Our Week at a Glance

My birthday week has come and gone. We've been having quite a hard winter already this season and the weather was starting to get to us all. Thankfully on Wednesday (my birthday) we woke to a sunny day which lasted all day. Everyone I met who knew how much I need sunshine said it was sunny just for me. My dear friend, Deb, had a birthday lunch with some friends for me at her home. It was wonderful! We are so thankful for the friends God has placed in our lives. Friday evening we hosted a Christmas party for Scott's FFM (formation for ministry) group. We also invited some other Seminary friends. It was a great time of sharing food and just hanging out. We've again made some great life-long friendships during these Seminary years.

**********************

This is Scott's group along with their professor. (Brian and Jason are missing.)

This is what Seminarians do at parties-sit and talk about Seminary! (Gail and I retreated to the other room to chat!...Thanks for the picture by the way! :)) Wednesday morning with the kids.


A typical December day out our back door....I don't want to hear any more complaining about FOG!!

Tonight Scott and I were able to have a night out for dinner and a little shopping. What a treat!

Small Group Outing

Saturday evening our small group had a surprise (to me) outing to The Melting Pot restaurant. We were supposed to meet for Bible study, but Scott arranged an early birthday celebration instead! At this restaurant, all of your food is dipped/ cooked in fondue pots on your table. Needless to say, several items were lost in the various pots. It was tons of fun with a great group of people. Thanks for a wonderful night out!

Signs of Christmas

It's beginning to look more like Christmas at our house. We braved the cold the other night (between snow storms) and ventured out to our local Home Depot to choose the perfect tree. Of course they keep the trees outside and there is no cover over them and so they were blanketed with snow. I would think I saw one I liked and Scott would shake it out and then we would find problems with it. Everyone was getting very cold and sick of this process, so finally we just grabbed one that was still wrapped up and bought it. We did not see how it looked until we got home. It actually turned out to be one of our better looking Christmas trees. The kids helped me decorate it last night.

Also, after much nagging from me, Scott is finishing up his annual letter/poem contibution. It's another good one! Look for it soon!

Troy's Wisdom

This morning on the way to preschool Troy had another gem for me. He said, "Mom, we can hear God talk to us. We just have to be very quiet and listen."...Cool!

Thanksgiving and The Beast

I guess I will give a bit of a Thanksgiving update...The turkey was good, but Scott said he would not prepare it this way again. I'm sure next year there will be another idea! We did have a great time with family and friends. After our dinner we went bowling with everyone. The high scorer was our friend Geoff, who quietly blew everyone away!! (And Ashley gets an "A" for effort! :)) We came home and had a great game of Apples to Apples. We have lots to be thankful for and hope everyone else had a great day too!

Part B of my post: The Beast

Anyone who has spoken to Scott since last winter has heard him complain about all the snow shoveling he had to do since we experienced record snowfall for our first winter in MI. Scott loves to tell all who will listen about his hours spent cleaning off the driveway and then slowly making his way around our sidewalk so the children can make their way safely to their bus stop on our corner in the mornings. And how our friendly (non-English speaking) next door neighbor would try to help, but he had his mini-snowblower on a cord and could only reach so far down the sidewalk. Anyway, a man in the church Scott served this summer heard his plight and offered the perfect solution. He had a revitalized snow blower to sell very cheap to us! So Scott and the kids made the trip back to Chicago last week to pick up "The Beast". Scott has been eagerly awaiting a major snowfall to try it out. Today was the day! This thing is quite large for neighborhood snowblowing and my dad joked that you need an operator's license to run it. Anyway, I'm sure there will be more stories to tell...

Thanksgiving Preparations

Today was spent running some errands and getting things ready for tomorrow. I saw this cute idea for turkey cupcakes and had the kids try it. It worked well however the corn candies were difficult to find in the stores. We are having some of both of our families and some friends over tomorrow and then we hope to keep up the Grimmius tradition of going bowling later in the day.

Scott is again taking charge of the turkey preparation. He saw this method on the Food Network and decided to try it. We are calling it "turkey in a bucket". It involves brining (?)the turkey in a bucket the night before in some special herbs and juices (We'll leave it at that!). You leave it set over night on ice and then cook it in the morning. We'll let you know how it turns out!! This is Katie and Kamryn with their snowman they built the other day. He has now disappeared as the sun was out today.

The Fun Begins!

This morning we have been experiencing our first significant snowfall. Scott and I were able to run some errands after dropping the kids off at school. Everyone has to get used to driving on the icy roads again. Not fun!! Scott was thrilled to be hauling out his trusty snow shovel to tackle the driveway after we returned home. :)

Troy is excited and is eager for Kamryn to get home from school to join him outside.