Oh Christmas Tree

On Sunday we went to get our Christmas tree! I just love this tradition! We went to a local Christmas tree farm in our town that we go to every year- I just love being able to go out and choose our own tree and cut it down. Their trees are all so nice that it's never too hard to choose. Sorry we don't have any pictures of the actual outing- they all turned out blurry (oh well). After getting the tree we went out for doughnuts and coffee/cocoa (this is our newest tradition that we started last year)! After the sweets we headed back home and despite the oddly shaped trunk (or maybe because of it) our tree went up the easiest it ever has! And I had the most fun decorating it with Joe and Lily! As you can see in the pictures Lily loved "hanging" the ornaments on the tree this year. We gave her a little box with a bunch of safe ornaments and she would very carefully place them in the tree (then later we would hang them). It was the cutest thing! She also, however, really enjoyed taking the ornaments off, putting them in her mouth, etc... and I imagined trying to keep her away from the tree for the next month. Thankfully though after a day or two she lost interest. Now she just enjoys clicking the tree's lights on and off!

Unfotunately that was one of the last happy days around here- as Lily got sick Monday night and is still sick. She's been running a fever of 103 on and off for a few days- and has just been a little bear. We saw a few smiles today after the Motrin kicked in- and I'm just hoping that it's gone soon! When she's feeling better hopefully I'll get a cute picture of her in front of the decorated tree! I just love the Christmas season- too bad it's also the cold and flu season!

Chai Spice Girls

The day after Thanksgiving Joe's mom, Lily and I made cookies- delicious Chai Spice Girls (and boys)! Only once or twice before have I really tried to let Lily "help" me cook- but she did great helping with the cookies! She mixed the dry ingredients and also dumped the flour into the butter/sugar as I mixed. It was a little messy but well worth it! I think that I'll let her "help" me in the kitchen more (even if it means a little more mess)! Joe's mom and I baked the cookies while Lily was asleep and then all three of us had a great time decorating them. Lily LOVED it (and she only ate the frosting off of a couple of them)! We are already looking forward to decorating Christmas cutout cookies with my mom!!

By the way, these cookies are sooo tasty! I think that gingerbread it a little too strong tasting, but these are just the perfect mix of sweet and spice! We cut them into little gingerbread girls and boys (and two circles with the leftovers- these are the ones Lily is decorating in the first two pictures). I think these cookies will have to become a tradition. Here's the recipe so that you can enjoy too!

Chai Spice Girls:

1. Remove contents from two bags of spiced chai flavored tea. Combine tea with 3cups flour and 2tsp pumpkin pie spice.

2. Beat 1 1/2 cups butter. Add 1cup sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in 2 egg yolks and 2Tbsp molasses.

3. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture and refrigerate 3 hours.

4. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut out cookies. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake about 9 minutes at 350 degrees.

5. Eat plain or frost (we made our own frosting using cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla). Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lily and her cousin Brenna

Chocolate Pie- our favorite!

I know it's a little late, but we hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Despite all the bad news every time you turn on the tv or radio- we have so much to be thankful for! It's nice to remember that this time of year. We had a really nice Thanksgiving with Joe's family at his parent's house. Joe's brother, wife, and two little girls came over for most of the day- which was really fun for Lily (who just loves her cousin Brenna)! Joe and his brother also got to hunt in the afternoon (and the next day). I think it was great for them to spend time together even if they didn't get anything. Thanks mom and dad Cousins for the wonderful meal and a great day together! Hope that your Thanksgiving was relaxing as well!

Staff Conference

Joe and Nic doing a little climbing

Jack looks like a natural!

Before you know it she'll be better than us!

After Vermont we headed to upstate New York for our annual staff conference. It's a conference put on by our regional directors just for the Campus Crusade staff in the Northeast. For the first couple of years Joe and I really sort of dreaded this conference- long drive, a lot of people we didn't really know well, and almost every year one or both of us would catch some awful illness during the conference and be sick over Thanksgiving. A couple of years ago though we decided that we needed to have a better attitude about the conference. And ever since then it's been much better- go figure! In fact, other than the drive (and possibility for illness) we were sort of looking forward to it this year. And in the end we rather enjoyed it... seeing good friends (yes, some of those people we didn't know well have become good friends), good food, and a little bit of relaxing and reconnecting with the Lord. We had meetings in the mornings and evenings, but in the afternoon we had free time. Joe and I spent a part of two afternoons at the camp's indoor climbing wall. Above is a few pictures from the afternoon we climbed with our very good friends, the Brenners. And yes, it won't be long before Lily is climbing these walls too!:) Overall it was a good couple of days. And even the dreaded eight and a half hour drive home to Joe's family wasn't so bad- much to our amazement our active little Lily did wonderfully on the drive- so much better than we ever could have thought!

Vermont!

Here's the Litchfield family on our hike: Micah, Dan, Heather, Emma & Caleb

All bundled and ready to go!


Our little snow bunny!

We're home! After a week and a half away it does feel good to be back. We did, however, have a great time on our travels- especially in Vermont! We were in Vermont for a day visiting our very good friends, the Litchfields. As always it was so good to be with them and their family. Our first night there we were able to visit downtown Burlington and check out some of the shops on Church St. My favorite was the local chocolate shop we stopped in for dessert. Joe asked if a particular thing was a chocolate covered oreo and the response was that it was actually a chocolate covered "Newman-O"- in other words an organic chocolate covered oreo! Too funny! That gave us a taste for Vermont in more ways than one!:) We stayed up that night talking with our friends until midnight. Dan and Heather, I wish you lived here!! The next day we went on a little hike to a beautiful outlook (overlooking Berlington). Unfortunately the wind was just ripping and the children were freezing- so we didn't spend much time at the top. As you can see, there was a good covering of snow in Vermont and it was so much fun watching Lily rediscover snow all over again! I loved being with our friends in Vermont and I'm already looking forward to our next visit someday!

And We're Off...

We head out later this afternoon for our week and a half long travel adventure! Tonight we head down to Joe's parent's house for the night. We leave tomorrow morning for Vermont to spend some time with our very good friends the Litchfields. On Saturday afternoon we'll continue the journey to upstate New York for our Campus Crusade regional staff conference (we have it every year at this time)! Tuesday morning we'll do the drive from New York straight back to Joe's parent's house (hopefully no more than 9 hours- we'll see)! Then we get a few wonderful days or rest, family, and food before heading back home on Saturday! Wow, just makes me tired typing about it! Now if I can just get everything packed....

If I don't get to post again until we get back.... Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Maze!

Yesterday we had a huge outreach on campus. The Maze (also known as Jim) is an illusionist from Texas. Last night he did his show on our campus (Campus Crusade brought him here). Jim went around campus all day performing tricks and inviting students to the show. And then that night after 514 seats were filled we had to turn people away! He did an absolutly incredible show that just blew the students away. I didn't get to see the show (had to stay home with the sleeping baby)- but I did see some of his tricks earlier in the day- and it's incredible- really hard to wrap your mind around. During the show he talked a lot about illusion, truth, reality, and deception- and related it all back to the Gospel in a way that students really related to. In the end we had 65 students last night pray to recieve Christ as their savior!! We realize that all of these may not be real sincere decisions, but I absolutly believe that some of them are. The comments on the response cards were incredible- it sure seems like he really reached the students and helped them see clearly who Jesus really is. Please pray with us that God might protect these new believers and guard their faith. Pray as well that all of them would desire to meet more with us so that we might help them learn to grow in their faith. And pray too for the other 250 students who filled our cards- many of them indicating that they want to talk with someone more about spiritual matters. God is good.