Holiday Hub Bub

WOW -- as I look at the date of the last entry, I am aware of just how busy November turned out to be! For many in our profession, December is the busy time... along with February and March... but this year, November provided for a lot of busy-ness in our lives. I could run down the list, but I fear you would be asleep before it was half done. Let's just concentrate on the highlights.

Highlight 1 -- My folks came to town for two weeks prior to Thanksgiving. It is always good to have them here, but this time in particular. Eric and I both had very crazy church schedules during the time they were here. We also had a sick little one -- so thankfully, they were here and ready to step into full-time grandparent duty! PHEW! While they were here, cookies and pies were baked for Thanksgiving, the Christmas tree went up and the house kept on going. None of that would have happened without them those two weeks.

Highlight 2 -- Josie was a part of her second Glorify! musical at church. We Are United was a children's musical with a Survivor theme to it -- the characters learned the importance of being united together in Christ and working as a team. Josie was "Marta Stewart" and led the Godly Garden Center Challenge... planting seeds so that they will grow. Her challenge involved telling the participants to choose wisely between rocks, thorns, soil, etc, so that their seeds could indeed grow into beautiful flowers. It was quite cute. She had only a couple of speaking parts, but each part was a good sized paragraph. I never knew if her lines were memorized or not -- she refused to run them with me. Lo and behold, she had them down flawlessly!!













Highlight 3 -- THANKSGIVING, of course! This year, my sister and her family hosted Thankssgiving in their new home in St. Louis. Our parents and our paternal grandparents were also there. Let's talk about controlled chaos... 'cause anytime you add a 6 yr old and two toddlers to the mix, that is what it is!! Josie did a GREAT job at self-entertaining or playing with the younger kids. Mitchell (who is 15 months) is up and running and interested in everything. Norah... well, Norah was too busy being scared of Mitchell, who is 6 months younger than her, but 6 pounds bigger than her. For whatever reason, Norah was completely wigged-out by him. Bummer. We were hoping for good "cousins" pictures... that did NOT happen as we could barely keep Mitchell and Norah in the same room together without Norah having a melt-down. That said, we did get some fun pics of the various children and activities.

























There is much to give thanks for this year. We are always thankful for our family and friends... for our churches. We are thankful for each of you who bless us in so many ways. Thank you for being you and for loving us. It takes a team effort to make it through this life, and as Josie and the other cast members of her musical reminder us, we are indeed united together.