Christmas Letter, 2013...

***This letter is what we would ordinarily send out to everyone at Christmas time.  This year was a little unusual, as the letters were printing when an ice storm hit and we lost power for the next 7 days!  Needless to say, they did not get sent out in time.  I am still sending a few to relatives, friends who don't have FB accounts, and those who have specifically requested a hard copy of the infamous Christmas letter, but for the vast majority of people we know, here it is... in electronic form!  If you need new contact information for us, please feel free to make a comment with an e-mail address at which to reach you!  Love you all...  L.***

Dear Friends and Family,

As we come to the close of another year, we are feeling amazingly blessed and maybe even a little bit surprised at where God has brought us.  After twelve years, we have essentially returned "home" and are adjusting to life a little closer to grandparents and with a new church family at Durand Church of the Nazarene, where Phil accepted a call as Associate Pastor in September! 

      

Seth turned 13 in September, thrusting us into a new era of life!  It's really hard to wrap my mind around the fact that we now have a teenager.  Seth is very busy, these days, programming video games on his laptop, creating pieces of art, and working hard at Bible Quizzing.  Seth is enjoying making new friends in the neighborhood and in Durand, and he really likes living closer to his grandparents!

 

   

Grace turned 12 in October, so the countdown to the teenage years is on for her, too!  This past year, Grace's world has revolved around music and Bible Quizzing.  She has won numerous awards and scholarships and continues to amaze us with her dedication and hard work.  Grace loves being a part of a bigger youth group, and she is making friends quickly.  Grace continues to be a huge help, at home, especially with Miah.

    

Caleb turned 9 in May.  This year he participated in Upward Basketball and has continued to play piano.  It was a huge highlight for him when he and Grace did a duet, together, for Fall Festival and were declared "winners".  Caleb has also been tagging along in the quiz world and likes to keep track of statistics!  He works hard at everything he does and never gives up!  

     

Ian turned 7 the day after Christmas!  He is enjoying learning to read, and he likes to make messes in his free time!  We're thankful for a nice playground, because now at least some of those messes have moved outdoors!  Ian loves playing with dinosaurs and Lego and snuggling down to watch movies.

     

Miah is 3 1/2, going on 13... at least...  She continues to be "the queen" around here, and we all love playing with her!  Miah enjoys singing, dancing, reading, and having adventures with her My Little Ponies and Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  As of late, she is also having a lot of fun watching Disney Junior (this is the first time in years we have had any television channels, and Miah can't get over how easy it is to "push the red button" when she wants to watch something)!

Phil and I (Lisa) celebrated 16 years of marriage in August!  It's a really fun time of life for us, since the kids are getting older and more independent, and we have more options for spending time together, just the two of us! 

As we head toward another new year, may you be blessed beyond what you could ever imagine!  You are in our thoughts and prayers often.

  

Love,

Phil, Lisa, Seth, Grace, Caleb, Ian, and Miah
"The Lord said... 'Go back the way you came...'" (I Kings 19:15)

Happy 7th Birthday, Ian!!!

Oh, the time goes fast...

I can hardly believe that Ian is seven, but it seems that's always the way it goes!  He was such a trooper, today, taking pictures out in the snow!  One of these years we'll have to get back to Florida on his birthday, for some warm weather outside shots, but I think these turned out really good, despite the freezing temperatures! 

We always try to make Ian's birthday extra special, since it's kind of rough to have your birthday on the day after Christmas!  Today we celebrated at Chuck-E-Cheese, and we also went to see "Frozen", which we liked, a lot!

They really love Chuck-E-Cheese:

Secretly, there is one thing I like about the

Rat Infested Cardboard Pizza Palace:

Ian chose orange cake, orange frosting, and orange cream ice cream for dessert... no surprises there!  His packages were filled with Lego, Kinex, books, dinosaurs, and play-doh!  Overall, I think Ian thought it ranked right up there as one of the best birthdays ever! 

There's that orange cake:

And the presents:

And... what really matters...

We love this kid:

 L.

It Might Be...

... a little bit icy.

Beautiful, and yet so dangerous.  It's sort of ironic how many things in life about which this could be said...

