Happy New Year's Eve!!!

We arrived home this evening from our 12-day Christmas vacation. We were so very blessed to spend Christmas week in a beautiful cabin on a mountain in Sevierville, TN. We had a wonderful time with Chip, Amy, Brian, Jarrett, Isabella, Josh, and Jaden. The special blessings of the week exceeded our expectations, and we thank God for the wonderful time we had as a family.

We thank God for HIS love, patience, mercy, forgiveness, direction, power, and peace that we experienced during 2008. We found that the trials served to deepen our faith and were used to serve purposes.

We look forward to seeing out this year tonight and ringing in the new year. May we be found faithful in living the Christian life in this dark world.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Susan

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR CHRISTMAS CABIN!

As a family of 9, we are having a wonderful time this week in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. We all arrived in stages on Sunday night. Richard and I had a pair of pjs for everyone laid out on their beds~~ their first Christmas gift of the week.

It is a joy to be united together as a family 24/7 for this very special week. Our grandkids made it lots of fun and we have enjoyed the rich fellowship with Brian, Amy, and Chip. We are having some great meals this week. Amy and Brian planned the meals, purchased the groceries and have done all of the cooking and preparing except for our traditional Christmas Eve meal prepared by Richard and me). On Tuesday evening, Chip treated all nine of us to a lovely meal at the Apple Barn Restaurant. We had our very own dining room which was decorated and a delightful waitress named Tammy. The picture on this article was made after our dinner that evening.

We have attended two shows: The Dixie Stampede (Dolly Parton's place) which (for those of you who don't know) features a delicious dinner of a whole chicken, potato, corn, soup, tea, coffee, and apple pie for dessert. The show was great with their wonderful horses and their riders, the entertaining emcee and his side-kick. The best part was the beautiful live nativity they had. It was a fun evening. We also attended THE MIRACLE which is an amazing play that starts with creation and goes through our Lord Jesus' crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It was so good and we got to meet the young man who played Jesus Christ.

On Christmas Eve morning, the grandkids opened their gifts from Grandpa and me. On Christmas Evening, they opened their gifts from their Uncle Chip. On Christmas morning, the kids opened their gifts from their parents and we adults opened our gifts from each other and from the kids. What a festive time!

A highlight of the week has been our spiritual time together. Chip has brought some awesome devotions to keep us focused on the reason for the season and Jarrett brought us a devotional on Christmas Eve day that he had heard and had made notes on so that he could share it with us.

Our hearts our full today as we celebrate the coming of Christ to this earth to live a sinless life and then to willingly die for our sins. As Chip says, "Let's celebrate his first coming but concentrate on His second coming." May we not see Jesus Christ as that chubby baby in a manger but as our Risen Lord, Savior of the world, and coming King.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Brian and Amy fixed a delicious Christmas morning brunch of made-to-order omelets and fried potatoes. It was so good.

Pictures from Last Night's Christmas Program at Church

Brian and Amy were the adult "characters" in the play:

Our grandson, Jaden, is the red-head in the green sweater vest and white shirt on the front row.

Our grandson Josh is the boy on the far right ~~ next to the girl on the end.

Wednesday Night's Christmas Program at Church

It was a fabulous Christmas program. Of course, we are prejudiced and probably enjoyed it as much as anyone did because 4 of our dear ones were in it. Jaden was in the little children's musical part of the program and did a real good job singing. Josh was in the big kids' musical part of the program and did a fabulous job as always. Brian and Amy were the adult characters in the play and did an amazing job. I was so proud of our crew and so blessed by the entire program. I believe they said 200 children were involved. It was so well organized and carried off without a hitch. It was a fun, fun, evening. Here is a video of the grand finale song. You can see Jaden in the front center (red hair, green sweater) and perhaps you can spot Brian and Amy in the very back. (Amy is holding the little girl who was her daughter in the program.)

Dear Blog....

Dear Blog.... I am sorry I have ignored you for a week. With so much going on, you'd think I'd be on here blogging away, but the busy-ness of the season has pretty much captivated my time, attention, and energy!!! I so much want to stay Christ-focused during this Christmas season so with everything we are involved in, we offer it up to Christ as a means of ministry or activity in His name.

