“Oh Holy Night. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.” Aren't Christmas songs just wonderful?! T love hearing ‘them. Each one stirs up memories of past Christmas’ and Imy childhood, And today, they bring up memories of the post year. “Over the hills and everywhere” This is where we watched Bethany run this fall as part of the Cross Country team: over the hills and ‘everywhere, To our surprise, Bethany did very well as a 7" grader. She even ran on the versity team for the Section meet and was voted “rookie of the year" by her teammates, She did this while achieving the A honor roll and practicing her clarinet and piano. Last spring, Bethany earned the "Timothy" award from AWANA. which was @ great honor. In her free time, she likes to organize things, plan events, run, and sing “Sweetly singing o'er the plains” ‘Music, music, music, Tt is Petras joy. Music to listen to, 40 play, or to dance to: it doesn't matter. Tn addition +o playing the piano, she has added the oto saxophone and the guitar. Petra continues to go to AWANA. Last spring she received the AWANA “Honor* award which made us very proud. This summer she was able to go to Big Sandy Camp with friends from our church, as well as run in a number of road races with her siblings. Petra likes to tell stories and has my gift of not leaving out ¢ single detail “On the first day of Christmas" This has been a year of firsts for Ashton, She received her first ribbon from AWANA for completing a book. This summer she went 5 hours from home to our church camp for 4 days. She left home with tears because she was nervous and left Big Sandy Camp with tears because she didrit want it to be over. Now, as a 3rd grader, Ashton has joined Girl Scouts and has started piano lessons. With all these new things, the one thing ‘ihat has nat changed is Ashton's love for the simple things of lifelike playing with her Polys. “In the meadow we can build a snowman” Can we build it? Yes, we can. Out of Lego's, out of K'nex, out of Hot Wheels tracks: it really doesn't matter to Daniel, our own little “Bob the Builder’. Daniel loves spending time with his Daddy and shares a lot of those Some boy-type interests. He is off to Kindergarten 3 full deys each week and doing quite well. T am excited to see his interest in learning, especially numbers, Daniel enjoys going to AWANA and impresses me with his desire to memorize verses. He is never short on hugs and kisses which T miss while he's at school“I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” No mistletoe needed, Tim still in love with my husband of 14 years! Mike has been teaching 2 grade and was fortunate to be Bethany’s CC coach this fall, During the summer he ran numerous road races, capped off with ‘the TC marathon. He continues to enjoy working with computers, planning our Pow Ww road race, and spending as much time os possible with our family. Time being the one commodity he was lacking, he has chosen to take the second half of the year off from teaching. This was a difficult and prayerful decision but T am very excited for him, Not enjoying change very much, I can happily say that little has changed for me. T love being home and am trying to play catch up row that Daniel is in school. T truly enjoy working on our scrapbooks ‘and was fortunate to attend some retreats this year to move forward with them. Together, Mike and I have continued with our Melaleuca business, Nine years ago, we never anticipated how God would use this business ‘o impact our lives and those we work with. His plans and vision for us was more than we could have dreamed. He has blessed us and we give Him the praise, “Tl be home for Christmas” Spending time at home is something we cherish, but this year we had many great times away from home, too. With the onset of summer came many nights in our camper. One and two night get-a-ways made for lots of fun memories, We took a longer trip to northern MN where we visited family, Paul Bunyan, and SpiritFest. Our kids are ot a great age for enjoying this festival of Christian music, Mike and I were fortunate to go to Utah ‘and later to South Carolina, But, without a doubt, the highlight was our Bahamas cruise. T never intended on putting myself on a ship in the middle of the ocean but, wow, Im glad I did, Indescribable, so T won't even try. “Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day to save us all from satan's power when we were gone astray” bring you good news of great joy that uill be for all the people, Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord, Luke 2:10-I1 Praise the Lord “although it's been said many times, many ways: Merry Christmas to you” Love, fromthe Neeone my Bethe, vt amid Mike: ole87@iglide.net Kelly: lookingup4@iglide.net Christmas 2002