Christmas in New Hamphire

December 25, 2007

We flew up to New Hamphire for Christmas this year. Joni's brother and his family live there and so does Joni's Mom.

We enjoyed a WHITE CHRISTMAS for the first time in a long time. It was beautiful, white and fluffy. See the picture taken from Joni's Mom's living room window.

We also spent the holidays with Rich's wife's (Adele) Dad, step Mom and niece.

It was interesting to see all the political signs everywhere. The NH primaries were in everyone's mind as was the Patriot's football game.
We enjoyed our visit and enjoyed the snow (for a few days anyway.)

Fall 2007 Coming to a Close

We loved our spot in Grapevine with our view of the lake. Friends Kathy and Skip McKie joined us for a delicious diner on a warm fall afternoon.

One of the highlights of our fall trip back home was Delton's BEARD. He grew it for our Christmas program at church. See the story on Jouney to Bethlehem.



Toni and Jeff Ast came out to Grapevine in their RV for a weekend. We ate, fished, and sat around the campfire with them. We met them during our Journey To Bethlehem program and have become good friends. (Pictured are Toni and Jeff in front of their RV)



RVers are very friendly people. We met alot of new friends in the park. Doug and Rita Fisk are 2 of those great people. We will be joining them in the San Diego area for a few weeks this winter. We are looking forward to seeing them again. (Rita and Doug are pictured in front of their motorhome)



We had an early Christmas exchange with Delton's son, Ken and his wife Shawna and daughter Shauntal. Also, Joni's son Chris joined us. After a summer flood in their home, they were finally settled in with their new renovations. What an ordeal that was. They had 4 inches of water in their house.

Journey To Bethlehem

December 5 -10, 2007

Journey to Bethlehem (JTB) is a Christmas program that our church in Grapevine, Texas presented this year. (Memorial Baptist) We wanted very much to be a part of the presentation this year and planned on being “home” long enough to do that. Rehearsals started in September and continued on to the performance in December. (Notice the "biblical" beard that Delton grew - Joni couldn't wait till it was gone!)

JTB is an actual trip taken with a Biblical family (the Gladiel family). It is an outdoor event on the grounds of our church, where you become part of the Gladiel family and go on the journey with them. We had 10 Gadiel families, which started their journeys every 6-8 minutes. Each family group contained about 25-50 family members. Following is a write up from our church website about the journey:

JTB is a FREE event...an interactive outdoor walking Christmas drama that
will put you and your family right in the middle of the real Christmas story.

Groups of 30-40 people will travel with a Jewish family who has been
ordered to return to their hometown of Bethlehem to take part in the Roman
census decreed by Caesar.

Roman soldiers on horseback will monitor your
Journey. Keep a sharp eye out for the Wise Men and their camels! Fire pits will
give you several chances to warm up, and you'll experience the bustling
marketplace in Bethlehem, too, with all of its sights and sounds. You'll finally
catch up with Mary and Joseph, just moments after the baby Jesus has been born.

We played the part of beggars, loitering at the gate to Bethlehem. As the Gadiel families arrived at Bethelehem, we approached them and begged for food for our family. We became good friends with fellow beggar, Toni Ast. Toni’s husband played the part of the angel (pictured).
We felt very blessed to have the opportunity to be part of this program and plan on doing it again next year. Pictured is our talented director, Ginny (center) with her daughter Sarah and sister.

Tennis At Linda's House

Upon returning to Texas, we looked forward to getting back on the tennis courts again. We looked forward to playing with our friends, Mary Jane and Dave Mulaski. We were disappointed to find out that Dave had injured his knee during the summer and was unable to play for a while. As it would happen, Dave suffered a massive stroke in November (see prayer requests for Dave). Please continue to pray for Mary Jane and Dave as Dave works hard to recover.

Mary Jane asked Joni if she would like to play doubles with Linda Lam (pictured in red and black) and some other friends at a backyard court at Linda’s house. Joni has known Linda Lam for many years, but had never played on her backyard court before. As you can see, it is a beautiful court with lots of trees, foliage, decks and even a pond of gold fish surrounding the court.

Well, the match was wonderful….. and so it continued and continued. Linda continued to call Joni to join her and others for doubles throughout the fall. Joni enjoyed meeting new tennis friends, Velma, Carol, Connie and Karen Nester from Trophy Club, Since were were in Linda’s backyard, we could play anytime. Linda’s husband Connor was so nice. He cleaned off the court every time we played and even provided a cooler full of water for us girls.

We played at least once a week, sometimes twice and even three times a week. It is hard to resist such a wonderful invitation. Linda and Joni became closer friends with each match and also as we called each other often to get updates on Dave’s condition from Mary Jane.