Happy New Year 2010

Build a Bear

This year was Jo's turn to get her first Build a Bear from uncle Vittee for Christmas. She was very excited about her new puppy.

Making sure she is nice and soft.Giving her a bath (with the help from everybody).

And an outfit. Man, talk about choices. This is a parent's nightmare.But we (mom) managed to pick one and the boys helped with the puppies name.

Jo's puppy so you better watch out.

Thank you uncle Vittee :)

This has been a very relaxing Christmas for me. We spent it together as a family. Thanks to Fil all the shopping was done well in advance so we did not have to worry about it at the last minute. We just stayed home and enjoyed each others company.

Sunday Reflections

No matter where you are reading in the Bible, faith is the first mystery you should recognize. Faith is not believing that the story you're reading is true as written. That does nothing for anyone. Even unbelievers can believe this Bible story about Jesus' birth is true. Faith is not a natural work apart from God's grace, as the Scripture clearly teaches. Rather the right kind of faith, the kind that flows from grace and tat God's Word demands, is firmly believing that Christ was born for you. His birth is yours and occurred for your benefit.

--Martin Luther, Faith Alone This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:22-26

... the night before Christmas

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came fro the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sigh to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angle. praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angles had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all there things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told.

Luke 2:1-20

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sunday Reflections on Monday

Carols stir us. Holy words inspire us. The golden glow from the manger warms us. A little religion at Christmas is fine. But that glow in the manger comes from the Light of the world. It exposes evil and either redeems it or destroys it. The babe in the manger is far more than an object for sentimental sighs. He is the Son of God who must be accepted as ruler or confronted as rival.

--John G. Stackhouse, Jr. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD--and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

Isaiah 11:1-4

Door

Wondering why my kids are sitting all bundled up on the stairs? Well there was a big hole in our wall with a view. I do realize it is cold outside and that I should shut the door.

Oh wait a second there is no door.

And now there is:)

Lunch time - boys style

The boys decided the other day it was their turn to make lunch. I was OK with that. I make three meals a day plus snacks all the time so I could relax for a little bit. If you know my boys well it ended up being a big show in the kitchen. Safety first.

OK so there is a story behind the fire extinguisher and I am sure you are all dieing to know what it is. First of all there was no fire in our house. One side of the kitchen sink drain is leaking. That is it nothing more. I had to take the stuff from under the sink out so that is why the fire extinguisher is on the countertop.Like I wrote it was a show.

But they did manage to make pbj's and they did a great job.

They announced after that from this day on they will be making lunch every day and after I told them that we will not be eating PBJ's every day they changed their mind.

But I am not too worried about it. I am sure they will come up with something else soon.

My grab button

<a href="http://thesteigerclan.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="The Steiger Clan" src="http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p334/fsteiger/button20.jpg" /></a>

Guess who and where ...

This weekend we got together with our friends and if you can guess who they are from the first few pictures I will be very impressed.

After all these years I cannot believe we do not own this egg shaped chair. It is always very popular with my kids and can you guess what store are we in?

I will help you with the store. We are in Ikea (again). What a better place to go when it is cold outside and kids can run free here.

Did you figure you who we met yet?It is the Carpenters:)

They came to see the their friend in Boston and spent a few hours with us over several days. It is great to see them every time and I cannot believe how much the kids grew since we saw them in the summer.

As you can see Fil and Gabe had their carts full.

This visit I got my first big hug from miss A. If you thought Jo was shy you never met this cute little girl.

And what a better way to end a day then with $1 Swedish meatballs for dinner:)

Sunday Reflections

The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.

--G.K. Chesterton, Generally Speaking Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of you dawn.

Isaiah 60:1-3

More snow ...

This is the picture of our house the evening before another snow storm hit our part of the country. Bye bye grass. Maybe I will see you in March (that is probably wishful thinking).

And because we like to spice up our lives a little bit in the Steiger household a big snow storm is just plain boring, so we also scheduled to have new windows installed on that day as well. Well when we scheduled the installation we did not know it would snow that day and we were sure the contractor would cancel for sure. However, with about 5 inches of snow on the ground and still snow hard three guys showed up to install our new windows.

And it was snowing and snowing all day long.

Fil had to use the snow thrower so the contractors could get their truck out of the driveway after the job was done.

And after they left the house it was nice and cozy and it stopped snowing.

How much snow did you get?

First snow of the season

This is our house Saturday morning.And here it is 24 hours later on Sunday morning.

I have to admit I am not ready for snow. I was walking around the house on Sunday trying to find any grass knowing it will be a long time before we will see it again.

We got our first snow of the season and even though it was little for New England's standards the kids were antsy after church and could not wait to get home to play in the snow.

They got to enjoy it most of the afternoon and they have been out side everyday since.

Jo is enjoying snow this year very much.

We are getting MORE snow tomorrow.