Christmas 2008

We spent a couple hours with the Shanks (friends from Harrisonburg) a couple days before Christmas. It was nice reconnecting with these dear friends.

On Christmas Eve, Tom sang at a funeral in the morning before he preached at the Christmas Eve service that evening. Needless to say, it was very nice to get home that evening and relax...open up a few gifts and put the kids to bed. Christmas Day was a lot of fun for our family. We woke up and got some rolls in the oven to cook while we started to open presents. Leighton was not as into unwrapping things as Matthias was. Everytime Leighton unwrapped something, she then wanted to sit and play with it. We were so blessed this Christmas with a lot of fun things for the kids. It's a little crazy having so many kids and so many things....but the grandparents continued to do their job well. :) We got a Wii, which has been a source of fun for us (especially the older boys).

Leighton continues to eat like a champ in the family. We went to the doctor this past monday and he has given us a schedule for stopping her oral steroids (we'll be done in 2 weeks). We'll go back in early February for an x-ray and will hopefully see a good bit of improvement. Anyways, Leighton will chow down on her meal, say she's "all done" and the proceed to wander around to the people who aren't done eating and beg for a "bite!".

Did I mention that our dishwasher has been broken?? We went without a dishwasher for at least two or three weeks (it felt like more). Here the kids are playing in the box of the new one that we had to buy. (the water is terrible here)

Here are sleepy babies...the beds are a bit close, and naptime is a bit of a challenge, but they are definitely getting the hang of their toddler beds. Generally, Matthias will fall asleep first (after they spend at least 30 minutes climbing in and out of each other's beds) and Leighton will yell "Momma!, Sigh-ee seeping!" (Matthias sleeping) at the top of her lungs over and over again while patting him on the head. I should probably move their beds further apart, but it's been a lot of fun to watch them through the video monitor.

My parents are coming in a week!!! They are going to stay with the kids while Tom and I head to Atlanta to do MTW's assessment week. Japan has invited us to be a part of their team, and if MTW approves us for mission work then we will be free to begin fund-raising. It's a little crazy to think that we will know after this week which direction we're going to head in (job-search or fundraise)...and we're excited to go and move forward whatever way God would lead us! Anyways, pray for my parents....it's going to be a lot of work....hopefully it will be uneventful for them. And...pray for us! That this assessment week will be confirmation (one way or another) for what our next step will be! Thanks for checking in....hope everyone had a restful and joyful Christmas! I cannot believe it's 2009. :)