I'l Be Home For 1 Minute Of Christmas ...

Yesterday morning Dave and I were to leave for Ontario, however, we we ended up in the hospital emergency room instead. I contracted what was probably a terrible case of food poisioning or the stomach flu that incapacitated me for about 24 hours. Instead of sitting on an airplane I was hooked up to an IV while Dave spent time on the payphone cancelling and rescheduling all of our arrangements. Fortunately we had gotten insurance on our flight so we were able to reschedule it to leave Christmas day instead. So for all our friends and family in Ontario, we'll arrive home on Christmas day at 11:59 PM.

Santa's Coming To Town!!!

Just a short clip from my favourite Christmas movie "Elf" to get you in the holiday spirit. Enjoy!

No Mo' Snow!!

I believe the first official day of winter is December 21st. However, we've been getting snow since the last week of October ... and it keeps on coming! Finally last week we had our street plowed for the first time this year. This was good because I (Erin) kept getting our Honda Civic stuck only a few feet from home. However, instead of being extremely happy, we were extremely surprised to find that the plows put all that snow from the street, over the boulevard, over the sidewalk, and into our front yard. Apparenly the city has claim to the first 3 meters of your property past the sidewalk. Unfortunate for us our front yard is probably only 5 meters deep. The result is a 12 foot snowpile (mixed with dirt and sod from our lawn) outside our bedroom windows. At least it's a snowpile right now. Come spring I believe that large hill will turn into a large flood. At least what grass wasn't dug up should be exceptionally green.

Celebrity Look-a-likes

I found this cool website off a friends blog today that scans a photo of you and compares it to those of celebrities. It tells you which famous person you most look like. Since Dave and I are the perfect couple that means our celebrity dopplegangers are totally with the wrong people.

Of course the site also tells me that with any photo I put in, that I'm a match for Charlize Theron (96% in fact!). If that's truth ... I should be getting better work. Guess Tom and Katie might be right for each other after all.

Our Life Right Now

This year our church has started a new Christmas outreach ministry called Bethlehem Live! The concept is to have people participate in an actual live journey to Bethlehem and to experience the Christmas story as it unfolds right before their eyes. Travellers, led by their guide, encounter beggars, bandits, roman soldiers, shepherds, live animals, a market place, and a prophetess as they pay their taxes, and attempt to find a place to stay in the city. At the end of their journey they are directed to the stable of the inn where they find a couple, an important baby, and the meaning of Christmas. All of this is topped off by live music while they await their tour as well as christmas baking and beverages to warm up with after their journey is completed.

Dave and our friend (and music & creative arts pastor) Kris have been busy heading up and adminstrating this event for the past several months. Needless to say, there are a lot of details in a production like this, so they have been very busy doing everything from recruiting, to snow removal, to hooking up heaters and building fires to keep our actors warm, to putting up sets, to conducting interviews, to ... well you get the idea. They are very busy guys missed much by their wives!

Bethlehem Live! runs for 3 nights and started last evening. So far the response has been great. Infact we had to turn people away near the end of the evening. However, tonight we should have it worked out so we can take more people, more quickly. If you live close to Grande Prairie, you should come check it out. For those of our friends who live out of reach, you can check out some pictures that Melody has put on their blog http://www.krisandmel.blogspot.com.

I'll Be Home For Christmas ...

We just want to let all our friends and family back in Niagara to know that we'll be home for Christmas (finally) this year. We will be arriving December 22nd and returning to Alberta January 8th. We would love to get together with everyone we can, so shoot us an email or give us a call. See you soon!!