O Come, O Come Emmanuel

I'm thinking about the part of the song that goes like this...(In a loud, beautiful, yet obnoxious voice) "Rejoice, Rejoice..."

Tomorrow school starts back up again. It's a good thing.

I'm not saying this in a "Oh, my goodness, when will they ever go back to school" way. It's a "this has been pleasant and enjoyable but I'd like my routine back" way.

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I guess I was spending quality time with my children, my husband, my family, and other close friends...

We had a fantastic break. We started off our holiday with our Christmas "dinner" and play/ Christmas service the Sunday before Christmas at our church. It was great. Then we left from the building to drive straight to our good friends, Aaron and Chelan's, new house. Monday we headed to my parents house to spend Christmas with them and Ryan and Jessica. It's pretty special for my kids to have cousins to be with. India must "count" already because my kids actually said, "We want to stay here and play with our cousins!" Ben and I went to the Christmas Eve service at East County and Ben was able to see those who were there since he would be heading to Bellingham before the next Sunday. We had a great time being with our families. We were able to spend time with Ben's mom and Art. We got together with friends, too. Ben took the train back up to Bellingham Saturday and the lids and I traveled back on Sunday after attending East County. Aaron and Chelan caravaned back with me and they stayed at our house for New Years. We were very thankful they were able to do that. We took our first trip to Mt Baker. Although we all say we had a fun time, there were way more tears and coldness than smiles! We were playing in the snow for a total of about 45 minutes. Maybe. Then it was dark. It took longer than we expected to get to an open area for sledding so we drove for a total of about 4 hours and then only 45 minutes of playing/crying... There were wipe outs and frozen feet and faces and hands. There was getting bundled and unbundling and stripping and warming and starving people. Thank you Lord for good attitudes!

The rest of this week was spent being together, staying up later and sleeping in, a little. Our friends Brent and Lewis were able to give us a surprise visit and were at our house for two nights this weekend. It was so great to have them here and I know it meant so much to Ben. They were able to worship with us this morning and hear Ben preach.

(Just a side note: we know some really great people. We have been so blessed by the many, many people that God has brought into our lives. He always, always continues to surround us with amazing, caring, loving people. I am who I am because of all of you and so many others. To my Texas people and my Vancouver people and my Portland people and my Bellingham people and my scattered people, I am thankful for you. No one is more blessed than me to be a part of all of your lives.)

Well, life continues on tomorrow. Our good life. I am praying that God will continue to bless us this year with more than we could ask or imagine. Blessings on all of you.