Who Is Jesus?

Last weekend Bill and I drove to Indiana to spend time with my family. On our way we stopped to see Grandma. She had cataract surgery on Thursday and on Friday she was able to see just fine. Amazing what doctors can do these days.

We got to see our friends Alex and Jason and enjoyed dinner with them Friday evening. Even though our service was sub par and the waitress was apologetic, I felt like being kind to her was a better gift. It wasn't her fault the kitchen was short-staffed, nor was it her fault they were running out of food. We enjoyed the company of Alex and Jason and are looking forward to meeting their new baby this spring. Courtney has grown, and she cracks me up. I swear she is a Gremlin... you would never think that by looking at her sweet innocent face. But I have heard the noises she makes. Very funny.

Saturday, Bill and I saw a couple of family friends. We took Mom and Dad to Sam's Club for the Membership (part of their Christmas present), and then Bill and I made a stop at the St. Dennis' Family gathering to visit. Leah and Chris had just returned from their lunch. All the kids are getting so big. Emma had a slideshow of the Christmas photos she had just taken of all the grandkids.

Saturday evening, after my sister got out of work and came to Mom and Dad's, we had "dinner". This year we decided snack type food would be ideal. As we were just sitting down to eat, the doorbell rang. It was the Schwann's Man. Mom and Dad didn't have an order, but before he left someone shouted to invite him in to eat with us. Of course he could only stay a short time, but he did join us. After he left, I made a comment about having just shared time with Jesus, you know the Bible verse that says something about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison and when you do it to the least of these you are doing it for Jesus. Skylar piped up in her innocence and declared, "Jesus is the Schwann Man?" That got a big laugh, but it made me think. Yes. Jesus is the Schwann Man, and Jesus will be the homeless people Bill and I help cook breakfast for tomorrow morning.

In this Christmas season, I have already seen true joy. Quota has a group of deaf adults who are essentially orphans, that we buy Christmas presents for. Then, during December we take them to lunch and hand out their presents. They are very specific in their gifts and we always deliver. This year was no exception. To see the look on their faces when they open their presents, that is pure joy.

I hope that you experience pure joy this Christmas, that you can share even the smallest thing with Jesus and that love and hope fill your spirit.

Merry Christmas

Updates

I have a few pictures to share. First, for our Quota Christmas party I decided to make rice krispy treats. I took a page out of Jenny's book and used a cookie cutter to make them more holiday appropriate. I found the last snowman cookie cutter when I was out shopping on black Friday. So here is Wally Jr. (named after the snowman marshmallow that Heather made for my 30th birthday, click here to see him).

This is a picture from the side, so you can see his three dimensions. He's a snowman, he doesn't mind showing off his roundness.

And here's the living room with the curtains hanging up.

the rest of the living room

What started in August is now almost complete. To remind you of what it looked like back in September, click here. The dusty, dirty part is done. Finally. Through lots of pain, blood, sweat and perhaps a few tears (of course I cried. I got a hot paint speck in my eye. I'm okay now).

Here, Bill is using the heat gun to remove the many layers of paint (I could count five).

Bill patched the walls with plaster compound. We decided to remove all the layers of paint from the wood molding, but only the top layer of paint on the walls. Once we started heating up the trim, that top layer on the wall just peeled off. So that was the easiest part of the entire job.



You can see here all the different molding. There is a fluted, flat molding on the ceiling, then the crown molding, next is the picture rail molding (yes, we use hooks to hang our pictures from this, instead of pounding nails into the plaster walls), the inside molding creates a frame. We call it the frame molding, and it was most likely not original to the house.



Cleaning the dust out of the picture rail molding before priming.
Bill gets paint on the walls, while I fix dinner. After dinner we busted it out and were finished painting the walls (second coat) by 9pm. All that is left is the trim. I can handle that. It might not be until the new year, but I am happy to have this much finished.


A very dusty camera lens

Ta Da!

There will be one more post once the trim is finished. For now, it's time to prepare for Christmas!