My Birthday

My 23rd birthday was Wednesday, December 22nd. The Lord gave me an absolutely beautiful day!



Adam took me to dinner at Olive Garden for my birthday. We had our first date here, so it was fun to go back and reminisce...



One of our favorite "first date" memories was when the waitress asked us if we wanted any alcoholic drinks. Adam pretended to look interested in the drink menu, and I laughed and said, "If that's the way it is, we're through right now!" He laughed, too, and said, "Good girl!" I guess I passed his little test :) Needless to say, we didn't order any drinks!

After dinner, we headed over to an older folks home and did a Christmas caroling service with my parents and a bunch of other people. My sisters and I got to play along with the carols. Can you see us there in the left-hand corner?

Here I am with Barbara Jeffries, a sweet older lady who prays for us regularly and writes to me every so often.

Adam decided to help me play the piano...

We had a little party for me afterwards...

Opening gifts

Adam gave me a Sherlock Holmes DVD collection! I'm looking forward to watching it :)

First Day in Wisconsin

We made it to Wisconsin safely last night at 8 p.m.! This evening we attended a wedding of some friends from college. It brought back memories of our wedding, so we decided to get a little smooching in... :)



Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Williams!


Afterwards, my old classmates decided to get a picture together...

Christmas Program

Last night we held our Christmas Program called "The Wooden Nativity." It went VERY well! Everyone did such a great job! We had quite a crowd of people there...and lots of visitors.

The story is about a lonely woodcarver who received a request to carve a nativity set for a young widow and her son. Every day the widow and her son come to watch Toomey carve....and everyday little Thomas has something to say about his nativity. The cow has to look proud, the sheep has to look happy, and the angel has to look important. In the end, the widow and her son give Toomey the gospel through the nativity story, and he gets saved at the end.

Here's the cast (left to right):

Jessie Beck as the Widow McDowell, Jeremiah Beck as little Thomas McDowell, Caleb Walls as Jonathan Toomey, and Mike Fenske as the narrator. (And yes, for those of you who know the "Moses for the Christmas play" skit joke, we DID borrow that wig for our Mr. Toomey! :))


Our stage setup was really neat! Someone in our church loaned us this antique woodstove.


Our distinguished narrator :)


The widow and her son asking Toomey to carve them a nativity set...

Thomas watching Toomey carve...

The widow watching Toomey while she sews...

The pianist playing the background music... :)

....and the preacher and his wife!

Many thanks to everyone who was praying for the program!

Deck the Halls...

I just love the way our church decorates for Christmas! Everything is FRESH and smells wonderful! Not to mention that it looks absolutely GORGEOUS :)

Church Christmas Party

This morning we walked into church to find this huge, BEAUTIFUL Christmas tree, along with lots of real garland, greenery and lights! Several church members worked hard yesterday to make the church festive for the season. Thanks, everyone!



We had a wonderful time with our Grace Bible Church family during our church Christmas party! We had a potluck right after church, then went caroling at a nursing home.

After the caroling, we came back into the auditorium and sang "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and had a White Elephant gift exchange...

Adam did a great job leading everything!

Ruthanne is a CUTE little girl from our church who is 3 years old. She participated in the White Elephant exchange and opened this little snow globe. She fell in love with it and was cradling it the whole time. :) I just had to get a few pictures...

Opening gifts...

Adam is calling for "Number 11" to go next :)

I actually ended up stealing this nice glass pitcher. This little guy (Zach) didn't seem to mind, though :)

White Elephant exchanges are the only opportunities that Christians have to steal! :) Here are some of our church members taking advantage of the opportunity...

We SO much love and appreciate our Grace Bible Church family! :)

Christmas Decorating!

Christmastime is here! Adam and I put up our Christmas decorations last week...

Adam had to try on the little tree skirt :)




Last night we baked a bunch of cookies to take to a nursing home on Sunday.



Adam even helped!



He got to make his own little cookie out of some extra dough... :)

The finished products!

Can you tell which cookies I decorated and which cookies Adam decorated? He told me that his had to be "unique and random...just like him." :)

These are ALL Adam's cookies (please note the very "unique" ones with ONE sprinkle each).

Love you, Adam! ;)