MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas all! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas despite all of the craziness that the season tends to bring. This year was a wonderful Christmas. Many good times were had. On the 23rd Dan, Bonnie, Cole and I had our little Christmas in the morning. Santa was very good to us all.

This is our traditional family picture. I think this was the first year we were all looking at the camera and all of our eyes were open. It was a huge success.

The excitement of all the presents was almost

too much for Cole. He thought all of the

presents under the tree were all for him.

This year for Christmas I bought Cole the Easy Bake Oven. He loves to bake. He was pretty excited when he saw what was in the box. He went off right away and wanted to make us all cakes. Bonnie and I both wanted the easy bake when we were little, so this brought back good memories for both of us. Somehow we both remembered the cakes tasting better back then too.

On the 24th I headed over to my family gatherings. In the evening we had Christmas dinner at my Grandma's with the works...turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. It was very yummy, but I knew this was only the beginning of the many dinners I would consume, so I unfortunately had to pace myself. Grandma wanted a family picture before dinner, so this is my family. The last family picture we took together was when I was in grade 7. It was long over due.

Following dinner, we all packed up to go to church for the Christmas Eve service. After the service we came back to my Grandma's to read the Christmas story and open gifts. Once again, Santa was very good to us. People weren't feeling great this year, so our rousing game of Rook had to wait until the next time we all got togther.

My cousin Lucas and my brother Kevin

My cousin Dillon


Christmas morning we spend with just our family. For brunch we all head out to the Sheraton with my mom's extended family. In the afternoon we went to my dad's side of the family for yet another dinner. At this point I thought my stomach was about to bust!!!

My cousins Loreena and Lorissa on my dad's side of the family.

Boxing day, my parents took me, my brothers and their girlfriends to Minneapolis for some Christmas sale shopping. It was wonderful. Damage was definitely done at both the Albertville outlet mall and at the Mall of America.

These were my purchases while I was in Minneapolis. Some favorite stores included, Forever 21, Target, Ikea, Aeropostale, Bath and Body Works, J Crew, H&M and Banana Republic. It was a very successful shopping trip if I do say so myself.

I saw this lamp at Ikea and I thought it was the coolest thing.

So that was my week of Christmas in a nutshell. I hope you and all of your families had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our King and spending time with friends and family. I wish you all a safe and happy new year!

"Surfs Up"

Some of you may know that Cole and I love spending time watching the show "Backyardigans" together. The music is catchy, we like to dance and we often pretend that we are on our own adventures. It's great. I enjoy spending that time with him. This video is one of the many little "dances" him and I do. Most of you will also know that I am notorious for making up dances.

Random Pics

Laurie: "Oh Josh, you make me laugh"

Sisters??

What a wonderful friend. Doesn't she look happy?

Christmas Time!!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocoloate. I am not a fan of egg nog
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
In my house, Santa never gave us presents. They were all from mom and dad and my mom always wrapped them so nice.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White lights on both the tree and the house
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope!
5. When do you put your decorations up?
Usually around first advent.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
My grandma's stuffing. It is sooooo good.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Getting woken up by my dad super early in the morning on christmas morning and getting to open up our presents. We would then toast Christmas bread that my mom made and eat breakfast together.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don't think I ever believed in santa. It wasn't really talked about in my family. He was never an important part of christmas.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
We go to my Grandma's on Christmas Eve and so we open a few gifts there from her and from cousins.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
My tree is full of all of the decorations that I have received over the years. My mom started a tradition of giving us an ornament on first advent, so for the past 22 years I have gotten a new ornament every year. Each one has its own story and I can tell you when I got each of them. There are some decorations that I made as a little girl on the tree too.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I love it around Christmas time, but in January I think it would be nice to start to melt.
12. Can you ice skate?
Yes I can and I love it. Anyone want to go skating this year with me?
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
The first stereo I got as a kid. I thought I was by far the coolest kid around cuz it was one that could record you singing and so I just thought that was the greatest.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Spending it with family and friends. The traditions.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Peanut Butter Balls or Naniamo Bars
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
My dad waking me up on Christmas morning to come downstairs and open gifts.
17. What tops your tree?
Right now, nothing - I can't find a non-tacky tree topper. Growing up it was always an angel.
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Giving
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
The Magnifcat by Steve Bell.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
I'm impartial to them. I don't really like them or hate them, but I would eat one if it was given to me.
21.Do you like Christmas music?
OH YES!!! I love the old Amy Grant cd's, Steve Bell's "The Feast" and then the classics like Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, etc.

Top Ten of 2006

I was doing some reflecting last night about the last year, about where my life has come from and where it is going. I was thinking about the highlights and the non-highlights. So here is my past year in a nutshell.

1. Starting school for Massage Therapy this past September. It is the most wonderful part of my life. For the first time in a long time I feel like I am where God wants me to be.
2. I ended working at Botanical PaperWorks in August after working there for 3 1/2 years. It was a bitter sweet goodbye. It was the best place I have ever worked. I miss those girls!
3. Going on a cruise to Alaska with my extended family - many tears were shed over the lost luggage, but memories included climbing a mountain in a jean skirt and flip flops, going to Hubbard Glacier with my blanket from my bed around me becuase it was sooo incredibly cold and we had no sweaters or jackets, the food, the entertainment, the ballroom dresses from the lost and found. Thanks for the wonderful trip Grandma!
4. Moving back in with Dan and Bonnie and getting to spend a lot more time with Cole. He is a constant joy and delight in my life.
5. The Women's Retreat at Camp Arnes with FaithWorks. It was a wonderful weekend spent laughing and crying and getting to know women in the church and develop new relationships.
6. Gary and Louise's wedding - Janessa, I had a ton of fun dancing with you late into the night. That was by far one of the funnest weddings I have ever attended.
7. Spending many weekends in the summer at the cabin. It's been 5 years since I have been able to go out there joyfully since my grandpa died 5 years ago.
8. Spending time with girlfriends watching movies, going for coffee and just hanging out. Jess, Bre, Deanna, Kristy, Laurie, Aimee, Steph, Odie - you girls are the best friends anyone could have. Thank you for loving me and for being so good to me. I love you all so much!
9. Being involved in a Renovare group. I have enjoyed the time spent developing my relationship with God, instilling spiritual disciplines in my life and developing relationship with this very different group of people.
10. Discovering new gifts in me, such as my love for baking.

