Christmas Banquet and Guests

Last Saturday we had our Senior High Christmas banquet. It was a lot of fun to prepare for and then be able to go to! We got a babysitter for Haven and she had a great old time! This is what we did. All the teens came, some with dates, some not, and we had hors' d oeuvres (sp? it's always fun to spell this one) in the lobby, then they took a horse and carriage down to the fellowship hall downstairs which we had all decorated fancy with candlelight and Christmacy decor! We had a scrumptous dinner and then watched a video that Steve and Nic, the intern, put together. It was hilarious! The teens have been quoting it non-stop. Wish I had part of it on here, but I don't... After dinner we went in limos downtown to see some of the Christmas lights and then ended up at the Pabst Theater to watch A Christmas Carol. It was awesome! By the time that was over it was about 11:30 and we drove back to church and had dessert. It was a great night and I think everybody really enjoyed it.

Then Steve had a crazy day on Sunday after being up until 2 Sat. night, but God is good, and He gave him strength! Monday Sarah Corbin (Brackett) came to visit me and we had a great time catching up! The day went so fast and she was such an encouragement and a blessing to me! Then Tuesday Heston and Kelli Frey came down to fly out of the Milwaukee airport and spent the afternoon with us. It was great to be able to see them and hang out just like old times!

Now we are just waiting for Christmas to get here! At least I am! This season has gone so fast, but I am really looking forward to Christmas day. Our little family of three will be together for Christmas so I am looking forward to it! I don't think it will be lonely, but we have been in PA with all our family for pretty much every Christmas in the past, so we'll see. I'm sure Haven's going to love the wrapping paper! Well, I guess I am just going on and on and on! OH, Haven is officially crawling now. She is not crawling fast which I am thankful for, but she's getting where she needs to go. Well, that's about all for now. I'm so thankful to be able to celebrate Christmas and realize how underserving I am of what Christ did for me! God's love is so unmistakably displayed in the sacrifice of His Son for our sins! What an amazing God we have! Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and take time to reflect on the miracle of Christmas!

I knew I better put a picture of Haven on here or some of you would not be very happy, don't worry there will be many pictures of her posted very soon!

This isn't the best picture of us, but it's all we got, so it will have to do! Sorry Sarah!

At the play

Inside the theater from the balcony

Me and Amy!

Inside the limo taking pix!

Posing for the camera! Tammie, Claire, Anna and Mary

Carol, Ashley, Sarah, Shayna, and Monique, all looking pretty fine!

Some teens from our Senior High Christmas banquet- Joey, Karly, Heather, and Dan

Pictures Galore!

Haven's new things this week are spitting and throwing! The spitting is especially fun when were trying to feed her her baby food! She loves throwing her toys and other things- the camera, remotes, etc. ! I think she is working on teeth because she has been unusually crabby this week. She's still working on crawling. She can get herself from her tummy to a sitting position and she can move backwards. She just doesn't know how to go forward yet. It is an adventure and every day is fun and tiring. It feels like the last 3 weeks have been 1 week! There is just so much going on right now - not to mention trying to do Christmas shopping! But this time of year is a lot of fun and it is well worth it! We are looking forward to seeing some friends from Northland next week on Monday and Tuesday. Sarah Brackett Corbin is coming to see me on Monday, and Heston and Kelli Frey are stopping to see us on Tuesday before they fly home for Christmas! We are enjoying high forties and low fifties right now which is a big change from the icy cold teens we had just about a week ago! I'm not complaining! That's about all for now! Haven's actually in bed early so I'm going to hang out with Steve for a while! :)

Hey Happy Baby!






Modeling Grandma's handiwork!

Like my outfit, Grandma?

Hey there Cutie!

Bath time! It's always so hard for me to resist taking lots of pictures at every bath because she's just so cute with all those rolls!

what's that? a ducky!

Pastor Steve with the rest of the Pastors! - Pastor Ken, Pastor Jonathan, Pastor Joe, and Pastor Sam! - all up to no good as usual! :)

Ruth and Steve at the Christmas banquet at church

All bundled up!

First Snow!

Well, God has continued to be good to us through the past couple of weeks. Our Dodge stopped running so we were without it for about a week and a half, but just yesterday a mechanic in our church fixed it for us for free! It was the steering! What a blessing he was! So, Steve will keep driving it till it dies! We are looking forward to Christmas and are loving this time of year as we celebrate our Savior's birth. It seems so hard, though, to keep that the focus of Christmas with all the shopping and decorating and eating, etc.! But I pray God will not let us get distracted from the true meaning! We are looking forward to our church's Christmas banquet this Friday, the Contata this Sunday night (which Steve is singing and playing the drums in!), and then our teen Christmas banquet next Saturday, which is a big dress-up, go all out occasion! These next few weeks are very busy especially for Steve, but He has taken off the week after New Years, so we are hoping to go home to PA for that week! We are praying that God will provide the money for plane tickets, since that will be cheaper and easier than driving!

This is the view of snow from our front door! So pretty!

All the essentials!

Playing with momma's makeup! What a girly girl, she loves it!

Chris and Justin helping us put our tree up over Thanksgiving weekend!

Our beautiful real tree! yep it's tilted, we figured we couldn't expect it to be perfect our first year!

Giving up!

Trying to crawl! It's so hard!