So what has been going on since my post on last Monday? (Last Monday seems like eons ago!!!!) On Monday and Tuesday, we were busy with last minute decorating, clean-up, and meal preparation for our 4th Annual Couples' Christmas Party on Tuesday night. Our home and our hearts were graced to have 7 couple friends over (including our dear pastor and his wife) for the dinner party and everyone had a good time. All week long, we had a dear friend in the hospital who had cancer surgery, so we made visits there until he came home on Thursday. Another friend from church has cancer and needed a ride to her last radiation treatment on Wednesday and we took her to that. Church on Wednesday night On Thursday afternoon, we picked up Josh and Jaden from school at 3:00 and had them through the dinner hour and took them to the program with us. I forgot to mention that the parents of our Indiana campus daughter arrived on Thursday and were here until Saturday morning. I had left-over lasagna from Tuesday night's dinner party and fed us, the grandsons, and our Indiana guests on Thursday evening in addition to preparing a meal for our friend home from the hospital. . We went to the Academy Christmas Concerts on both Thursday and Friday nights as Belle sang in the choir on Thursday night and Josh played trumpet in the band on Friday night. Amy emceed the program on Friday night as well. Both programs were awesome. On Friday morning, Richard went to the Retirement Center Bible Study, we ate lunch with friends afterwards, and then he and I shopped until 3:00 at which time we picked up Belle at school. We took her out to dinner before the program on Friday night. On Saturday, I got up early and got busy with some chores around the house. I had to finish up a sewing project for our retirement center Bible study Christmas gifts so got that done. Richard and I ran out to do a bit more Christmas shopping and to get a bite of dinner. When we came home last night, I wrapped a gift so that everyone would have ONE under our tree as Brian, Amy, and the kids were coming over for Sunday dinner.

That's been my week. It made me tired just re-hashing all of that so think I'll go take a nice long nap!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Campus Daughters Christmas 2008

L-R: Kelsey from TN, Melissa from WI, Darla from TN, Diana from OH, Kaylee from TN and Jess from CT

We had our campus daughters over for "Christmas Sunday Dinner" and gave them their gifts. Three of our girls were unable to attend so we missed them but enjoyed the other girls. They are in finals this week and then leave on Friday to go home for the holidays. They are a sweet bunch of girls and we wish them and their families all a VERY Merry Christmas!

Pics of our "D" Family 2008 Christmas Reunion

Here is the link to the album of pictures that Richard and I made at the Christmas Reunion on Saturday at Bill's and Darlene's home:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=nhewoo3.4fhl9sl7&x=0&y=e1io2x&localeid=en_US

"D" Family Christmas Party Today~~~

We had a wonderful Christmas fellowship with our beloved "D" family today. Bill and Darlene hosted the event and made it extra-special nice for us all.

Everyone was there except for Amy and her family, and they were "providentially" hindered. We missed them but had a wonderful time with everyone else in attendance. I am uploading my pics into a Kodak Gallery so that I can share them around and will post that link here later. With a 5-hour trip there and a 5-hour trip back in one day, we are pooped (happily pooped but pooped none-the-less) and are headed to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 33rd Birthday to Our Dear Daughter, Amy!

I woke up on December 1 in 1975 not even thinking that my baby would be born. Being my first pregnancy and still 2 weeks from baby's due date, I went to my regular weekly OB appointment AFTER I had mopped and waxed the kitchen floor that morning. When I got to my appointment and was checked by my doctor, he announced that I was in the early stages of labor (quite effaced!) and to go straight to Druid City Hospital for the big event. I didn't go "right to the hospital" but went back home and called Richard to let him know that we were to go to the hospital. I can't remember if he came and got me or if I drove and met him there. I think he came and got me. I do know that I got there at 4:00 and Amy was born at 6:15 ~~ just two hours later. Not bad for a first baby.

Amy has been a delight to her Daddy and me for these 33 years. She was a precious baby, a good child, a sweet teenager, and is a loving wife and mother of four today in addition to her professional role as an elementary principal. We made a lot of mistakes in our parenting through the years, but God blessed in spite of us and Amy turned out alright. We are very blessed to be her parents and are proud of our one-and-only daughter.

Happy Birthday to my lovely and dearly loved daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS...