— Uncategorized —

Wonderful Winter Catch Up

January 30, 2015
Those aren’t two words I would normally use together ~ “wonderful” and “winter” ~ but there’s no denying that winter has brought many wonderful things so far.
It was -1 degree here yesterday.  (Not so wonderful.) Betsy stopped by at 7:45am to pick us up for our weekly ski trip to Mt. Snow, Vermont, and as we were standing in my driveway loading up gear and lunches, she said, “It’s cold.”
Ha!
I think we were both of the mindset that the negative temps were over (we already had a week or so of those), but we live in New England, and it’s still January, and that sort of thinking will only set you up for disappointment.
Icicles on your eyelashes isn’t all that wonderful either ~ but laughing over it with a friend is!
We survived this week’s blizzard just fine, and truly enjoyed a day off together ~ though the pastor wrote a sermon, paid bills, and had a conference call. Even so, we managed to make our way through four episodes of the Gilmore Girls, which is the whole family’s latest addiction. (Ahhhh…Lorelai, Rory, Suki, Dean, Luke, and Lane… now we all want to move to wonderful Stars Hollow and be your best friends!) We only got about 10 inches of snow, whereas our Boston and Worcester neighbors had more like 34 and are still shoveling out today!

 Thankfully, it was not -1 in Vermont yesterday.  It actually got to be 28 degrees there and that temp plus sunshine is just perfect for skiing!

We really still can’t get over the fact that we get to ski in Vermont every Thursday for six weeks in the winter.  It is something we look forward to each week.  An hour and a half of ski school (yesterday we did a black diamond and learned how to spin!) and then a couple of hours of free skiing.  So much fun! So wonderful.

 The pics above and below are pretty standard poses for these kiddos.  For some reason, the guy below is always sitting or lying on the snow ~ when he’s not in motion, of course.  He loves his (well, his brother’s) trick blades very much.

When we’re not on the slopes, we’re often at the gym for one of Coop’s basketball games ~ his last year to play…

 …or we are hanging out at some indoor track facility (Smith College in Northampton or Reggie Lewis in Boston) watching Kayla run various winter track events.  Her favorite event by far is the 55m sprint, and tonight is her last night to qualify for further meets.  She needs to go from an 8.17 to and 8.12.  I told her to just go for the 8 seconds flat.  I mean, what’s so difficult about that?

Turns out it is fairly difficult, and we’re so proud of her hard work and great times as a freshman.

I never got around to telling you how wonderful our Christmas was, so here are a few (lots of, actually) photos to fill you in on just how wonderful it was.
Part of the recipe for “Wonderful Christmas” was having Kory home from college.
And not only did Kory travel from Texas, but my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came from California, and my youngest sister traveled from Colorado ~ their presence bringing together even more wonderful ingredients to the holiday.
Day after Christmas shopping at West Farms Mall in Connecticut.
Christmas Eve Chili and Queso dinner before and after a Candlelight Christmas Eve service at Mercyhouse.

Probably THE most wonderful moment for me was being gathered at the dining room table on Christmas Eve, taking turns reading an Advent devotion, and then ALL praying together, thanking God for the gift of Jesus at Christmas.  Hearing everyone’s heart for Christ through their prayers and coming together as a family to worship him was just so wonderful.  Really.  I can’t think of anything more wonderful.

At the Candlelight Service

 And second only to those precious moments of worship, and making Christmas extra-extra-wonderful was having THE CUTEST TODDLER IN THE WHOLE WORLD at my house for Christmas.

Just see for yourself…

He liked his blocks, Aunt Melissa!

See what I mean?

CUTEST THING EVER.

Okay ~ I think we’re all caught up now. Well, except for telling you about Robert’s two week trip to Texas and Oklahoma in January.  It was wonderfully exhausting.  And I started back to seminary.  I’m only taking one class again, and I still really love it.  Learning tons.

And I’m leaving out all of our church happenings, too.  We’re getting started on small groups this week, and are also in the middle of planning a women’s retreat.  Lots of meetings and preparations.  Again, wonderfully exhausting.

A trip to California for a church planting conference is just around the corner for Robert and me.  Pretty sure we’re the old fogies they are bringing in to participate in discussions about collegiate church planting which wasn’t even a “thing” when we accidentally did it 15 years ago. (It was highly discouraged, in fact. Ha!)  Anyway, we look forward to being with young church planters and seeing a new part of the country for us ~ the Bay Area.  I get to see one of my very best friends from high school while we’re there and can hardly wait.

Happy Friday ~ and have a WONDERFUL weekend!