2013 Year in Review Christmas Letter

December16, 2013

Christmas Greetings to our dear Family and Friends,

We Albertsons are praising the Lord for another year He has given us to serve and enjoy Him and others He has placed in our lives.  We are all in good health, as far as we know, and God is the Source of every good and perfect gift we have received.

Some highlights of 2013:

January through April, Jason and Emily enjoyed being in CHESS (Colorado Heritage Education School System) homeschool choir and orchestra.  Janet was blessed to be able to be study hall supervisor during their class times.      

In May, we participated with the Johnstown Historical Society’s Tea at Two.  Jason was asked to play piano music for a couple of hours before and during it, which he loved doing!  He got to wear tails and a top hat, provided by the speaker at the tea.   

We were thrilled to get to meet and have in our home some of our missionary heroes, the Phillip Dickinson family.  The time together was too short, but all enjoyable.   

Then also in May we went on a trip to Missouri to see our loved ones there. Jeffrey came home from God’s Bible School in Cincinnati for the summer and was grateful to be able to work at Johnstown Ace Hardware again with Jason and Beth.

June brought the Christian Home Educators of Colorado Conference.  Emily signed up to have a booth in the Youth Vendor Hall where she sold her photo card sets.   Rowen and Janet took the time to go to everyday of the conference with her where we enjoyed the workshops and speakers, and browsing in the curriculum booths.  Emily has named her business For His Glory and Honor Photography, because she intends to give God the glory for both the talent He has given her and the beauty He has created that she photographs.  Her photography website is: http://forhisgloryandhonorphotography.blogspot.com 
The conference was a great growth opportunity for Emily because she got to meet the public and get comfortable selling her product.  She sold almost every card that she took to the conference!  Several sets she sold out of and she had to make more for ones who ordered them.

In July we were blessed to go to McPherson, Kansas for the Kansas State Holiness Association camp meeting.  Beth and Jeffrey missed out on it because of the need to work, but Jason, Emily, Rowen,and Janet truly enjoyed it.  We got to see Tim, Brenda, and Charissa briefly when they came to the camp also.

Mid-August, we said good bye to Jeffrey and Jason when they took off for Cincinnati for Jeffrey’s junior year, and Jason’s freshman year of college.  They are roommates and have enjoyed being family away from home.  Janet made them quilts to give their room a color theme and touch of home.  We miss them, but try to videochat with them about once a week.  The Lord has helped both of them as they carry heavy school loads and work 15 hours a week in the work study program.  Jeffrey has continued in the Prayer Station and Jason is in a Personal Witnessing Team for his Christian Service assignment.  We look forward to them being home for Christmas from December 19-January 4.

In April, we heard of an opportunity to bless someone by opening our home to a college student.  Nicodemus Connor came and visited us for a weekend to get acquainted, and decided to let us “adopt” him for the upcoming school year.  He lived with us from September through November, and plans to return in January for the next semester.  He gave Emily piano lessons, and tried to fill the gaps in our family of not having any“ Albertson Boys” at home anymore.  We especially enjoy hearing him play the piano, which helps us not miss Jason quite as much.

In August, Janet flew to Joplin, Missouri and drove back with Randy and Joy and the boys the next day, helping them make the move to Federal Heights, Colorado.  They are now living in the parsonage next door to the church where we were involved in children’s ministry for several years.  The church had been closed since December 31 last year, so Randy has reopened the church and been having regular services on Sundays and Tuesday evenings. Some of our children from before are still in the neighborhood and were glad to come back to church and bring their friends.  We are praying that their parents will start coming too.  There are two older gentlemen who regularly attend.  Our family goes down on Sunday morning to help all we can.  There have been several others visit.  Each Sunday morning has a song service using song books.  (We are teaching the children how to find page numbers and sing songs with verses.  Apparently this is not taught in school anymore?) The children are encouraged to participate in thanking God for helping them and requesting prayer for their needs.  Randy preaches a shortened sermon appropriate for children and adults, and then we have children’s songs and a story for them.  Every age can be ministered to in this service.

There has been a lot of work to do on the church and parsonage.  Rowen has helped Randy quite a bit with putting siding on the church, framing around the windows, putting new front door in, and Randy painted it.  Randy also painted the house.  The basement rooms had to be dry-walled and painted, some rewiring, and the house totally re-plumbed.  So it has been busy around there!

We are enjoying getting to see our grandsons often and be in their lives.  Their family is expecting a little girl near the end of April!  We are excited for them to have a girl.

In September, Emily got braces.  In July our favorite orthodontist (that Jeffrey had) had a Facebook contest for free braces.  A dear friend nominated Emily!  All of our friends and their friends voted for Emily and she won by a landslide!  We are so blessed! She is doing well with them. We are hoping when her teeth are straight, that she will have many less migraine headaches.  We took her to two neurologists this year who tried different drugs which did not help at all.  She hates being on medicines so she is being tough and eating lots of peppermint.

Emily enjoyed being in Choir and Orchestra again with CHESS fall semester.  Janet again was blessed to be study hall supervisor when she was in class. Nicodemus was also in the choir class. The end of semester concert was excellent, and we enjoyed getting to meet Nicodemus's parents.

In October our family helped with the Johnstown Historical Society Quilt and Craft Show.  It is always a big deal and a lot of work, but rewarding too. 

A week later, we took off for a road trip to Cincinnati in honor of our 30th anniversary.  We got to see our Joplin family on the way there and our Columbia, Mo. family on our way back, and enjoyed being with our Profitt relatives and Jeffrey and Jason, and many of their friends in Cincinnati.

Janet was honored to be chosen to work as Early Election Judge, which gave her 8 days of work for the election department. During that time, Beth finished up her time living away from home in her nanny job and moved back home.  She continued to help babysit a couple more times in November.  She learned a lot in that responsibility, but she has been glad for a month to just work one job (Ace) and seek God’s will for her future.  Since our October trip, she has been asking God when she should go to God’s Bible School.  Now her decision is made to go January 4 when Jeffrey and Jason go back.  We will miss her dreadfully, but we have always encouraged our children to “Do the next thing” and at this time in her life, college is the next thing.

Emily is working hard in her 10th grade year of high school.  It is comforting that we have at least a couple more years before our nest is completely empty.  Emily was a babysitter for our favorite family during the summer, and since September has been babysitting about four hours a week for another family.  She has continued her drawing skills and completed her first drawing for pay! Photography, drawing, and the violin have been her passions, but she is also enjoying piano.

We are thankful for Rowen’s continued employment with Carestream where he is valued as the only microscopist in Colorado and works on jobs that come in from all over the country and other countries also. His diabetes seems to be stable and he works hard for our family.

Janet has had good health and continuing regrowth of hair.  She has made five quilts this year and helped Beth finish one she had started in 2011.

Tim, Brenda, and Charissa are coming next week and then all of our family will be together for a few days for Christmas. We intend to have a family portrait made while we are all together.

We are thankful that all of our children love the Lord.  God has been so good to our family through the years and we know He will continue to be our faithful God.

We pray that each of our family and friends will feel His presence and live close to Him.

Merry Christmas!

The Johnstown Albertsons:  Rowen, Janet, Jeffrey, Beth, Jason, and Emily

PS Be watching for the new family portrait!