2010 was a traumatic and difficult year because of the death of Bob’s oldest son, Andrew McDonell on May 22, 2010. We grieve and miss him very much. Our family photo, taken in June without Andy M., is a sad reminder of our loss—that he is missing from our picture. Thanks for your prayers and support.
Although Andy is never far from our minds and hearts, we wanted to focus on family smiles with our Christmas greeting.
Our card was a take-off from the Life puzzle books. I rated it as Novice and you ought to be able to get thirteen of the changes in three minutes. Two of the changes are not really fair—because they are so small on the photos. You can enlarge by double clicking. The changes are in no particular order—except the first change, of course. Below the pictures is the answer key.
- Yay! Baby Allie (Alice Madelyn Rowell) was born on May 6. The grandchildren count is now at thirteen, four girls and nine boys.
- Morgan’s new favorite color is purple—purple clothes, purple notebooks, purple bedroom . . .
- Ryan rides a two wheeler bicycle, thus the biker gloves.
- Seamus is wearing a White Sox shirt. I just wanted to get that in somewhere.
- Jacob still loves any toy with wheels but especially big rigs and monster trucks.
- Beware there will soon be a new driver on the roads. Kent has car keys in his hand and will be licensed soon.
- Jackson wrote 95 in tally marks and in Roman numerals to indicate how many birthdays we celebrated with our sweet Grandma Rowell in October.
- Hale is holding up the Miracle Camp sign. We had a wonderful weekend with all of our family and my extended Gisel family.
- Steven, 15 years, is really tall—taller than Grandpa and his mom and he is still growing! Perhaps the picture is a bit exaggerated.
- Andy is wearing a Donald Trump toupee. I just couldn’t resist trying it on him when I saw them advertised online. Sorry Andy.
- It is really hard to see but Lilly has two coins in her hands. She is six years old and minus – temporarily – her two front teeth.
- Bob is holding a hammer. Bob is not actually doing the hammering on our new house—not until picture hanging time.
- Kevin and Patti now have five boys and Jessica. Widianto Moestopo from Indonesia and Diancheng Yu from China are boarding students at Wheaton Academy. Kevin is holding a frame representing their school pictures.
- Grif is wearing a t-shirt from the YMCA of the Rockies. The Petersan clan enjoyed a special family reunion—the first in
twenty years lots of years—I am not sure how many. I am quite sure that Grif would not wear a t-shirt of kids singing the YMCA song but then I am pretty sure that Andy would never wear a Donald Trump toupee either. - Notice the airplane? No, Bob is not yet retired. He travels somewhere nearly every week. We are thankful for ServiceMaster.
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. 1 Corinthians 13:12
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1
Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year!
This year we were so happy to have my son Andy and his dear family--Amy, Ryan, Jacob and Allie join us. Kathi's friend, Joe was also with us for the first time. The food was yummy. The kids were delighted with their gifts. There were many good conversations and a family game as well. Later the families enjoyed The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie. It was a happy day to remember. It was particularly nice to have an expanded cast for our drama of the true Christmas story.
There were observant and nurturing shepherds
Mary was magnifcent and Joseph was outstanding
Sweet, sweet baby Jesus
Three sagacious magi