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Christmas Party

This evening our young adults group at church had our christmas party after church. It mostly consisted of eating good food, playing the game "Things" and a gift exchange. For the gift exchange, people had to bring items from their house that they no longer wanted. Some of the highlights were used candles, the movie Glitter, a CMU hat, cd's with no sleeves and the list goes on. Much joy and laughter was shared.



This was one of the topics for the game things. Some of the highlights included Graham Friesen, David Hasselhoff and Mariah Carey movies.

From Left to Right

Christina - a touque that Laurie made
Laurie - paper candle holders...very cool
Jess - books 3 and 4 of the Left Behind series and a pack of stale gum in a mini lunch box
Bre - the Wide Awake City cd and a used candle
Steph - the game Skip-bo

Some presents ended up being pretty good.

This was my present. The shirt reads
"Budweiser"

It's a keeper don't you think?

Sabrina and Laurie just hanging out

Left: Graham and Jen

I am truly blessed

With school being the way it has been these last 4 months, I have had little time to hang out with the people I enjoy. Now that Christmas is just around the corner, I have a little window of time that allows me to spend some evenings hanging out with friends. Last night Kristy, Jess, Aimee and Laurie came over for a girls night. It was long overdue. We watched the movie "Stick It" (not sure what my thoughts are about it yet. Definitely not a blockbuster renter - more like a shell 0.99 renter, but it was fun to just be together).
I am so blessed to have these wonderful women in my life.
Thank you girls for being such amazing and wonderful friends to me. For loving me, quarks and all. For being there when I have needed you and for the many good laughs we have shared. I appreciate you all so much and I don't know what I would do without you. My life would be so empty. So thank you for last night and hopefully we can hang out again soon. Just think in a year and a half I will have nothing but time. Yeah for that!
Cheers to good friends!!!

Jess and Kristy just being Jess and Kristy.

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CARIDEE WON!!!!

For all of those ANTM fans out there. Yeah that Caridee is the winner!

Yeah for good days!!!

Do you ever have one of those days where things just seem to go right? Well that was my day today. I did really well on both of my anatomy tests today and when that happens, it just changes the whole outcome of my day! It makes the 6 hours of anatomy feel so much more bearable because I feel smarter :) I know that scoring well in no way means I'm smarter, it just makes me feel like I get it. It's sort of like an "Ah ha!" moment, and I happen to like those moments.

Then to add to a good day, America's Next Top Model is on tonight! What more could a person want!

Here is me trying out my new camera:

Me and my puppy, Bailey

My brother, Kevin and his girlfriend Dominika

Cole with one of his many goofy smiles!

1st Sunday of Advent...Waiting

Waiting is a very difficult thing. Many of us do not do this very well. We live in a world where the concept of waiting seems absurd, especially at this time of year. Everybody is impatient. The lines are too long, people crowd the malls - people are everywhere. Just yesterday I was at Polo Park and the amount of people pushing and shoving and trying to get ahead of the next person was insane. I must admit that I too was one of those people. Waiting is just a hard thing.
Ironically, today is first advent and the title is waiting. How fitting. The reading I was looking at this morning was by Henry Nouwen. He describes waiting as being openended, active and waiting with a sense of promise.
When we wait, we are hoping for something concrete and something we wish for. We want our life to go in a certain direction. We ourselves have a plan for what we want, but a lot of us tend to forget that God has a plan too and his plan may be a little bit different than ours. I love the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth and Mary. They all found themselves waiting. I can't even imagine what it must be like to wait for the arrival of a child. Nouwen says they were all "waiting not with wishes, but with hope". Nouwen says that is a very radical attitude toward life and I agree. This type of waiting means trusting that there is a plan far beyone our own imagining. It is giving up control of our futures to God and letting Him define our lives, rather than ourselves.
Waiting, Nouwen says, is also active. It is not passively saying that, "oh well, I can't control things, so I guess I'll just sit here and do nothing but wait". Nouwen says, rather it is "waiting and being present in the moment. That you are aware of something that is going to happen and you want to be present for it". Elizabeth, Zachariah and Mary knew exactly what they were waiting for and being present in the moments of waiting. Waiting is a patient process. It means allowing God to work within you and trusting that something will grow from the seed that has been planted within you.
Finally, Waiting is a sense of promise. People have the ability to wait because they have received a promise that something will come out of their waiting. Mary will bear a son! At the end of the waiting, there will be a child that Mary will be able to hold. There is a prize at the end of the road. This type of waiting makes the whole waiting process a little more bearable when we know that something will result at the end. Mary was living with a promise that helped sustain her through the waiting period.
Too often I find myself not even aware of what I am waiting for. I just want things to change. I forget that God has planted a seed within me and now I must take an active, open-ended response to the promise that God has given me. God has promised that He will send His son into the world to save me from my sins and that He will not leave us or forsake us. My hope and prayer for this season of waiting is that I might be attentive to God's voice in my life and that his hope and promise would sustain us all through whatever it is that we need to wait for.