Christmas Card

Hello!  Its a little hard to believe a full year has past since I last sat down to write our Christmas letter.  The speeding of the passage of time comes with age, I’m told.  Speaking of age, we all managed to get a year older this year, though my dear, sweet husband feigns shock anytime he hears my age.  :)

We had a major lifestyle adjustment as we sent out first child off to school.  Avery started 1st grade at St. Mary’s school in Willimantic, a short walk from our house.  And we do.  Walk it...twice a day.  She has settled in well and really enjoys her time there.  She continues to take ballet and we added in voice as well.  She is a Gingerbread Girl this year in The Nutcracker.

Amanda and I are muddling through Kindergarten at home.  She is smart, but doesn’t like to let on.  It took a little adjusting for her not having her best friend around for six hours of every day, but she and her little brother have gotten a system figured out and play well together.  She started tap dance and voice lessons.

Speaking of little brother, Aiden is awesome in every way.  He is affectionate...a momma’s boy, but also likes nothing better than to be working alongside his dad.  He’s a happy-go-lucky (there’s an expression I haven’t heard/used in a while!) kid.  His interests are tools, wood (as in fire), trucks and tractors.

Shaun was involved in several large productions at church this year, serving on the technical crew.  They even took it on the road this past November, traveling to Virginia for two shows.  He spent the summer remodeling two apartments and will be doing his fourth year as a tax preparer beginning this January.

Our year in photos can be seen if you go to www.cours.dayspringphoto.com and you can follow us all year long at www.blessed-inabundance.blogspot.com.

I’ve spent so much time this season thinking about what my response would have been if I’d been around when the long-awaited Savior was born.  While I long to be Mary in the story “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord...” or a Shepard, filled with wonder and “making haste” to go find Jesus, I suspect I may have been more like the role of the innkeeper, busily blind to the precious glimpses of the Lord, even when he is right in front of me.

Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping

For God became a man

And stepped into your world today

Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history

As a city with no room for its King

While you were sleeping

While you were sleeping

Praying for you, for me...that we would always have room for the King.  That we wouldn’t be caught sleeping but would be fully awake to His presence.MerryChristmas!