Merry Christmas

Hi everyone. I know this is late, but somehow I got sick on Christmas >:P
We are unsure as to how a cold got here when we have been stuck at home for the last week. And yes I mean stuck, we can not get out of our driveway. To the point that dad and the boys spent two hours shoveling the driveway, and dad still had to spend a few nights at a hotel so he would not get stuck again. Oh well, at least we got a white Christmas. :)
Well any way, this post will be a mish mash of things just as a place to put them. So I hope you like my mish mash post.......


Here is our 2008 Christmas letter. I got to write it this year and I am posting it because we send it only to the people who live far away and don't get to see us throughout the year. But it is kind of fun and Mom said I should post it so here it is......


Merry Christmas to one and all. We pray that you all had as great a 2008 as we did. This year I, Samantha, will be writing the Christmas letter.
We have had a year of great joys. One of our greatest joys this year was the birth of little Obadiah on May 3rd. He is a wonderful blessing to and for our family. And then the Lord blessed us more by giving us the gift of another baby coming in June of next year. We will then have a dozen children and four grandchildren to share the joys and sorrows of life with, to teach and train, to love and care-for, and to give back to the Lord with praise of thanksgiving. Thank you Lord!!
Our year was fun and exciting. We have enjoyed lots of animals this year. We have added:
1 dog named Lady, twin kittens called James and John, 25 chickens (we’ve since sold them), 6 turkeys (3 left), 5 ducks, and 5 cows for beef. We have learned a lot this year. We have also grown closer to our church family, with the fun of friends and growing in Christ.
We have also had sorrow this year, Grandma Starr has past away. She died on March 24th. We all miss her very much. Please pray for my mom and her sister as they are still healing.

I pray that 2009 is as wonderful a year for every one, as 2008 has been.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Back row: Devin, Nick, Grandbaby Oliver, Sean, Obadiah, Holly, Samantha, Christian & Seania
Middle row: Kathleen & Delaney
Front row: Grandchildren Michael and Emily, Joshua, Connor & Erin



Here is a link to a fun poem/slide show thing. I can't copy past it but it is very fun so you might like it.

http://www.share-christmas.com/poems/astar/

Seania here are some great post from that Adoption blog that we have been reading, no wait... it is a different one but you will still really like it. Read the top one first....

http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2008/12/glad-you-asked.html

http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2008/12/adoption-from-uganda-thru-our-eyes-and.html

And for everyone else, most of you know that I have a heart for adoption and want to adopt some day. Well this blog that I was telling my sister about is the best adoption blog I have found so far. They have a wonderful story that is such a God story that all of you would enjoy it. Just go to her blog and on the side she has the Important post were she has their adoption story written. It is a wonderful story you should read it and tell me.

http://www.aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/

And here are some videos of Obadiah. He is now crawling all over and eating real food pretty good. It is very cute to watch him. He is very talkative and wants to play with/in every thing. We have been doing a lot of vacuuming lately. HAHAHAHHA:):):):):)

Also, Aunt Teri last time you were up you ask for a book list, now you may have seen by now that I have added one to my blog but then again you many not have so as a heads up I added a book list to my blog and will update it when I can remember more.

Here is a slide show of how the little ones went to bed on Christmas Eve....

Well I think that is all. Hope you enjoyed my mish mash. :)
Written by
Samantha

Christmas stuff

Here is a slid show of our Christmas decorations. There is a song. Tell me what you think.

Two Christmas stories

Who started Christmas?

This morning I heard a story on the radio of a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children; after many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.

She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of the year - overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, get that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, make sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.

Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn't take it anymore and stated, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot." From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond,

"Don't worry. We already crucified him."

For the rest of the trip down the elevator it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Don't forget this year to keep the One who started this whole Christmas thing in your every thought, deed, purchase, and word. If we all did it, just think of how different this whole world would be.


The Tablecloth Christmas Story
The brand new pastor and his wife, were newly assigned to their first ministry. They were supposed to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn. They arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do, postponed the Christmas Eve service and headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus... She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?"The pastor explained. Then the woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or their home again.The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth, but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do.. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day, doing a housecleaning job.What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in prison.. He never saw his wife or his home again in all these 35 years.The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

Snow days

Getting ready for more snow......




Uh oh, I think he is getting a snow ball...




Yup, the oh so scary dispersing snow ball!! Ha!







We did had a lot of prepping to do to get ready for the storm but we were ready and thankfully we did not loose power during the storm. The next morning we had about 8 inches and 1/2 of a inch of ice over that. It was very pretty and we all (not mom or the baby but everyone else) went out and played for about 10 minutes. It was too cold for anything after that. We stayed at home all that day. But had a good time. I spent the whole day baking, I don't remember what every one else did.


If you look really close you can almost see the ice line in the snow here.
Oh, something to note... if you leave your windshield wipers on your window when it snows then they might freeze and that will hurt the rubber but if you leave them up like this it wont hurt them.. Cool uh?!







That is the roof. I sure hope I am not under that when it falls, but I hope I have the camera if it falls on someone else. :)





I think this picture is very pretty..
This one is very funny...
Snow makes everything look pretty..
The mail boxes were fun to see..
The trees in the background are so lovely in this snow...
I would not want to swing on that...
Just another snow picture...
Can you guess what is under that snow pile??
I love the falling snow, I also love pictures of falling snow!!
More snow..
This shows which way the wind was blowing...
We had to clean this off every day to cut wood. And there is still that much snow on it.
That was after the first snow, it is even deeper now...
Walking in a winter wonderland (with out the walking part)
It has snowed, it has snowed, it has snowed!!!

I like the blue tint, I wonder how it got there??

More winter wonderland....

And there's the walking....

brrrr....it's cold, I'm coming back

I think that just looks really funny, because that is salt water so you would think it would not be that close to the snow.

I was trying to get the house in the back, but by the time I had the camera out it was almost past. But the picture is still kind of fun.
A frozen flower...
This picture makes me think of our first winter in Missouri, we had a big ice storm and every thing was covered just like this,only it was all the way around not one sided. That was really cold!!!!
The dewdrops on the spider web froze. I thought that was a very cool picture!!






Frozen this and....
frozen that,but no frozen cats...Sorry that was just silly...




The big one.....

Still trying....

They liked it but it only worked so well...


Than Dad tried it....


Lady had fun with us too..

Kittie cat did not like the snow as much...he was looking for a ride... but he was/is very cute.....
More Kittie cat....
Cold! But pretty!
What to say? It's a cat.

A fun Fire place picture..

I made cookies, but it hurt my hands when I frosted them so I gave up and just spred the icing.

Joshua help as much as he could mostly by eatting the icing but he tried.

And just becasue I am very excited about it and want to tell, I made my first cheese cake. It was very good. But I want to try and make it better, the flavor was a little off, and I think I cooked it to long so I will keep working on it.

Written by

Samantha