'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even...

...a Bassett Hound wearing a funny sweater???

Last night when we were doing our, very late, last minute Christmas shopping we saw this dog sweater and decided it was time for Mocha to start celebrating the holidays in style. It doesn't seem to faze her and we all think she looks cute in it, so she may be wearing it the whole Christmas season!

"Let's Pack Up & Move to California...

...she's got lot's of friends out there. We'll never get bored 'cause we can go boarding! We'll let the sunshine take us there!" So go the lyrics to Hawk Nelson's "California" which was going through my head at 6:30 this morning as I shoveled out one side of the driveway that varied from 3 to 4 feet deep (the other driveway was only 2 feet at its deepest)! Oh, and it was -15* and the windhill was almost -40*. All to get Sarah to work on time, only to show up and see that none of the 5 a.m. employees were even there yet! Later on I got some help finishing the other side when Pastor Dean came over with a riding snowblower we had borrowed to clear the other driveway. A driveway and a half in less time then it took me to do half a driveway with a shovel!

(notice the mailbox)

It's at times like these that I wonder why we willfully put ourselves through this weather. I mean, what exactly were the first settlers of this area thinking? The first settlers in Breckenridge settled here in the WINTER! Now that is good planning right there! And they managed to settle on a small ISLAND in between where two rivers meet...that must have been an interesting discovery when the snow melted in the spring! So what exactly WERE they thinking?
..."let's pack up and move to California..." :-)

Kick

Last night was a pretty significant day for me! For the first time I was able to feel the baby moving. Every time the baby would be moving and I'd go to feel Sarah's stomach the baby would stop moving! So yesterday she finally decided to cooperate. It was pretty cool because it helped to make it more real. I'm looking forward to her growing more in there and being able to see her move more, and then in February finally being able to meet our cute little girl!

Tagged

I came up with some random facts about Sarah, so I thought it was only fair for her to reciprocate when she tagged me. So here you have some random facts that she came up with about me.

Sam:

1. Is bilingual.
2. Doesn't like popcorn.
3. Doesn't like trimming the (Sam inserted "evil") hedge in our backyard.
4. Likes to wear a dress shirt/sweater, dress shoes, and JEANS on Sundays.
5. Reads a lot: to fall asleep, to do schoolwork, to learn, for pleasure...he reads a lot.
   
6. Makes me drive on long trips so that he can do his schoolwork and read in the car.
7. Is very rhythmic...he always has a beat in his head or his feet, hands, fingers, toes, etc.

Green Eggs & Ham

I DO like Green Eggs & Ham! Sarah & I just ate @ the Vanilla Bean in Two Harbors, MN. I thought the oven baked "Green Eggs and Ham" omelet sounded good, but it was beyond good, it was delicious! It had pesto in it which gave it a very unique flavor. Besides that, it was HUGE! The size of my plate! I could only finish like half of it.

Good Day

See You At The Pole this morning was great! I got up before 6 a.m. to make hot chocolate for everyone and then picked up the freshly made donuts. I met half of the crew at the W. Middle School and then drove over to the B. Middle School where I met John who was taking care of getting the goodies to the BHS students. Between the 5 campuses there were around 70 students plus some adults that came with their kids...my numbers for the BMS were kind of shaky because there were well over 26 students there (about half of them were from the Elementary school!), so I just basically stopped counting when I realized I would definitely not have enough to go around...miraculously there was enough for everyone to get a cup of hot cocoa and a snack!

ONE, the inter-church High School and Middle School gathering was tonight. It was great to see the students from other churches I had not seen in a long time!

It's great to be part of a team ministry that crosses denominational lines! Jesus' prayer is that "they will know we are Christians by our love!" and that we would "be one" as the Father and He are one. What a privilege to be part of unifying the Body of Christ to more effectively connect this generation to God by working together!
Will I be able to sleep?

Pandora

Last week Justin M. introduced me to Pandora...my life is forever changed. I have had it playing out of our laptop into the radios around the house whenever I'm at home...it's great. You put in a couple of artists you like and it will make a "radio station" of those and similar artists...how cool is that? I'm hooked.