HAVE A WONDERFUL, MERRY, but ESPECIALLY CHRIST-FILLED CHRISTMAS!

We trust that you are having the kind of Christmas that only a true born again child of God can have. We are so thankful that Jesus not only came as a baby, but as the Savior of all who believe in Him as "...the WAY, the TRUTH, and THE LIFE."
John 14:6
"And the Word (Jesus Christ) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

What REALLY happened on Dec 21st

They say that the best laid plans...
Along about last Sunday night, Paul started to have a niggling (I like that word. That is what the internet called it.) pain in his lower right side. Tuesday AM he went to see our family doctor, what with holidays coming up and all. She sent him right to the hospital for a CT scan and blood work. So there he was all afternoon and until about 8:00 PM. Nice anniversary, eh? When he finally saw a surgeon he was told that it was appendicitis and he could be operated right away. He would, however, be in the hospital for 3 days and have at least 2 weeks of recuperation. (We found out after the decision was made that this surgeon doesn't do the laparoscopic method.) Paul asked if he had options and he opted to go home.

So....he was very hungry after not eating since breakfast. While in the hospital he helped out a lady in distress, who didn't have enough money to pay for her coffee, by giving her a looney. In return she gave him a 2 for 1 coupon for Swiss Chalet. That's where we went. It is a nice family place where we have never been disappointed except this time we could have taken Christmas carols instead of the music they chose to play! THEN we found out that the coupon did not start until Jan 2011, not from now till Jan. 11! We did have a good meal and Paul did not keel over from hunger. But that's not the end...

The next morning our doctor called, said she was leaving town (Christmas, you know) and that he should go back to the hospital if he had any more problems. On the internet we read that appendicitis did not go away. It wasn't like gall bladder attacks which he had preciously experienced until he had that pesky thing taken out. SO since the niggling pain was still there, back to the hospital we went on Wednesday evening. He had not felt very well all day but kept all this day time appointments. We missed Christmas caroling in the evening. The head ER doctor was not too pleased that Paul had left. In fact he was downright nasty for awhile until Paul was able to make him understand that the surgeon said it could get better, etc, etc. SO Paul was put into the hospital overnight to be accessed in the morning. OH HE LOVED THAT!! HA! NOT AT ALL! In the morning a different surgeon came in, said it was not appendicitis because he didn't have this and that symptom. And he is fine! No niggling pain any more. Happy as a lark, in fact! He prayed about it...
couldn't miss the Christmas Eve service...
or Sunday services!
We are thankful!

One of those crazy self portraits
I tried to cut out the gouble chins
(that's right, in our family you have a gouble chin coined by one of the kids years ago)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!

45 BIG ONES
and it just gets gooder and gooder!
AND we are THANKFUL FOR
God's wonderful blessings!
We can't praise HIM enough.

You know what we are doing to celebrate today?
Going to Tim Horton's for lunch... (with a gift card :))
The REAL treat when we see the grandkids (and parents)
after Christmas.

LIGHTS OUT!

Last night we had a huge wind storm and the lights went out.
No problem! I've washed dishes with very little light before. This time with a flash light.

The problem was that I was baking cookies for our cookie exchange which took place tonight.
The above pic is of how Golden Tassies are supposed to look.
The sad story is that there was a batch in the oven when the power went off.
I left them there because they were not done baking.
Then I ran around with the flash light turning off what I remembered had been on.
HOWEVER...
I didn't remember the oven. I woke with a START this morning.

This is how my Golden Tassies looked!
Oh well! I had more pecans, cream cheese, etc., so I started over again.

Things at the farm...

We had breakfast today with our friends, Ben, Sherri and Andrew, at the farm.

Kitchen island
We changed our minds about the old stove. This is the bottom of a kitchen hoosier which we have had for years. Some day the old stove will go into the Pond House. At least that is the plan right now, but it is always subject to change!

Window in the eating area

Winter Wonderland in the Country

We have no snow here, but it is all different in the country.
It is BEAUTIFUL!
A cold, sunny, beautiful day!
I am SO THANKFUL FOR GOD'S BEAUTIFUL CREATION
and for EYES TO SEE IT ALL!

road in front of the farm

back yard view

early morning

Black shutters went up today!
It looks finished now and the snow covers up the mud!

Pretty, eh?

Saturday Nite Surprise Supper

I don't know when we have had EBLESKIVERS,
but I thought of them on Saturday and decided to make a surprise for supper.

Ebleskivers are a type of Danish ball-shaped pancakes.
You must have the ebleskiver pan to make them.

The batter is dropped into the pan and then a small spoonful of applesauce is added.
This applesauce was from our Yellow Transparent tree at the farm.

The applesauce is covered over with batter.
The tendency is to turn the ebleskivers over too soon,
especially when you haven't made them for ages...
you are anxious to eat them...
and you don't remember to be patient.

