Feliz Navidad! and Happy New Year!

What a crazy couple of weeks!

Sorry for the delay in posting, things have been exceptionally busy. I know that everyone can sympathize with me when I say the weeks before Christmas are crazy! The cookies, the lights, the crowds, the parties, the weather, the music.. all of it can get a little overwhelming! We were so behind getting everything ready this year. Lights on the house didn't go up until last week and we didn't get any shopping done until Tuesday!

I am glad to say that Shaun has finally fully recovered from his gum surgery two weeks ago. All swelling and infection is gone and his black eye has finally disappeared. Poor thing, people kept asking him if he was okay, a few told him he shouldn't talk back to his wife. :-) One guy said to him that he hated to see what the other "fella" looked like. IE: Shaun got into a fight, but looked so bad that it looked like he lost.

Due to his illness, I even filled in for him at his last youth group meeting for the year. I taught the kids on Christmas tradition and how sometimes we get so wrapped up in the gifts that we tend to put Jesus aside like the traditional gifts we receive. I even talked about how every year until I was a "grown-up" I got the unfortunate gift of socks and underwear from my grandmother. Thanks Siti!

Big news with the youth group: Cross Culture. We are moving it to Wednesday nights starting in the new year. This will be a great opportunity for the kids and for the Student Leaders. We kick off with a dance off and skate party next week. Great new about this for Shaun and I is we will now have our Sunday evenings back to rest! Yeah!!!

Speaking of Church, we are still continuing the growth of our 2 services. We are still experiencing those expected growth pains, but attendance and giving is still on target. The 11 is still much larger than the 9, but we hope that changes soon.

We held our first Christmas Eve service. It was simple and really meant a lot to Shaun and I. The people were so kind and it really helped us to feel like it was Christmas. I had the fun of calling all the kids up to front during the service and speaking to them and their parents. The funniest part was trying to hand 75-90 kids candy canes! The chaos was similar to what one experiences when they visit Sam Moon's for the first time. I also had the honor of singing with the worship team for the service. I really enjoyed serving with them. Adam, Matt, Laura, and Cindy did a great job. I was told afterward that I the only one moving when I sang... guess I've been singing with kids too long! :-)

We spent last Saturday in New Orleans visiting with Danielle, Andrea and ALL of their family. It was a very fun day and evening. I am so glad that I got to hang out with all of them and see Danielle. Miss you Chic!

We spent Christmas Day eating gumbo with Natalie's parents and family. This apparently is their Christmas tradition and they were so kind to include us. I brought some Lebanese food to them to bring part of our family to theirs. We enjoyed spending time with them and taking some time to just rest and relax. We know that many of our friends and family were sad that we could not come home, we were sad too. But, we will be visiting Texas the last week of January!

We are getting ready for this weekend. Shaun is up to bat in main service. He will be preaching both services. Be sure to check for the podcast. He using a verse that means a lot to our family: Joshua 1:9.

We are also getting ready to welcome Stella and Dennis to the Mississippi gulfcoast. They will be here on Monday. We can't wait!

Happy New Year!
Jess