Holidays

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

little girl wailing could be heard, she was not quite like a mouse.


Mom and Dad reassured her that she would see the surprises tomorrow,

alas this did not ease little Jolene's sorrow....




this is taking a bit of time I think I will go back to regular sentences.

Yes,
Jolene was very devastated when she couldn't enter our bedroom due to her father putting together one of their presents. Life can be so hard sometimes :-)

We woke up and opened gifts, had pancakes and bacon...yum yum and then read part of Luke.

Talked to family and realized that we missed the snow.

Later that day we packed up some food and present and headed over to the McEwen household. Oscar and Sarah got back from the hospital the day before (Answered prayer!). We had ham, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, bread, applesauce. Ahhh so good! I made pavlova for dessert, the second one actually turned out ok. Pavlova is somewhat hard to make. If you don't whip the egg whites to the right consistency and add the ingredients in the correct order your in trouble. The first run ended up very flat and very crunchy. The second run was much better although could be improved upon. Josh made some brownies with whiskey and coffee in them, strong but delicious.

The kids opened their gifts from one another then went to bed. The adults stayed up playing my new board game zooloretto and watching "The Office". Good times.

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A little plug for my dad. My dad has a blog, LibertyElm. Musings on history, books, and other insights. Check it out if you are so inclined.

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Abby arrives on Monday! She will be here until June or July. Abby is enrolled at Deakin University for the study abroad program.

On New Years day we will be taking her across the bay to Sorrento to have a New Years day picnic with some of the other RPers. Then we leave on th 2nd for Sydney. We will be house sitting for friends while they are in Queensland. We will get back to Geelong sometime on the 14th. Hooray for a holiday!!!!




The girls in their Christmas dresses, provided by Brandon's mom. Jolene would wear hers every day if I let her!

Someone else who needs some prayer

I was talking to my mom today and she shared this with me.

My little cousin Daniel Mark is needing some prayer as well. He is about 5 months old and has been having mini seizures for several months now. The doctors at first said it was nothing to worry about, that it would probably be something he would grow out of. My Aunt Cyndi has been noticing that his limbs are not working as they should. They went back to the doctor and they now think the white matter in the brain is having some difficulties. I don't much more than this right now. Please add him to the list I gave in the last post. Pray that the doctors could firstly figure out what really is happening here and secondly that they would have wisdom in how to treat it. Pray also for my Aunt and Uncle, Daniel is their only child as of now. Pray for comfort, strength to endure the stress of not knowing what is going on, and peace that Daniel is in God's hands.

M

Prayers of the Saints needed

We have have four groups of friends that could really use a lot of prayer right now. Please remember them in your daily prayers, I know they would be thankful. I haven't asked them if I could post their needs so I won't give any names. Except for Josh and Sarah who sent out an e-mail, so I am pretty sure it would be ok.


1. Our friends who just had a miscarriage. They a month or so ago that they were having twins and were very excited. Two weeks ago the mom went in for a check and they discovered that there had been a miscarriage. Pray for this family as they mourn the loss of their two unborn children. Pray also for their other kids (ages 7,5 and 3) as their parents help them understand what happened. Pray that God would comfort them.

2. Josh and Sarah. Some of you may know them and would know that they had a baby boy on Dec. 20th! Little Oscar shares a birthday with Brandon :-) Josh and Sarah are praising God that He has entrusted this little life to them. The pray is for Oscars immediate health. He is not feeding very well and thus the jaundice is setting in. Pray that feeding would start to go better and that the light treatment for the jaundice would work quickly. The doctors said he could be int he hospital for another four days. I think it would be a great Christmas present if Oscar could come home by Christmas.

3. A girl at church - She just found out that her father has a bad heart condition. I don't know all the details of it yet but from what I gather if he does any physical activity that pushes his heart he could have a heart attack. He has diabetes as well so I think his health in general is not the best. This man is not a believer and we are praying that this might make him think more about death and his eternal state.

4. A family at church. Our friend(the dad) discovered a lump on his shin and had it checked out on Friday. He found out that he has an aggressive form of cancer. This is a major shock to all of us at church including their family. He will be going through many tests in the weeks to come to find out if it has spread and how far. Please pray for this family. He is married and has three children. Pray that the cancer hasn't spread past his leg. Pray for them as it is the holidays and having news would be difficult to deal with. Pray that God would give the doctors wisdom in the best way to treat him. Pray that God would give this whole family strength, comfort, and reassurance from his word. Most of all pray for healing. Nothing is too difficult for our God, the creator of the heavens and the earth.

5. Pray for all of us at church. That God would give us wisdom in how we can best help these people. These people are all going though various trials and they are needing love, care, and encouragement. Pray that we would be faithful in prayer not just in hard times but everyday.

Adele's B-day, our new car, and Youth Group

Adele had her first birthday on Nov. 26th. We invited Josh and Sarah as well as the Kents (Josh's sister and brother-in-law and three kids) over for a bbq and cake. It is hard to believe Adele is one already, time flies. I probably wrote the exact same thing when Jolene turned one, but hey it is so true. We are thankful that God gave her to us...she is quite the personality.



I think almost every present she was given made some sort of noise...thanks guys :-) We are now able to have a family band.

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Here is a photo of our new car. We are really enjoying it. We are both enjoying it even more now that it has rims and low profile tyres on it :-) That was Brandon's b-day and Christmas for the next five years.

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Tomorrow night we are having the youth group over for a bbq and games. We thought we would play human foosball and then link a few Xboxes together for a shoot out. On Sunday we will all go to Palmer's house (they always host for Sunday afternoons). We have been going over the Hand illustration and the Wheel. At the last meeting we were encouraging each other to memorize 2 Cor 5:17. We will see on Sunday if they have been doing their homework :-)