Monday, December 31, 2007

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Christmas Happenings

Well, I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas, I know our family did. Ever since I have been with Jonathan, our Christmas holiday is always a bit crazy. We always spend the morning/afternoon with Jonathan's family and then spend the evening with mine.
This year was a little different but still crazy. Jonathan and I woke up early to open our gifts for each other (although we tried not to spend that much on each other since we are getting a new stove soon). We then got to eat lunch with Jonathan's parents and grandparents at the Brethren home. I couldn't believe how many people were there for dinner. I thought the employees did a great job accommodating the large crowd.
Next, we were off to the Swigart house for another filling dinner. We got there and things were in full swing. Complete with the smells of a cooking ham and a house full of anxious wound up children. By the time everyone arrives and brings there gifts, we have a mountain in front of the Christmas tree (a rather small tree this year Dad..). Every year we have the idea to "go slow" so that everyone can enjoy there gifts. But when dad declares it time to open gifts, it always manages to turn into a feeding frenzy. People hollering back and forth "Thank You. I love it" across the room. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any good pictures this year. I never seemed to have my camera when I needed it.

Now on to a sad story. On December 26, we sadly had a fatal car accident across the road from our house. About 6:20pm that night, Jonathan and I had just sat down to dinner, when the lights in our house flickered. We didn't think too much of it, until 10 minutes later, we heard the sound of fire engines and ambulances. We knew the accident looked bad but we certainly never thought it was fatal. From our house we could see a truck in the road an a utility pole down. We went to bed at 11PM and the police and fire were still working on the scene.
After watching the news the next day, an SUV with a 19 year old and a 22 year old was traveling on Gordon-Landis Road, missed the stop sign and pulled out in front of a truck traveling full speed on St Rt 49. The SUV flipped and was launched into the utility pole. We later found out that the 19 year old boy from Lewisburg, was killed in that wreck.
Even though I never knew this boy, I still felt heart sick for this boys family. Christmas probably won't be the same for this family ever again. I know that when I come to that intersection I will always have those pictures in my head of what we saw.
So next year, when I start to feel annoyed buy the craziness of our Christmas Holiday, I will definitely be thankful to have that full and crazy house.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Our Snowy Weekend

Jonathan and I definitely have very different opinions of snow. I think it's beautiful only if I am in the comfort of my home. I only drive in it if I absolutely have too. Jonathan, however, would be perfectly happy living with snow 12 months out of the year.
Last Thursday I was anxiously waiting to get off work. I had taken Friday off and couldn't wait for my long weekend. I had planned on finishing my shopping and maybe get a bit of cleaning and baking done. I then noticed just how bad the weather was going to be for the weekend. I realized that all my running would have to be done on Friday. I then started looking forward to just getting things done at the house on Saturday and Sunday while we would be holed up inside. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the shopping finished. I just didn't have the eye that day. On Friday night, we went to our Church Christmas program, came home and prepared for the rest of the weekend.
On Saturday, Jonathan was so excited to see how fast the snow was coming down. I was getting a little nervous. But, I had no where to be that day and I wasn't worried about driving. As the day went on, Jonathan began to get antsy in the house. He began looking for any reason to get in the car and be in the snow. I just casually mentioned how good some hot bread would be from our bread machine. That's all it took. He grabbed the keys and was off to Suttons with a smile.
On Sunday, we decided to take our chances and try to get to church. Luckily they were still having services and a bigger crowd then expected showed up. After Church, we were off to Jonathan's parents house for Sunday Dinner. Not even the snow would keep us from Geneva's cooking. The drive down Red River definitely proved to be challenging. I figured if the buggies could make it through to get to church, then we would be OK. After dinner we spent time playing with Brownie, the "oh so lovable wonder pooch". He was such a good boy, he even posed for some pictures. He loves the snow just as much as Jonathan. We then headed back home where I spent the evening making my famous Ginger Bread Men. Also, worrying about the nerve wracking drive to work that awaited us the next morning.







Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Our First Christmas Together as The Yoders

Merry Christmas Season Everyone!! This is our first Christmas together as husband and wife. This is actually our fifth Christmas together, but this year is definitely different.
Activities are in full swing. The first event every year is Jonathan's company Christmas dinner with Garber Electric. It's always held the first Saturday in December. They always have a beautiful dinner and a great program. It's always a great way to start the Christmas season off.
This past weekend we went to the Salem Church of God Christmas Program. Something we do every year, but for some reason, this year was even more phenomenal. The story for this years program was a struggling single mother of teenagers. Her own children helped there mother surrender to the love of Jesus through there local church. They put on an awesome program. Complete with there huge choir singing amazing songs, orchestra, dancing and kids of all ages. Many sponsors from all over the community donate money to the church to help them make the program happen. All money donated from the audience is used to provide food to needy families through out the community. I highly recommend there show to everyone. I already can't wait until next year!
As many of you have already seen, we put up our Christmas tree a few weeks ago. We recently added our Christmas train to the base of our tree. Jonathan got the train for us for Christmas last year and we have brought it out for the first time this year. This train is something that, as a kid, I always wanted under my Christmas tree. I can't wait for my kids to one day wake up Christmas morning and see the tree all glowing and a the train humming around and around. Maybe someday, when we have space, we can add to our train set and have our own train room just like all the Yoder men have.
Also, for those that were helping us look, we have just found the perfect "Our First Christmas" ornament. It's of Mr. and Mrs. Snowman sharing there first Christmas. I tried to get a quality ornament hoping it will look good every year we hang it on the tree. Something to remind us of our Christmas's past.
I have included pictures of our Christmas train and our ornament for you to see.
I was hoping people might want to share some Christmas memories on there own blog. If anyone has memories of there first Christmas together with there spouse.
Any Christmas traditions that you may do every year? We look forward to starting our own traditions and also keeping some that our families have given us.
I can't wait to hear all your stories!!!