A TFC Wedding

Our third TFC "child" is now married!  Paige married the sweetest guy down near Charleston last week so we were delighted to go and have a mini-reunion among the TFC families (and others).  It's been a long time since our families were all closely involved in each other's lives-- the 4 families are now in 3 different states -- so we savored the time.

And Paige was a gorgeous bride!  Her wedding very much reflected her personality, and Micah's, and we loved being present for it.

On our way home we took the kids to Cracker Barrel for their first time.... From what I hear, it certainly won't be their last!  It was definitely a hit.

The oldest and the youngest

It's been fun having Strider around more this break (although he stayed with Isaac the majority of the time).  I had started to forget about the interesting things young men do... like drink water from glass pitchers when they're just sooo thirsty.

Meanwhile, Jinna continues to keep our family grounded in love and gratefulness.  Almost daily she makes various little cards for us, telling us how much she loves us, and sometimes she makes artwork for our fridge.  I particularly liked this one:

"House of Love"

Seeing these two together makes me particularly happy, too.

More Escaping

Escape Rooms are becoming all the rage.  Or at least they are for us -- we did 2 in one week!

This time we went to a little bit more dramatic of a scene... something about a contagious disease that threatened to kill all of mankind... and we went with the Wray clan adults, as a Christmas gift to each other.

We ended up saving the world from disease.... but also, unknowingly, were spreading a different illness among us -- the flu. 

It was still a really fun night... although next year I may vote we go back to giving regular Christmas gifts instead of germs.

Geography Bee

Colsen loves the world. 

I mean, he loves people, but he also loves studying the actual world -- geography.  So, for the second year in a row he eagerly signed up for the Geography Bee, and proceeded to learn as much as he could.  Turns out there is a LOT to learn!

This year's Bee was at the library and there were 11 contestants.  After several rounds of questioning, the finalists were determined.... Colsen came in 4th!  We are very proud of him.

Earlier in the day he had had a chance to see some of the marvelous world up-close as he and his Gateway group hiked up Crowder's Mountain.  So it was a very good day!

....and Ringing in 2019

The beginning of 2019 was full of all the things we love.... tradition, family, food, and opportunity to serve.

The Wray clan came over to do a bit of an auction, but it was a little cut short because some of us left to take dinner to the Community Shelter, which was a fun exercise in teamwork.

Our family also spent some time with our annual tradition of painting a new "year box" and reviewing all of the memorabilia that we'd collected over 2018.  When we came across the programs from Mor-Mor's service almost a year ago, Jinna could see I was getting a little sad.  She reminded me, "Don't be sad, Mommy!  We'll see her soon in Heaven... Just be patient!  Don't be sad."  I love having this girl and her faith in my life.  :)

Ringing out 2018...

For the last activity of 2018 we decided to do something we had never done as a family before --- an Escape Room!  Sidney joined us, so there were 8 of to solve the mysteries of the missing North Pole elves... and we cracked the codes just in time. 

Successful!

There was some bickering and squabbling and complaining, but for the most part we had a great time and would love to go back and try something like this again!