Christmas Greetings 2010

Warmest greetings from Ohio. We hope this holiday season finds everyone well. Can you believe Christmas is almost here? Where has the year gone?

Here’s a brief recap of our year – Keith continues to be employed despite the sluggish economy, for which we are extremely thankful. With his current contract ending in February, please continue to keep us in your prayers that new opportunities will open up for him. I (Chris) am still a stay-at-home mom and continue to homeschool Alex for the third year now…we try not to get on each other’s nerves too much :-D (I pray for more patience). Truth to be told, I continue to be amazed at the amount of new things I learn in this journey and am constantly challenged to find the best way to pass on all of this knowledge to Alex (I pray for more understanding).

Alex continues to make progress with his speech (although he’s still not speaking at his peers’ level yet). His favorite interests are still Lego, Math, helping out in the kitchen, hiking, and this year, I think we can officially add Wii in that list. :-D Oh…Alex also finally conquered bike-riding (without the training wheels) this Summer in less than two weeks. This is after he REFUSED to get on his bike for the past two YEARS. I guess he was finally ready this year. :-) He also started taking piano lessons this Fall and appears to enjoy himself so far.

Our three dogs are doing pretty well overall despite their advancing age. Although they continue to be plagued by aches and pains from old injuries and senior ailments such as arthritis, they seem to be in good spirits otherwise.

The other BIG thing for us this year was that our house was ALMOST flooded…while we were in New York! Back in May, I had to renew my passport in NYC and we decided to make a little trip out of it and show Alex some of the famous sights. Well, NYC turned out unusually HOT for that time of the year, so much so that it was simply unbearable outdoors. Meanwhile, back in Ohio, there was a freak storm where we live, causing flash floods in several places in town. According to our neighbors, they had never seen so much rain in such a short time. Within an hour, the road in front our house turned into a gushing river and our yard was totally submerged in water. Everything outside was washed away…the garage was filled with water but THANKFULLY the rain stopped before the water actually got into the house itself. Another five to ten minutes more of rain, we would have had a water-damaged house to come back to! For this, we feel extremely blessed.

Here are some photos of us at Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Toys R Us, and Times Square in New York, and Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania. (If you don’t see the slideshow above, please click here to view the pictures.)

As with life in general, we don’t have any idea what the Lord has in store for us…but I would like to believe that we can overcome any trials and tribulations in our lives with the love and support of friends and family that God has provided us. We miss spending time with all of you, and we hope for more opportunities to do so in the coming year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Keith, Chris, Alex
and Doggies (Max, Darwin, and Cyber)

Looking left and right for the perfect tree

and all around

Too big

Too small…”I don’t think that’s going to work, Daddy”

Alex – having fun brushing snow off the trees :-D

Still looking

Taking turns pulling the sled

Wait! This might be it…

Yep! “We’re taking this one, Mommy”

“I’m thirsty…let me have some snowflakes”

Alex – watching Daddy cut the tree

Into our sled it went

Happy and pleased

Alex with the stump

Let’s go home