Merry Christmas 2010

We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.

Matthew 2:2

As I've been reflecting on Christmas this year, the story of the Magi recorded in Matthew has come to mind most often. We have been focusing a lot on the important aspects of Christmas, including loving, serving, and worshiping. And while it seems increasingly difficult to keep the focus on this, it is what we strive for. We pray that your Christmas was blessed and that in this Christmas season, you may continue to worship Immanuel.

Contrary to what nativity scenes and children's Christmas stories would tell us, the Magi did not come to visit Jesus the night of his birth. Instead it was at a later time, when Jesus was perhaps a toddler or young child. This is a good excuse for our Christmas greetings to come post-Christmas day, during the season of Christmas. And hopefully, we'll get our cards out by Epiphany, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Magi!!

2010 has brought yet more changes and blessings our way. We welcomed Avdon Christopher into our lives on August 20, two weeks sooner than we expected, and we could not love this little guy more! He is a wonderful 4-month-old who is awakening to the world around him. Avdon blesses us with his incredible smile, mellow temperament, and ability to snuggle. His personality is already very different from that of his older sister! We are slowly getting adjusted to life with two, and love to see how the siblings interact. We are so excited to continue to get to know Avdon!

Shiloh is nearing the 2 1/2 mark and we are amazed daily at her spunk, processing abilities, and strong-willed character. These traits will serve her well, but definitely challenge us to be creative, patient, and wise in our parenting. It is easy to say that our children have encouraged us to increase our personal prayer lives! Shiloh truly blesses and amazes us, though, with her language skills and imagination. She has recently found Daddy's collection of superheros and has adopted them, giving them each names of people in her own life, and playing with them for hours on end. I'm assuming the superheros are experiencing much different play than they were used to twenty years ago, as they now have to sing songs from Kindermusik class, play the piano, eat food, go to sleep, go potty and sometimes even spend time in the play oven as well.

I (Erin) continue working at Head Start, serving families with children ages prenatal-three in their homes. I am now working only 20 hours a week, which allows much more quality time at home even though the work schedule is absolutely crazy! Besides being mommy and home visitor, I continue to enjoy learning how to cook and bake well, incorporating fresh and organic ingredients in as much as possible. I also began learning the art of cooking nice meals for larger groups of people this fall as Chris and I led The Marriage Course at St. John. This seven-week course consisted of preparing and serving (and cleaning up!) a candlelit meal for 10 couples before they began their time of learning and private discussion. Chris and I made a great team as he was able to handle the facilitation and technology aspects of the course while I learned some good lessons (and made some pretty good meals) in the kitchen! The biggest lesson I learned is that I needed some help on those nights, both in the kitchen and with watching our children, and I am very thankful for all those who helped us out!!

Chris continues work at St. John, each year, finding a better and better fit to the needs of the church and community as well as the use of his gifts. He continues to lead the contemporary worship and works primarily with young adults. He has discovered his passion in the Scripture's call to make disciples, and is learning what it means to really invest in discipling others. As St. John has joined with another congregation to help guide the Lutheran Student Center at the Univerisity, Chris has found himself spending lots of time at the LSC and even made it through the entire Old Testament in the fall semester with a group there. He has found a renewed interest in performing, after taking a break due to crazy schedules, children being born, etc. He has a new band with some good friends and is greatly enjoying that time as well. Chris continues giving music lessons and will begin giving lessons at St. John, instead of in our home, starting in January. There should be notably less distractions there (think 2-year-old during dinner time) for his students!

Knowing we were expecting a baby late summer encouraged us to really kick it in gear when it came to projects around the house. This past year marked the biggest (and most expensive!) changes so far including a brand new roof (which was technically the end of 2009 on a very warm November weekend); new water treatment system; new sump pump in the basement (way to go Chris!); electrical upgrade including our electricity line being run underground instead of through a tree; demolition of a problem chimney which opened up two square feet in my closet (and will maybe someday be a laundry shoot?); new vegetable garden; new furnace and air conditioner; two new windows in the kitchen; and soon, new siding and gutters. This last piece is mostly courtesy of our insurance due to our crazy April hail storm. And someday, once we have some savings built back up, we will be excited to work on an improved kitchen! Wow! We are so thankful for our home.

If you're not a "regular" to our blog, feel free to browse below and see what else we have been up to. It hasn't exactly been updated frequently in the past 4 months (but do you see why!?!). Once again, we pray for blessings upon you this season.

Much love,

The Family Trip