Thankful

Tommy and I had a great Thanksgiving this year. We had lunch at my Aunt Beth's house in Boerne, and his dad and sister came with us because his mom is in Missouri visiting her dad.

Proverbs 15:15 was kind of my theme for the week "The cheerful heart has a continual feast." I really wanted my focus to be on loving friends and family that I don't get to see very often, and not on how much food can I stuff myself with and how much can I critique my family members and how good can I make myself look in contrast. I will not deny that it was super exciting to be the skinniest my family has seen me since early middle school ( I'm talking 12 pounds smaller than 8th grade). It was a totally new experience to look at the digital pictures everyone was taking and for once think gosh, I look cute there!





This is me with my not so little cousin Kaitlin












my favorite picture from the trip




Tommy and I treated our friend Joseph and his family to Whataburger before we drove to San Antonio. It was Joseph's Birthday and none of them had ever eaten at a Whataburger before!

Richard and Katie

Tommy, Robert and Joseph enjoying cholesterol laden french fries.

New Happenings

Within the past few weeks I have started teaching the Wednesday night college group at FBCFW. It has been a while since I've taught a class of any kind, so I'm very excited to get have the opportunity. This is also a milestone of sorts for me, as the only classes I have ever lead on a permanent basis were youth classes, never an adult class.

We've started going through the book of Galatians verse by verse, with the hope of unpacking what the text means and making application from that to our lives. There's a great group of people who are coming, several of whom are ready to take active roles in leading worship, outreach, in reach, and so on. I'm very encouraged by them and blessed to have them.

While I'm new to this group, I do have a vision of discipleship I would like to cogently formulate and implement. I would covet your prayers on this. This vision includes emphases on encouraging private and corporate prayer, personal accountability to each other for righteous living, active evangelism, Biblical literacy, developing a Christian world-view capable of engaging our culture, and heart-felt worship that does not bypass the mind. Various programs would then reflect those concerns. While this list of emphases is not comprehensive of Christianity, I believe they are areas that are either sometimes neglected in college/careers ministries or need to be pursued with full diligence.

One exciting bit of news is that I've been given a new email address at church, though I'm hesitent to post it on here for fear of email spam. I hope to keep you up to date as things develope.

Beowulf

Silly me for thinking a PG-13 rating would save my family from soft-core porn on the movie screen. Apparently a film can show extended scenes of nudity without repercussions on the rating IF that nudity is digitally depicted.

Yet just as grotesque are the feminist agenda and anti-Christian bigotry which permeate this film. Go ahead and mark this film off of your "must see" list, but do read an excellent review of the film's ideology.

Is it Really too Early?

I realize that it's only November 14th, and Christmas is still about six weeks away, but I'm dying to get my Christmas stuff out. The past few years I've waited until after Thanksgiving, I don't know what the big deal is this year.

1. I love Christmas. I believe Easter has far more religious significance for me, whereas Christmas has more traditional and familial significance, though those do tie back into my Christian faith, just not specifically into the virgin birth.
2. Cold Weather. If I put out all my trees, nativities and snowmen.. won't that make it cold outside?
3. One of my 30 by 30 is to make a Christmas inventory, and I'm anxious to get started.
4. I have a TON of my Christmas shopping done, and I want to get them wrapped and out of their hiding places so I don't forget anything.
5. It's pretty. Every time I open the boxes it's like getting these things all over again, finding and remembering lost treasures.
6. We'll be out of town until the Monday after Thanksgiving, and then again for Christmas, so it's not like I even get to see everything for the full Thanksgiving to New Year's window.

Whatcha think? Can I?

Here's a few pictures of years gone by:




This is my very first Christmas tree, the only real one I've had, complete with Tommy's Flaming angel on top.
2003








This is from our first married Christmas in 2005. I loved that apartment, but sometimes I forget that it was small and cramped too.











This is our first Christmas in Fort Worth, and I'm excited to see how it will look since we've rearranged so much since last year.