A Year of PWOC

One of the reasons that my blog did not stay up-to-date last year was because I served as the President for the PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) at our base. It was a lot of responsibility, but it was incredibly fulfilling (and I pray, that it was glorifying to God).

My year started off with training. I was incredibly fortunate to serve with a wonderful and gifted group of women who made up the executive board. A group of us traveled to the Europe PWOC Leadership Conference, where we received training in our positions and quickly bonded! We were given a fabulous theme for the year which was "Shine in the Light of His Glory."

We held a Fall Kick-Off night last September and we sponsored weekly Bible Studies which began around that time as well. We had a few Girls Night Outs during the course of the year, and even began a book club that met every couple of months.

At the beginning of December, we held our second-annual women's Christmas brunch. Since last year's brunch was so successful, we decided to hold the breakfast at a bigger facility. We had an incredibly talented woman in our midst (Kate W., who by the way, is now the current President-that's her playing the guitar).She and her husband Joe, transformed what is typically a cold, concrete-floor facility, into a Western mountain lodge, complete with a chuck-wagon to serve the meal from. It was a lot of work, but it looked incredible!!! I wrote a skit and gave a talk about why God chose the shepherds and a star to pronounce the birth of his son. The skit was really cute! I had my two friends Alicia and Amanda play the parts of angels holding a casting-call for the birth-announcer. Here's a picture of the cast.The brunch was just wonderful! I loved seeing how so many women used their gifts and talents to make it happen... and with such attention to detail. It was great!

For me, the climax of the year had to be our winter retreat. I kind of took this on as my project for the year, enlisting plenty of help from my board. We decided to hold the retreat at a youth hostel in the sea-side fishing village of Whitby. The facility turned out to be amazing! Yes, it was a youth hostel, but it was a 4-star youth hostel that overlooked the harbor and the incredibly picturesque Whitby Abbey! The itinerary for the weekend was closely modeled around retreats that I had been on with my previous church back in MD, allowing for plenty of time on Saturday afternoon for sight-seeing and shopping!The title for the retreat was "How Clean is Your House?." I was inspired to write a 5-scene skit about a woman who has a maid service come to her home and give it a good cleaning, metaphorically speaking. Each scene found the women in a different part of the house: the attic to look at her past, the bedroom to evaluate how she saw herself in the mirror, the kitchen to see what she was feedng herself, and the basement to see what dark secrets were lurking there. Each session for the retreat included some worship, one scene of the skit, and a brief talk. There were a few small group sessions scheduled throughout the weekend, and lots of time for game-playing and socializing in the evenings.I left the retreat feeling completely fulfilled and utterly exhausted! Once again, it was an incredible amount of work. But it was so satisfying seeing a vision and passion becoming a reality! I suppose the same could be said for the whole year. It was incredibly challenging, but I learned so much... prayed SO much, and really experienced the goodness of God in so many ways.

Christmas 2010

We felt particularly blessed this past holiday season because we were able to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with family! Ethan's mother and brother spent a week with us over the Christmas holiday.

But before they arrived, a few festivities already took place, including the children's annual school Christmas pageant. (How I will miss these after we move home!) Both Tim and Maddie played the part of angels this year (how fitting!!!!).

Christmas Eve was delightful. After a lovely meal, we cuddled on the couch and sang Christmas carols (it was so nice to have Mom here to play the piano!), nibbled on some cookies, drank some egg nog, read "The Night Before Christmas," and opened one gift each!Christmas morning was a lot of fun!! Collin's favorite gift seemed to be his tricycle which he enjoyed riding around the house. Tim was excited about his new sledge, and Maddie rocked out on her Paper Jams guitar. Ahhhh.... the glorious mess!Christmas dinner was of course accompanied by Christmas crackers, complete with jokes and crowns! I think that this will remain a tradition for us for years to come.We ventured out on the day after Christmas (Boxing Day) to Fountains Abbey. (Oh yes... did I mention that we had a white Christmas??!!) We enjoyed taking some lovely photographs, and taking part in a service that they hold there every year on Boxing Day. I think it's noteworthy to mention that this service is a culmination of a walk/pilgrimage that hundreds of people participate in each year. They begin at Ripon Cathedral, and walk 4 miles to get to Fountains Abbey to commemorate a similar journey that took place back in 1132 by a group of local monks! We did not participate in the walk, but we certainly appreciated the free admission!

Tim was thrilled that we had plenty of snow during his school holiday. That meant plenty of chances to test out his new sled! And we even had the right kind of snow to make a snowman for the front yard! (We didn't have any carrots, so it had to have a celery nose.)We all enjoyed a day trip to the village of Skipton, where we toured Skipton Castle. We really appreciated how well restored the castle was (it was nice to tour a castle with a roof during the middle of winter!). Here's a brief tour:
The gatehouseThe CourtyardThe Banquet HallA Medieval potty (always fascinating!)Stairs down to the dungeonA nice shot of Maddie and GrandmaEthan also took his mom and brother to take some unique and foggy shots of Bolton Abbey.
It was a very special Christmas season indeed.

Family Photo Shoot-Swap

I usually like to have our family picture taken for our annual Christmas card. But last year, I didn't know what to do, since my good friend (and amazing photographer) Christy, had moved back to the States.

Well, when we were leaving our friends' wedding back in October, we drove right past the sweetest little walking bridge. I told Ethan as soon as I saw it that that is where we needed to have our family picture taken!I mentioned it to my good friend Leslie, and asked if she might be interested in doing a photo shoot-swap... she would take our family picture, and I would take their family picture. And thankfully, she had a really nice camera!

So, one crisp and chilly Sunday after church, we loaded all 10 of us into our cars, and headed to the little walking bridge. We took a lot of pictures, hoping that by sheer chance, we would end up with a picture or two with everyone smiling, or at least looking in the camera's direction. Thankfully, we each had a bunch of nice pictures to choose from.Leslie said she will be in charge of finding next year's perfect English countryside location. But, I don't know if she'll be able to top this one!

Tim turns 9!

This past November, Timothy celebrated his 9th birthday!

What a joy it was to be able to celebrate while my parents were still here. We had our own little family party on his actual birthday, and a party with friends the weekend after. Our gift to him was a skateboarding/scooter ramp for the driveway.Tim chose to have a bowling party with the boys from his class. (There's a bowling alley on the base.) It was the first time that many of his friends had ever gone bowling, but we all had a fun time!I even took a stab at making a bowling ball and pin cake for his party. (It wasn't too hard actually- 2 round 9" pans to make the ball, and a 13x9" size cake, cut in half the long way, stacked and shaped to make the pin)!

Is is possible that my baby will turn double digits next November???!!!