Growing

We were glad for the priviledge of having our entire family together for a few days this week. Randy, Joy, and Quil arrived on Monday morning 24-DEC, after driving all night from Joplin, MO. They had a good trip, making it in about 11.5 hours. It seems like Quil has grown up so much since we were with him at Thanksgiving! We enjoyed having them here. We were able to help them with several projects that they seldom have time for. They returned safely, again overnight, on Friday 28-DEC. On Tuesday 25-DEC Tim and Brenda returned from their 10-day trip to Vineland, New Jersey where they had an busy and exciting time with Brenda's entire family. It was really good to have them return as well.

A tradition that we have had for many years is to line up - in order of descending height. When we did this again this week, we could see a great change from two-years prior! The ages now have nothing to do with the order. I wonder how long it will be until Emily is taller than her mother...
Rowen (49), Randy (22), Jason (12), Jeff (16), Tim (20), Beth (14), Janet (46), Emily (9)

The picture below was taken on 01-JAN-2006, just two years ago this coming week.

Janet's Holiday Baking

Though I am a careful diabetic, I am so proud of my wonderful wife! Janet just completed her working in her kitchen all day, having made five loaves of whole wheat bread, eight pies (apple, cherry, pecan, coconut, and pumpkin), and four loaves of whole wheat pumpkin bread! Maybe I can have just a taste of each one... If you click to enlarge the picture, you'll see the appropriately shaped dough appliques that Emily cut out for the top of each pie. These miniature shape-cutters were a gift from our friend, Susan, this past week. They are very special!

Janet is really looking forward to having Randy, Joy, and Quil, as well and having Tim and Brenda back from Brenda's family home in New Jersey, next week. I hope they have all been dieting ;-)

The Hammond's Candies Tour

On Thursday, December 13, 2007, most of our family went to Hammond’s Candies for a field trip with our homeschool group.

When we arrived we went into the café-style waiting room. We visited with many of our friends who had gotten there already. We waited for approximately 30 minutes before our tour. At 10:30 we heard our tour guide’s voice over the loud speaker, requesting that we line up to start the tour. We stepped into the first room on the tour and sat on the long two-leveled wooded benches. We watched a video introducing the factory processes, and informing us briefly of Hammond’s Candies’ history. We took pictures of the 32 homeschool tourists.

The reason I'm not in the picture is I was taking it. We had to take three pictures, and Dad had to "patch" them together!

Then we walked into the production room. There was thick glass separating our assemblage from the workers as they fashioned the candy. The smell of peppermint was enjoyably potent. The tour guide spoke through a PA system explaining the process throughout the tour. On the right side of the large room there were a few huge copper kettles heating the candy mixture (sugar, corn syrup, and water) to 220 ºF. On a table near to that, were two men pulling and stretching candy. After they had done this, they created a 50-lb. wad of candy wrapped in a 20lb. red and white candy blanket that they would warm, work, and shape into candy canes. Three women on the left side of the room were forming the candy into ribbon candy using an antique mechanism that squeezed the candy into the desired shape. Two men in the middle of the room were taking the boiling candy mixture and pouring it onto the cooling table. One man added coloring, while the other added crushed broken candy that is reused by putting it back into new candy. Next we walked down a hall to see the next big room where numerous people were packaging the candy by hand. We had the pleasure of sampling the Mitchell Sweets they had been making. They were comprised of marshmallows coated with thick caramel. We were also given a sample of candy cane to eat.

After questions and answers, we exited through the door to the gift shop where we perused the many items for sale. We had an uneventfully safe trip home. ~ Jeffrey

To be like Jesus

Our hearts were challenged today as we listened intently to our internet Pastor P.D. Wolfe preaching in Hobe Sound, Florida. He preached from Phillipians 2:5-11* . Please read it, and think about how:

• Jesus gave, so we must give


• Jesus came, so we must go


• Jesus served, so we must serve

I'm sure that there are other examples from Jesus' life that we should emulate, but this is a good list for a start. "Lord, help us this Christmas season to see our individual and group responsibility to follow Your example in these ways."

*Philippians 2:5-11 (New King James Version)

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Brenda and I participated in a "Christmas Oratorio*" last Saturday evening Dec. 8, 2007, in Loveland, Colorado. It was a very snowy evening, after snow all day. The roads were quite treacherous, but 38 people showed up anyway. It was in a meeting room at the Loveland Public Library, but we were able to worship the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings anyway. Praise be to God!

As you can see in the picture, The Victorian String Quartet was dressed in Victorian attire! Aren't they elegant?

Tim and Brenda after the Oratorio
* Oratorio
An Oratorio is a musical composition for solo voices, chorus, orchestra, and organ, to a religious text generally taken from Holy Scripture. The dramatic element contained in the text depends for its expression on the music alone.

Operation Christmas Child

Mother, Brenda, Jeffrey, and I had the privilege of working at the Operation Christmas Child processing center in Denver on December 6 for 4 hours. We were sorry we forgot to take our camera, so there are no pictures!

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. OCC sends hundreds of thousands of Christmas presents to needy children in other countries. People across America put gifts of all kinds (school supplies, hygiene items, candy, toys, etc.) into shoe boxes and designate the gift for a boy or girl of a certain age group. All the boxes go to one of six processing centers in the US before being shipped. In the processing center volunteers do several things:
1. Take out the money which is donated to Samaritan's Purse for transporting the boxes to foreign countries.
2. Inspect the boxes for inappropriate items. (war toys, snakes, chocolate, food, breakable items, liquid items, used items.) Any of these inappropriate items has to be removed. (They are all donated to other charities in the US. They just can't go overseas.)
3. Replace those items with other donated items: toys, toothbrushes, toothpaste, candy.
4. Tape the shoe box shut.
5. Pack the shoe boxes into big cardboard boxes for transporting.


We worked from 2-6 pm, with another home school girl who went with us. We enjoyed it very much, but were tired by the end. There were many volunteers in the warehouse working while we were there, but we five were a team of our own.
My first job was finding the money, then I taped boxes for the rest of the time. Jeffrey's assignment was to pack the transport boxes at the end. Mother and Brenda were inspecting the boxes and Mother also took out money for Samaritan's Purse.
There were over 500,000 shoe boxes processed in the Denver processing center this year!

Members of our family have participated in this Christmas season volunteer opportunity for 4 years now. We think it is a worthwhile project. We also fill and donate one shoebox (or more) every year. The volunteers have to be 13 to work, so next year Jason will be joining us.
- Beth