They are a bit tedious to make,
probably harder to wait if there are many people waiting to eat them.

They are eaten with pure New Brunswick maple syrup
and they are yummy!
You'll notice that I knocked the syrup over in my haste.
I don't think I will wait as long to make them again.

More Thanksgiving Pics

No guests this year but...
what's Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?

This is our first American Thanksgiving celebration in Saint John.

This is 1985 or '86 and that's Amy Lownes.

We would T the tables out into the hall.
John & Christopher Lownes,
Pat & Murray Miller
Rachel Miller, our Sara, Rosalynn Miller
(left to right)

Danita Miller, Andy & Paul

Ernie Miller on the right

Joan Lownes between John and me

Playing games after we ate

Rhonda, Betty & Mel Reed
A good time was had by all and if anyone went away hungry,
it wasn't for lack of food!

Thanksgiving 1997

Oops! This first one is back to 1980.
Uncle Dwight is getting some hearing help, I guess.

Back to 1997 - we stayed overnight in Minto the night before Thanksgiving.
That was before we moved to Minto. The next day we were to have Thanksgiving at the
Millers' in Fredericton. It had snowed quite a bit during the night and continued to snow during the day. We pushed snow all the way to F'ton and figured no one else would make it for our celebration. We were right, but the day was not wasted on the guys. They must have spent hours plowing and pulling cars out of snow banks. You can see how happy they are! We did finally get them in for our meal. I think by evening things had cleared enough for us to drive home, but I am not sure about that. I do remember staying overnight one night with Murray and Pat.

Murray with his steamed up glasses
That looks like a rolling pin collection behind him which he without a doubt made himself.
He is a master carpenter and has a special love of Birdseye maple.

We miss all those who have scattered and our Thanksgivings together.

Thanksgiving Memories

We are very thankful at this time of year and all year long for God's many,
many blessings to us! Our Thanksgiving Day plans fell through, but we celebrated together anyway. Since then I have been shuffling through old photos especially looking for pics of Thanksgivings past. For years since moving to New Brunswick, we gathered all the Americans in the area for a celebration. They were very wonderful times! We will never forget Pat Miller's dessert buffet and Mel Reed carving the turkey and washing dishes! (Canadian Thanksgiving just ain't the same! But then we did get to have TWO THANKSGIVINGS!!!)

Right now we are stepping around photos in two rooms AND the hall. I hope to rectify that soon. I may, hopefully, come up with more photos, but here are a few
and I'll warn you, some go REALLY FAR BACK! Mel and Betty Reed were almost always part of our celebrations, but they are not in any pics that I have located so far. I am hoping to find them and also a special pic from years ago in Minneapolis when the kids were set up at a table in our hallway. At that time, we always had Thanksgiving at our house because it was the biggest. We had a church service at about 11:00 AM and that was a very special service.
We had the benefit of my mom coming in to work on the dinner while we were in church because her service was on Wednesday night.

The Green family

The Warner family

As far as I can tell, the two previous pics are from 1998 at the Millers' house in Frederiction.

1996 at the Millers' (building & renovation going on here)
I am sure the Reeds were there that year.
I'll keep looking!

1995 at our lovely home in Saint John
I can say that because God gave it to us to use for Him!
Left: Paula and Shane Belding
Right: Judi Coats' brother and sister-in-law from Connecticut

Paul, Danita Miller and Jennie Coats
Danita is married, has a little girl and another one on the way, I think.
Jennie is married and has 2 children, a boy and a girl!

Coats' cousin, Jon Coats, Heather Belding, Jennie and Danita
By this time Andy and Sara were grown and gone. Sara was at Maranatha BBC and Andy was living in British Columbia. If I'm right about that being Heather, she was married last summer!

1980 in Minneapolis
I said, "Is that Kari or Mari?'
Paul says Kari, but...
what do you think, Cheryl? I never thought they looked that much alike!??

1970 It looks like people must have been coming and going because different families are represented in each of these two pics, but it is obviously the same year.
One the couch from left: Kirk and Kristy Carlson, Mari with Andy taking care of her, Kari
On the floor from left: David and Stephen Refsell, Steve and Susan Kahler

From left: Duane, Barb, Jeanine & Eileen
Roy and Judy Vasquez, Raquel and little brother whose name I don't even remember
Orris, Louise Refsell and their boys
Cheryl, Dwight and Kari Turbett
Andy and Mari must have been napping. Paul was the photographer.

Some years we went to the Refsells'. I was always a little disappointed there because Louise was so organized that the turkey was cut when we arrived and I didn't get a taste of the skin. After eating ourselves under the table, the guys would go across the parking lot to play in the gym...
and almost die.
Last winter Louise went home to glory. She was a wonderful person and I sure should have learned a whole lot from her about organization!