Christmas wrappings

I guess we can officially call our Christmas over now that the kids had a chance to spend all of their Christmas money.  We spent most of ours too in a trip to Grand Forks yesterday.  The kids went together to get a PS2 (that's Playstation2 for those grandparents out there who are now saying, "What's a Playstation?").  The kids each got their own games for it and they got to play some today.  It is a lot of fun.  (Yes, Amelia and I got some games we like as well.)
We took the money that was given so generously by some of our church members and other folks in town who just gave to us and purchased a snow thrower.  We have a couple of neighbors who have been so giving of their time and energy who have come over and done our driveway on a several occaisions now.  The last time was right after we had received this money and we decided it would be great if we could get our own.  Now maybe we can return the favor sometime.  I am almost looking forward to another snowstorm.  : )

Christmas Time is Here

It was never really in doubt that we would have snow on the ground on Christmas day, but now the forecast shows that we will probably have some flurries falling today and tomorrow, so it will be a white Christmas on that count as well. I for one am thrilled. The kids are having fun playing around the house with the toys from the stockings that they were allowed to open today. This Christmas has been more emotional for me for some reason. It is not our first Christmas spent away from our families back in Arkansas, but it is different somehow. It isn't even a bad thing really. I think I am just overwhelmed with how much God has blessed us. This house that the church provides to us is bigger than we have to have. The kids each get their own room and we have a bedroom to spare. There is space for me to have an "office" at home and for the kids to do their homeschool work. Someday I may actually finish getting the basement area turned into a game/rec area. There is much that God is doing in our lives and ministry. I am blessed with a great family here in our church. God is good. Here is a family photo from yesterday when we got home from church. Merry Christmas to all.

Doing things I never thought I would do

I don't know if it is the past year's experience of going back to college to finish my degree online or the other changes in life that have moved me from a youth pastor to a senior pastor, but for some reason I find that I like to write more now than I ever did.  It could be that with all of the extra studying I feel like I have more to say.  Whatever the reason, hopefully the stuff that is written is worth reading.  I am going to start writing the More Than Bread devotionals on a full-time basis, so I have included a link to the group on the sidebar here.  

Playing in the Snow

Sometimes any excuse to act like a kid will do.  But the chance to play in a foot of snow is one of the best.

This is Amelia with the kids

 

This is Jeff in case you were wondering


This is one of the snow angels that the kids made.
After my recent studies in college classes, I found myself
wondering if they actually look like this at all.

Snow is here

Well, we have had a couple of small snow falls.  Today marks our first snow storm.  At least the first "real" snow storm.  There are advisories and a bunch of snow.  I just measured the snow in the backyard at 11".  We have drifts next to the house that are around 23" and I haven't bothered to measure the snow bank that we have created next to the driveway from shoveling and the snowblower that our neighbor used to help me clear the thing on Sunday, just two days ago.
Here are a few pictures of the back yard area.

This is a before shot




This is the after shot, or the so far shot I suppose



This last one is from the garage looking out.