A Season to Celebrate

Celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus is always such a joyous time. The Christmas Eve candlelight service at church, waking up Christmas morning and in the Meyer woman tradition wearing our crazy penguin PJ's and enjoying breakfast, coffee and opening gifts together. this year Christmas Eve dinner was held at Katie's apartment. This was her first dinner for her family. She did a wonderful job decorating the table beautifully and serving a meal of tri-tip steak, chicken and her special green bean, asparagus and bacon dish and my favorite pumpkin muffins. She was assisted with the dinner by her boyfriend Chad whose parents also were invited. Katie had to work at 6pm that evening so everyone went their separate ways. Larry and I attended the 8pm Candlelight church service which was filled with God's spirit of peace, joy and love. We always love the final song of Silent Night with our candles lite and the church aglow.
We began Christmas morning making waffles, fruit, cheese blitz souffle, Starbuck Christmas blend coffee, almond champagne and lots of other wonderful warm breakfast dishes. Josh, Megan and Isabelle arrived first in their Christmas PJ's then Katie . After feasting on food, opening gifts we headed to the theater to see the movie National Treasure. This was Isabelle's first movie. True to her nature, she was an angel throughout the movie. It really is a fun family movie for all ages.
We returned from the theater and played the game Last Word. It is a fun, fast game which thank goodness takes very little skill. We laughed pretty hard at some of the word play that took place.
It is now time to toss out the wrapping paper, begin thinking of putting away the ornaments and look forward to a New Year. The New Year gives us time to reflect on the past year and pray that 2008 will be a year of Peace and good health.

A Season to Celebrate

Celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus is always such a joyous time. The Christmas Eve candlelight service at church, waking up Christmas morning and in the Meyer woman tradition wearing our crazy penguin PJ's and enjoying breakfast, coffee and opening gifts together. this year Christmas Eve dinner was held at Katie's apartment. This was her first dinner for her family and she did a wonderful job with a beautiful table setting and tritip steak, chicken and her special green bean, asparagus and bacon dish and pumpkin muffins. She was assisted with the dinner by her boyfriend Chad and whose parents also were invited. Katie had to work at 6pm that evening so everyone went there separate ways. Larry and I attended the 8pm Candlelight service which was filled with God's spirit of peace, joy and love. We always love the final song of Silent Night with our candles lite and the church aglow.
We began Christmas morning making waffles, fruit, cheese blitz souffle, coffee almond champagne and lots of other wonderful warm breakfast dishes. Josh, Megan and Isabelle arrived first in the Christmas PJ's then Katie . After feating on food, opening gifts we headed to the theater to see National Treasurer. This was Isabelle's first movie and she true to her nature was an angle throughout the movie. It really is a fun family movie for all ages.
We return from the theater and played the game Last Word. It is a fun fast game which thank goodness takes very little skill. We laughed pretty hard at some of the word play that took place.
It is now time to toss out the wrapping paper, begin thinking of putting away the ornaments and looking forward to a New Year. We pray that 2008 will be a year of Peace and good health.

Tis the Season

Tis the Holiday Season. A time for Family, Friends, Food and wonderful music.
Praying that this Christmas season your heart will be filled with happiness and with love and memories and that your Christmas be filled with God's goodness!
We had a fun action packed weekend beginning on Friday when Ruth and girlfriends Amy and Gretchen took a shopping trip to Walnut creek. The stores are decorated so pretty and in the middle of the shopping district is a beautiful tree fully decorated. It really gets you in the holiday spirit. Of course shopping anytime makes me happy ;) Friday night we meet friends and attended an Evening in December at the First Covenant Church. They put on a wonderful musical with a message of hope and joy in celebration of Jesus' birthday. The performance was followed by delicious deserts at the home of our friends the Moores. Saturday, I hosted a table at the annual Christmas Tea held at our church. Each table was decorated differently. Some tables are elegant, some whimsical and some theme oriented but all fantastic. We were served scones ,sandwiches,and pasteries with our tea and heard an incredible story of God's Grace by our guest speaker Wendi Carlton. It was extra special for me this year to have Megan and Isabelle join us at the tea. Isabelle was an angel throughout the entire two hours. After all she is the most perfect baby in the enitre world! Saturday night we had our Mariner Christmas dinner at the Penrod's house. Again, we had a incredible buffet of appetizers and deserts and wonderful fellowship with all the couples in our group. We have been blessed to have been a part of this couples group for 17 years and to have been Skippers for the past year.
Sunday, Larry and I were voted in as Decons for our church. This will give us an opportunity to work together and be able to serve our church. We are looking forward to the opportunity in 2008. Sunday night we attended a gospel musical performance at our church and were wowed by what this group of singers performed. I think it is actually good to go back to work this week to have a normal routine and rest up so we can be ready for another fun weekend coming up.

