as well as around the world, and shares the gospel with them. Most recently, Chad traveled to Argentina to run some soccer camps. Their summers are mostly spent here in the US, traveling around with their little girls and coaching kids at camps. Kristin is also Faith's teacher at MOPS, and Faith just loves her class.

Bruce and Bev McDonald are the grandparents of two of Faith and Joel's playmates here in town. Bruce is also our Sunday school teacher. Bruce was a chaplain for many years in the NBA, and now he and Bev minister to missionaries, traveling to attend retreats and conferences of missionaries. Missionaries don't typically get much time off, so these retreats are rare chances for them to be renewed themselves. Bruce and Bev give of themselves selflessly during these retreats.

It is incredible to see how God has placed all these people into our lives, little by little over the last few years. It is wonderful to have the wisdom and insight of those that have gone this path before us, are still on it, and continue to learn from it. We look forward to the missionary community we will have at RVA, but we feel so blessed to have one already!

The Birthday Boy!

On March first, our sweet little Joel turned three years old!  I have been neglecting sharing his celebration with you, but wanted to make sure we posted some pictures of our big boy before we head out on spring break!

His birthday was a Monday, and while Jim had to go to school, it was a beautiful day, and we started the celebration early, just the three of us.  He even got some candles in his lunch!

  We headed outside for some bike riding in the cul-de-sac in the morning.  Joel enjoyed the bike, but the bigger draw was the puddles!  So after getting soaked we came in for hot cocoa.  

It's hard to believe sometimes how big they are getting!  But so much fun too.

We had a family come for dinner to help celebrate.  The Corman's have been great friends to us this year, and Joel and their son, Kaeden, who is only a few days younger, are great friends.  And now Joel loves him even more, since he brought gifts of Lightning McQueen and Mater!  (From the Cars movie.)

Joel chose which of his trucks he wanted me to draw on the cake.  I was thankful it was a simpler one! He has always loved trucks.

Waiting for cake is pretty exciting!

So proud of his cake and being a big boy!

Kaeden is such a great encouraging friend to Joel.  It is fun to watch Joel develop friendships just as his sister did around this age.

The following weekend, Grandma and Grandpa joined in for another celebration.  Can't have too many parties!  And they must have gotten the memo too, because Joel was lucky enough to get even more Cars figures!  He sure loves anything with wheels, and although he's only seen the movie a few times, he just loves the characters and loves to talk about the story.

It was fun to make another cake for him.  He's been asking for a giraffe cake for a few months, and after scouring the internet for ideas, I came up with this.  It is such a delight to bless our children by granting their wishes for (some!) things.  It was fun to see his face when he saw his long-awaited cake.

Something else that Joel loves is reading.  He got books for his birthday and took time to look through each one before getting another present.  I love that both he and Faith enjoy looking at books for hours sometimes.  It's hard to believe that soon Faith will be reading to us!

Another hit of the night was a train conductor hat, scarf, and whistle from his Grandmom.  He is so proud of it, and loves to wear them all day.

It was so much fun to celebrate Joel with our family, many times over.  I especially cherished celebrating this year, as it was comfortable and familiar.  It was easy to get balloons from Walmart and make cake and icing from ingredients that are easy to find, and have family and friends over like we were used to.  Celebrating in Kenya next year will probably take a little creativity, won't feel like the past years, and will be different, but we can look forward to treasuring that too.