Christmas 2008

I hope you all enjoyed a very merry Christmas this year! My family enjoyed another wonderful holiday together on the farm. It was a typical Christmas in many ways – gathering together with Al and our children around the tree, opening special gifts from one another, and giving thanks as we remembered the ultimate gift from God this season. However, in other ways this Christmas was very different. As many of you know, our daughter Erin is away this year on a mission trip around the world. She is currently in Kenya and was spending Christmas feeding the hungry children where they are working. We miss her dearly and missed her even more over Christmas. But, the delight and fulfillment we hear in her voice when she calls and in her blog entries helps us to know that she is exactly where she needs to be this Christmas. Erin shared another part of her life with us from so far away. Her friend Nikki has been living in our guesthouse this year and helping us with so many things around the farm. 

It was a great blessing to have her spend the holidays with us this year! Nikki brought some of the extra cheer we were missing in Erin’s absence and was a true blessing for us. So, this year, our joys of Christmas were by our side with Nikki and our children Sam, Mac, and Megan as well as afar as we kept Erin in our hearts. I found the following quote in our new book by Harvest House, God Bless Our Little Nest and thought it so appropriate to share this Christmas.

"Our home joys are the most delightful earth affords and the joy of parents in their children is the most holy joy of humanity. It makes their hearts pure and good; it lifts men up to their Father in heaven.”
Johann Heindrich Pestalozzi