December Update

See, I don’t cop out of a monthly update with some lame excuse about writing a Christmas letter.  You’re welcome.

I know several of you that get this are Seahawks fans, as am I, so on behalf of those of us who are Bills fans, I will also say “You’re welcome” for beating the Packers this past weekend to help your playoff seeding.  It also kept alive the slim possibility of the Bills actually making the playoffs this year, so it was a win-win for me.  I want you to know how dedicated I was to this win.  Aaron Rodgers is my fantasy quarterback and the Packers are my fantasy defense, and I benched them both.  It turned out to be a good thing since the Bills defense absolutely crushed the Packers and Rodgers, and the ones I played in their place did better than they would have, but I had no way of knowing that when I decided to bench them.  So, again I say, “You’re welcome.”

OK, I’ve thrown enough change into my own fountain.  Now back to the family news.

Our Civil Air Patrol meeting was cancelled on 11/20 due to all the snow the greater Buffalo area received.  Batavia, where we meet, didn’t get 7 feet like some areas south of Buffalo did, but they had about 2-3 feet, and were still shoveling out.  Our commander determined it wouldn’t be safe to have people travelling there, so he cancelled.  Two weeks later when we met (after Thanksgiving), it all looked pretty normal again.  You might have heard that the Bills game that weekend had to be moved to Detroit since the Bills stadium was under too much snow.  Crazy times.

We celebrated Zach’s 15th birthday on 11/23 with delicious food and desserts.  You really should try to make one or more of our birthday parties, because no one celebrates like we do.  I’m just sayin’…

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.  Cai, Carissa, and Matt (Carissa’s boyfriend) came from Philadelphia.  My son-in-law, Kevin (Hannah’s husband), did most of the cooking with help from Krista and Carissa, and everything was excellent.  My brother David’s son, Nate, celebrated Thanksgiving in Syracuse with some friends of his from his college (Tufts in Boston), and he came over to spend the next day with us.  It was really great to see him and for him and his cousins to get to know each other a little better.  We played lots of games, and got to Skype with Nate’s whole family while he was at our house.

On 11/30, I sang “Mary, Did You Know?” in church.  I used a great arrangement that was in a Christmas Cantata we did back in 2011, and Ella played the piano for me.  I trust God used it to remind us all of the miracle of the eternal God of the universe taking the form of a little baby in Mary’s arms.  “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  2 Cor 9:15—the best gift ever given.

We celebrated Amelia’s birthday on 12/3 with more delicious food and desserts.  Hmm, why don’t I have any pictures of that birthday?  Sorry, Amelia.

We got our tree this past Saturday, and our house is all decorated up for Christmas, no thanks to me.  Krista and the kids have done all the decorating.  Well, I cut down the tree, so I guess I did something, but it all looks very festive.  I love this season!

I hope you all enjoy your celebrations at this time of year.  The place we got our tree had a sign up that said “Jesus is the reason for the season.”  I complimented him on it, and he went in his house and got another sign that he put up next to the first one.  The second sign said “Jesus is the reason for ALL seasons.”  Very true!  I hope you know Him as your reason for all seasons!

Until next year!