So, my primary concern, at this exact moment, is that we have been without electricity at our house for going on 18 hours.  Wouldn't you know it, we were out shopping in the ice storm, last night, so our refrigerator and freezer are full!  I'm not too worried about the freezer, because it's pretty stinkin' cold in the garage...

If we go a couple more days, my primary concern will turn to the need our family has to celebrate Christmas and our sacred days, because even though I am super happy to have a place to crash, with heat and electricity, we would definitely like to get home!

L.

Oh, Saturday...

... how I have missed you.

We have had such a busy few months!  Today we finally had time to get the Christmas decorations up (better late than never) and to watch a couple of Christmas movies (How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) and The Polar Express).

Getting Ready to Decorate:

Next time it's her turn to hang the angel, 

she'll be a Senior in High School:

Here We Are:

 

L.

Look...

... who finally got her ears pierced:

That would be Grace, but Miah just couldn't stand to not be in the picture!  We got Grace a gift card to Claire's for her birthday... ahem... in October... but this was just the first chance we had to actually go there!  She wasn't too excited about the process, but she loves the earrings!

L.

When We Decided To Make This Move...

... I pretty much promised my kids that we would stay connected to their friends and that we would not interrupt their music education.  These were two of the three biggest concerns, and I just couldn't promise that we could keep the house, so it was the best I could do.  A few months in, so far, so good. 

I'll admit that making the trek to Indiana isn't so bad, and I legitimately enjoy seeing friends there as well as going to music classes and lessons.  It's hard for me to be at the house, because there are so many memories, and I know it is only a matter of time before the house will no longer be ours.

But the pros outweigh the cons, and our most recent trip was an awful lot of fun.

Seeing Friends:

Lexi, Nate, & Matt:

Keegan:

 Owen:

We hope to catch some more of you next time around!  Ian did also get to play with John during Grace and Caleb's piano lessons, and Caleb, Ian, and Miah all got to see their music class friends, as well!

And... ahem... Miah and I made some of our own fun in the van, where we spent an awful lot of time on Tuesday:

L.

Sometimes...

... it just blows my mind - these things I get to do.

Today was... snowy...

We started out by attending the EMD mixer quiz, which was an awful lot of fun.  Phil and I both quizmastered, and Seth and Grace quizzed, and Caleb ran score sheets to the office, and it was just great.  We might be addicted to quizzing... just a little...

If I have never mentioned how amazing Grace is, I might just throw it out there that she is the only quizzer I have ever known who has placed first at a district quiz on three separate districts in one year...  Seth also had a pretty nice day, placing 10th, which means that he has placed in the top 10 on three districts, this year, as well...

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again.  There's nothing quite like coming home...

After the quiz, we ran some errands and then headed for the church board Christmas party, which was an excellent way to end a wonderful day. 

L.

The Christmas Holiday Projects...

... have begun!

I love Christmas art!  We had a lot of fun making these, today, and I was especially impressed with Ian, who doesn't usually like to sit still for an entire project, but who came up with a very nice snowman!

 L.

Anyone Want To Guess...

... what we talked about at youth group, tonight?

L.

Admittedly...

... we have been behind on our holiday art projects!

But the turkeys are finally painted!

L.

Meet Me In St. Louie, Louie...

Can it be that Seth and Grace just finished up their second St. Louis quiz?  Time is flying...

We were fortunate to be coming from a part of the country that did not experience the winter storm, so our ride there was uneventful.  In fact, we were almost to St. Louis before we saw any snow, at all.  Other teams had to fight their way through the weather, and a few had to cancel or even started out on the trip and just couldn't quite make it, but thankfully everyone was safe.

 

I spent the weekend Quizmastering and had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and to connect with a lot of old friends.  I think they all secretly like me for the candy that sits on my table, but I'm good with that.  Bribes aren't always bad, right?

Phil got to coach the MI District team, which was great, because he is most fully "in his element" when coaching.  The team took 10th place, overall, out of 34 all star teams!  Grace was 17th individually, and Mary was 19th.  I know that Grace was a little disappointed with her own quizzing and placement this time around, but when you consider that she was 45th at St. Louis, last year, and finished 12th in the world by the end of the season; I don't think there's really anything to cry about... mostly...   

