Better than a Partridge in a Pear Tree

1 shining star

2 darling shepherds

3 overnighting grandkids

4 singing grandsons
(Away in a Manger with motions as part of their Christmas challenge)

5 Christmas concerts

6 cups of tea

7 swimming cousins

8 of us seniors

9 card-playing cousins

10 or 11 ?

Dozens of students

A few bonus photos

1 delightful crawling baby

A comfy caring brother

Modeling of new clothes

A very skinny snowman

A daddy that is towing

Sipping on hot chocolate

And a sapsucker on a bird feeder

Good News of Great Joy!

One of God's special gifts to me is my second husband's dear family. They fill my life in many ways but especially at holidays when my two sons and their families are not with us.

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


A host of glorious angels . . .

Mary was magnifcent and Joseph was outstanding

Sweet, sweet baby Jesus
No crying [he] made.

Three sagacious magi


And all the other supporting roles.

What a wonderful story!

Joy, Joy, Joy!

Our Merry Christmas Puzzle

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.

1. Yay! Baby Allie (Alice Madelyn Rowell) was born on May 6. The grandchildren count is now at thirteen, four girls and nine boys.
2. Morgan’s new favorite color is purple—purple clothes, purple notebooks, purple bedroom . . .
3. Ryan rides a two wheeler bicycle, thus the biker gloves.
4. Seamus is wearing a White Sox shirt. I just wanted to get that in somewhere.
5. Jacob still loves any toy with wheels but especially big rigs and monster trucks.
6. Beware there will soon be a new driver on the roads. Kent has car keys in his hand and will be licensed soon.
7. Jackson wrote 95 in tally marks and in Roman numerals to indicate how many birthdays we celebrated with our sweet Grandma Rowell in October.
8. Hale is holding up the Miracle Camp sign. We had a wonderful weekend with all of our family and my extended Gisel family.
9. Steven, 15 years, is really tall—taller than Grandpa and his mom and he is still growing! Perhaps the picture is a bit exaggerated.
10. Andy is wearing a Donald Trump toupee. I just couldn’t resist trying it on him when I saw them advertised online. Sorry Andy.
11. 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.
12. Bob is holding a hammer. Bob is not actually doing the hammering on our new house—not until picture hanging time.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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!

A wonderful dichotomy . . . old and new story

We celebrate Christmas with six grandsons and two granddaughters. The coveted role of Mary—for the granddaughters—is easy to cast. Every other year we trade roles. This year it was Morgan’s turn to be Mary.

You would think with six grandsons that casting Joseph would be easy as well. Theoretically, each grandson should only need to be Joseph every six years. Initial inquiry responses are a choir of “Not me!” Perhaps our grandsons find the idea of marriage to a sister or cousin disgusting but probably that is not the real reason. The boys just prefer to be a magi or the more coveted role of Caesar Augustus. A role as lowly as a shepherd is also acceptable because of the camaraderie and the stuffed animals. This year, Kent, our eldest and most mature, offered to play any role that the others did not want. I breathed a sigh of relief. Whew! We had a Joseph.

No longer do I need to pin and tape and talk though costumes. My only responsibility is to spread the clothing, costumes and props out on the basement tables. The kids ruffle through the paraphernalia and figure out their own costumes and gather their own props. The adults are told what characters are needed to fill out the roles. They figure out their own costumes from the leftovers on the tables.

And so the story begins . . . “A long time ago, a young woman named Mary . . .”

Gabrielle enters telling Mary that she would have a baby, the Son of God.

Joseph, a high school freshman, made us all smile. When the angel appeared to him in a dream, Joseph sat up apparently confused, “She’s pregnant? Mary’s pregnant?”

Mary went to visit her old cousin, Elizabeth, who was also "with child."

Caesar Augustus, sounding quite profound, issued a decree.

So Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to register for the census.

There was no room at the inn.

Baby Jesus was born and they wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

The shepherds and their Chihuahua sheepdog were appropriately frightened by the appearance of the angel.

The heavenly host sang, “Angels We Have Heard On High.”

The little shepherd offered a lamb as a gift to the baby.

The magi saw a star in the east and followed it.

They gave gifts.

Being the head angel is an intense role to play especially because Jessica also doubled as the star.

The magi were warned to return to their country by a different route.

Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt.

And thus concludes the story of the birth of Jesus narrated by Aunt Susan and acted by the other family members.

We did close the program with a few special numbers and singing some Christmas carols and thanking God for His wonderful gift.

Here is Seamus playing and singing an original Chinese Christmas song.

Jessica

Morgan

Earlier in the week, friend Tim shared some favorite Christmas carols in a devotional at our Adult Community. We were privileged to share his calligraphy with our family.

Tim reminded us of the dichotomy of this line from "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," God and sinners reconciled.

His favorite line from all Christmas carols is from "O Little Town of Bethlehem," The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

We delight in telling and recounting the Christmas story. We are thankful that this is more than just a story; it is a true record of a holy event with incredible significance. We are reminded that we celebrate Jesus birth because it is the free gift given to us by God, the birth of His Son who came to be our be our King of kings, to be our High Priest, and, to die in our place, that we might have forgiveness of sin and spend eternity with Jesus.

It is an amazing old/new story—current and wonderful and true.