December 2005

Dear Family and Friends:

We have recently been thinking about the concept of joy.  The heart of
true joy lies in the fact that God chooses to reveal Himself to us.
What greater example than when God sent Jesus to be born amongst us on
this earth!

Telling about how God has revealed Himself to us also promotes joy -
it's kind of like a good vicious cycle:  rejoicing about God's goodness
brings more joy!  To that end, He has been teaching us a lot this year
about the importance of relationships and developing genuine community
amongst our friends and neighbors.  We have been trying to follow Him
in this area and it has been very good!  There is much more yet to
learn, though, and we look forward to that.

Elliot is 4½ now.  He is continuously broadening his knowledge base at
the expense of IQ points from his parents (his mother mostly).
However, she takes comfort in the belief that after she has informed
him of all she knows, he will in turn share the information with his
sister as she is probably about ready to enter the phase of endless
questions.  He has started learning how to ski and likes it a lot.  His
ski helmet and goggles coupled with a red cape also serve as his
superhero outfit.  Playing superhero and fireman and football are some
of his favorites.

Grace (2½) likes to play "babies sleeping" (putting dolls and stuffed
animals to bed) and "restaurant".  Breakfast, other meals, and food in
general are important to her.  She remembers events and prefers certain
books and activities and stores by their association with food, e.g.
she likes King Soopers  (a grocery store) over Home Depot.

Iris has been involved in leading the Children's Church program for
preschoolers at our church.  She's also been working on some writing
projects.  In between all this she finds herself saying things like,
"Do not draw on your skin anymore, draw only on paper!"  Or "If you
ever drop your gum down your sleeve, tell me right away!" (As opposed
to later when it is embedded in the fabric and skin.) But it is such
joy to watch Elliot and Grace playing together and learning and
choosing to be nice and do helpful things.

Early this year Jim read a book by Randy Frazee called Making Room for
Life.  This book about community really organized many things that had
been jostling around in Jim's head for a long time.  Jim also greatly
enjoyed being on our church's pastor search committee this last year.
(Hmmm...we may have mentioned this last year since this lasted for
about a year.)  He enjoyed it because of getting to go through this
growing experience with a great group of people.  As far as work goes,
it has been another year, another corporation.  The CPU design lab Jim
worked in was sold this year to Intel.  Jim didn't even change desks,
though.  (He did get a new laptop, and now he wonders how he ever lived
without.... :) Oh yes, Jim sanded our deck this summer.  His advice is,
"don't do that."

May you experience much joy and have a blessed 2006!

Love,

Jim, Iris, Elliot and Grace