Our 2008 Advent/Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,
As we pen this in these first days of Advent (the start of a new Church Year) it is incredible and humbling to look back on a busy year (as usual) for the five of us. This is our first “blogged” Christmas letter, and we hope you will hit the “comment” button below. PLEASE NOTE: for internet safety (especially to protect our children’s personal information) we use pseudonyms instead of names (Po, Mo, Bel, Bean, and Bibs, respectively), and we don’t list the name of our community (please consider these when commenting).

Our year began with us unpacking moving boxes (this is a recurring theme for us!) since our recent relocation from Atlantic Canada. We had moved so that Po could serve as chaplain in an elementary and high school setting. We also found ourselves up to our ear-muffs in record snowfall. Winter and Spring kept us all busy: Po in his new job, Mo homeschooling Bel and Bean (with Bibs always following closely behind), Po, Mo, and Bel all trying our hand at karate classes (for some family exercise), and attending a wonderful, small church where Po was hired to preach and officiate on Sundays. One of the key blessings was having Po's parents living in the same city as us -- talk about built in babysitters! Mo & Po managed to have dates out on a regular basis and even got out to the theatre occasionally (something that hadn't happened for years!). Po also managed to travel a bit for work: getting to such exciting places as Chicago, Washington DC, and Minnedosa Manitoba (but Minnedosa was definately a highlight, seeing Steve Bell in concert)!

We all got to travel in the summer as we packed up the minivan and drove out to the prairies to attend our family's Lutheran bible camp for 9 days. Po was the bible teacher for the teens, Bel & Bean loved their M&M (music and mission) program, Bibs lived in the sandbox, and Mo took care of all of us (Mom of the Year Award, a few times over...can you tell that Po is writing this blog!). The trip also allowed us to see some of our dearest friends from seminary days who are ministering in Northern Saskatchewan. Our kids are nearly the same ages as their kids, so the 10 of us had a ball (but, oh how sweet it was when all the kids were finally asleep each night!). It was a long trip getting there, and a long trip back -- definately not a yearly adventure, but one we will always cherish.

We arrived home to prepare to move again (as I said before, a recurring theme in our annual letters). No we are not crazy (if we keep saying it, maybe we will start believing it). Without getting into a long story, the Anglican school where Po was hired to be chaplain at (unbeknownst to us) was well into a process of aggressive secularization. We did our best to stand against this, and to keep presenting the necessity of keeping "Christ" in a supposedly "Christian school", but in the end we opted to not renew Po's contact for the following year. Our Bishop was a huge support to us during this discernment time, and put my name forward for a parish that was coming available, just an hour south of the city we were in. The appointment became official Sept 1.

So, there were were, Sept 1, in a new community, preparing Bel and Bean to start school (Bel in grade 1, Bean in Junior Kindergarten, and Po on school council), getting settled into a new (and much larger) parish, not to mention the unpacking and set up of a new home (again, Mom of the Year Award!!). We cannot gush enough about how much we are in love with our new community -- both the town and the parish! As Po said to his dad not long after we arrived here, "I'm working harder and for less money, but I'm happier than ever." And that has been the experience for all of us. Bel and Bean are busy at school: they love it, have wonderful teachers, and many new friends (we've had more playdates here than in all our previous communities combined!). And school is just the beginning of our busyness: Sparks for Bel, CanSkate for Bel and Bean, playgroup for Bibs and Mo, karate for Po, cross-stitching for Mo, and church programs for all of us. Mo continues to work full-time at home with the girls (managing this full schedule) and does all of this PREGNANT! We are excited to welcome our fourth child in March. It seems to many that we are simply determined to fill this beautiful rectory.

We hope you take some time to look through our many blog posts over the last year (and before) to see for yourselves what we've shared in this (hopefully) brief letter/blog.

Blessings to you and yours,

Po, Mo, Bel, Bean, Bibs, and bump.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:1, 14, Today's New International Version)