Long Lost cousin - reunion

After 34 years - I had the opportunity to catch up with my cousin Ron Woodrow and his wife Marianne. The years have aged us but Marianne's wonderful laugh is still the same and Ron reminds me so much of his dad, my uncle George it was uncanny. The reunion was made possible because of Ron and Marianne's daughter Linda Woodrow-Gray who we discovered lived in Walnutcreek after I had received a random e-mail about a T-Shirt contest for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. Linda, a senior graphic designer, had entered a design for the T-Shirt and when I went to vote for her design I noticed her e-mail address attached and decided to drop her a note and let her know that her father was my cousin. She e-mailed back right away, we met for dinner along with my brother Andy who was in town from San Antonio. When I found out that her parents would be visiting for Thanksgiving we made plans to meet and catch up. It was such a kick to see old pictures, and make this family connection. Larry and I look forward to seeing them again before another 30 years goes by.

Trip to Angwin

Nestled into the foothills of the beautiful California wine country is a little community called Angwin. Donna and Al Voth, my sister and brother-in-law have moved there this year from Michigan. Angwin overlooks the Napa Valley with a spectacular view of vineyards and rolling hills. We spent Friday and Saturday exploring some of the special places Donna and Al have discovered since moving there. We went into Callistoga to a little candle shop with amazing candles. I found a little english tea house which actually sold my favorite candy "Smarties"! Castello de Amorosa is an amazing authentic castle which took some 13 years to build. We did not actually tour the inside of the castle as it was a $30 entrance fee. We hiked a great trail near the Angwin airport which took us on a 4 mile loop which was like being in a magical forest with moss covered rocks, tall trees and leaf covered trails.

Giving Thanks

I read a wonderful prayer that Dear Abbey had written before she died -
something to think about all year round:

O Heavenly Father
We thank thee for food
and remember the hungry.
We thank Thee for health
and remember the sick.
We thank Three for friends
and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom
and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service
That Thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen

The Meyer/Oldenburger family got up early Thanksgiving Day and Ran for the Hungry. It has become our annual family tradition. We love the idea of doing something to help those less fortunate and also doing something good for our bodies before we sit down to a day of delicious food. After the race we enjoyed a brunch and relaxed watching the parade on TV. Megan, Josh and Isabelle then left to see other family and Larry, Katie and I went to the movies and saw Enchanted. A very cute and light Disney fairytale/romance. We would recommend it for any age.

Publish Postge="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

Giving Thanks

I read a wonderful prayer that Dear Abbey had written before she died - something to think about all year round:
O Heavenly Father
We thank thee for food
and remember the hungry.
We thank Thee for health
and remember the sick.
We thank Three for friends
and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom
and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service
That Thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen

The Meyer/Oldenburger family got up early Thanksgiving Day and Ran for the Hungry. It has begome our annual family tradition. We love the idea of doing something to help those less fortunate and also doing something good for our bodies before we sit down to a day of delicious food. After the race we enjoyed a delicious brunch and relaxed watching the parade on TV. Megan, Josh and Isabelle then left to see other family and Larry, Katie and I went to the movies and saw Enchanted. A very cute and light Disney fairytale/romance. We would recommend it for any age.