Christmas Candids

FFM Christmas Party 2009

Last night we hosted our third and final Christmas party for Scott's small (FFM) group at Seminary. It was a fun night of sharing food and fellowship. These guys have been through much together over the past two and a half years and will continue their friendship after Seminary, I'm sure. Their professor and his wife were also able to join us. It's fun to hear the stories and laughter when these guys are together. We have been blessed to share the Seminary experience with them!

The group-formal picture.

Showin' some love.

Practicing for ordination!

Let's not forget the children-minus Katie.

Sitting around listening to Brian play. He was playing the guitar he and some others picked out as a Christmas gift for Scott when he was their Youth Pastor in Visalia. So cool!

Contemplating life. They weren't always this serious!

Toward the end of the night. We looked over and saw little Anna sprawled out on the hardwood floor! Of course we had to take a picture for the blog!

Winter Wonderland!

What a difference a night makes. This morning we looked outside to find snow! Some snow was in the forecast, but much more fell than was predicted. Scott and Katie headed out to school, but found it to be deserted. They called home and we checked the tv to find most all schools were canceled. (Except for Calvin that is!) So we hauled out snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, and everything else necessary for snow and the kids headed outside (before 8 AM!) to play with friends in the neighborhood. It's been a nice year in that the snow didn't come too early. Now I think winter is here to stay for awhile. I'm already tired of all the clothing changes that come with wet clothing!

Katie tackling the driveway.

Kamryn and Troy taking a break inside. (Love the rosy cheeks.)

All suited up.

Our driveway and deck. (Yes, I should have taken the cushions in!)

Thanksgiving-2009

You may be wondering why this first picture is included in our Thanksgiving documentation. The reason is that Scott, in his quest for a new and better way to cook our Thanksgiving turkey, decided this was the year to try deep frying. As you have seen on the tv commercials and heard the horror stories, there is a bit of danger involved in this cooking method. Needless to say everything turned out well! The turkey was delicious. The weather cooperated-no snow! We had a great group of family over to our home and thought about the many ways we have been blessed again this year.

You can never be too careful!

The cook and his assistant keeping careful watch over the contraption.

Out it comes!

The finished product.

This year's batch of turkey cupcakes.

After dinner we kept up the bowling tradition we always enjoyed with the Grimmius family in Visalia. We invited the Klavers to join us too.

Serious bowlers?!

The kids...and Pete.

Final Performance

Last Saturday evening we attended the final performance of Katie's musical, "Cinderella". It was a great show and Katie had lots of fun being a part of it. The Auditorium at Christian High was packed out for the last night. The weeks leading up to the musical were filled with lots of hard work and late nights at school, but it seemed to be worth it in the end. Katie will be trying out for the next show which is a "one act" play that they do for competition. She says it's hard to get in, but we'll see what happens. Great job, Katie!

Katie in costume before the performance.
This is the beautiful auditorium just beginning to fill up before the show.

This is afterwards as they were handing out flowers to those who helped. Katie is blocked in this picture, but you get an idea of all the costumes and stage.

Grandma E. and Hank attended the last performance. (We missed a picture with Boppa and Grandma R. the night before!)

Candidacy Photo Shoot

Scott's going to kill me when he see this. But I thought these were good pictures to post. Scott is, as many of you know, in his final year of Seminary. This year is known as candidacy year. This means that Scott has many things beyond his regular classes to finish to be a candidate for ministry in the Christian Reformed Church. He has completed much of the list already in anticipation for his becoming an official candidate at Synod this June. We await, with much anticipation, God's leading and call to our first church. Anyway, since I got a fancy shmancy new camera we thought we would take care of another item on the checklist: candidate's picture. After much complaining and grumbling we did get some decent ones today. We took an outside shot and one inside... Look for one of these in an upcoming Banner page this summer! :)

Cinderella

We got to see Katie's play, Cinderella, last night at Christian High. It was an excellent performance and everyone did a great job! (I guess all the late nights staying at school paid off!) Katie had lots of fans who came to see her and stayed to greet her afterwards.

Claire and Erin Sytsma, who Katie babysits, brought her flowers. So sweet!
The Borsts came to watch Katie and Anna wore her Cinderella shirt too!

Grandpa and Judi were able to come from Canada and were impressed with the performance.

Kind of disappointing they make the kids take off their costumes before they come out to greet people, but you can still see the stage make-up. The musical runs one more week. The kids love putting it all together. I know Katie will miss it when it's all over.