I did have a few issues with what I would call "dirty" quizzing, throughout the weekend.  Now, let's be real...  When our family walks into a quiz, the intensity level skyrockets!  People don't even try to talk to us in the middle of rounds.  We are focused.  We memorize the material, and we take the best jumps we can.  We don't mess around.  But there is a fine line between this kind of attitude and the one that says, "I am going to do whatever I have to do to win, even if that means taking jumps on questions that I could never hope to answer (ex. According to Rom...) or flat out lying in challenges and rebuttals".  I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, the most experienced Quizmaster out there.  But I've been a part of the quizzing world since 1994, and I'm just going to say that I don't put up with that stuff.  Don't try it in my room.  And that might sound harsh, but to this point I think I can count the number of quizzers who don't like to quiz in my room on one hand, so whatever.  Most quizzers are amazing!  There is something to be said for ethics.

As another note, if you catch us between rounds or at lunch, we really are fun people...

  

Alright...  That's another one in the books...

L.

I Love My Life...

As I was headed down the road to take the kids to the Fantasy of Lights Parade, it hit me like a ton of bricks that we're in a really unique situation right now.  After years of being away from "home" and raising our kids with our own traditions (which I love), we are now in a place where we can also share with them the traditions we had growing up.  Who gets to do that?  Who gets the best of both worlds?  Apparently we do, and this has me feeling pretty blessed!

The Fantasy of Lights Parade is a special thing around our house, particularly because it was the first date Phil and I ever went on, some 19 years ago!  I met Phil's whole family that night.  We got stuck in traffic and finally detoured to Silverman's for Hot Chocolate, and I thought my Nana (who was waiting for me at home) was going to kill me for being so late!

Some things have changed over the years, 

but not how much I love

being out in the cold, at a parade, with this guy:

Over the years, we have made it out to the parade a handful of times.  We took Seth at 2 months old.  I took the kids in 2005, when I was working overnights at Target and commuting 2 1/2 hours.  You know, just crazy stuff like that!  But this year was the first time our whole family made it there together.  Well, OK...  let's be real.  Nothing is ever easy, and Phil had to work late, so we didn't really arrive together, but we did find each other...

Ready to Walk Downtown:

Now, I'm relatively good at scoping out good parade watching spots, so we managed to squeeze in between a couple of blankets that had surely been set out hours ahead of time, and the kids got a prime spot on the curb.  I'm also sort of... shall we say... thrify, but it my excitement to get downtown early, I forgot to feed the kids.  This resulted in an $18.00 trip to a hot dog vendor.  I probably should have thought this through a little bit better, because I left Seth, Grace, Caleb, and Miah to guard our spot and then Ian and I had to figure out how to carry 6 hot dogs and 6 lidless cups of hot chocolate between the two of us.  Let's just say a whole lot of hot dogs were stuffed in Ian's coat pockets, and we might have had a little bit of a spill...

My Little Hot Dog Man:

In the end, Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy did find us.  Funny little aside, Grandma was calling us on her cell phone and didn't realize that she was standing, literally, right behind us...

 Oh!  There They Are:

And the parade was great!

Some of the Floats:

 

I thought the School Bus that had impaled

Santa's reindeer team was a little disturbing...

Oh, wait...  Maybe it's supposed to be a sleigh...

Someone in our family was super excited to see Santa:

 Uh...  It might not be who you think:

I think maybe the funniest part of the night was when Miah was doing the royalty wave at all of the people on the floats!  She also wanted to ride the horses and was very upset about being in her stroller.  When we got home and I was getting her to bed, later, she said, "I thought this was my parade!"  Oh, Queen Miah...

The walk back was an eventful one, since Grandma decided we should stroll through the streets, where the horses had just been... and the flat tires on the stroller didn't really help, either, but what is life without a little bit of comic relief?

Some more hot chocolate and pie at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and it was time to head home.

Good stuff.  Good life.  Good night!

L.