Well, the stockings are still up and the tree is still lit, but another Christmas has come and gone. It’s been a fun couple of days here in the Maness house.
— The week started with a trip to Denver on Sunday night. We took the kids down to Casa Bonita (always fun) and then to the Denver Zoo to see the lights. The lights were beautiful. The whole zoo is lit up with Christmas lights and a couple of the animal houses are open to view animals as well. It was pretty cold but everyone (except Jaydah) seemed to have a good time. Here are a couple of pics from the trip. Check out the one with Makalah standing up inside the stroller. Her fit were on the ground and she absolutely REFUSED to be pushed any further. It was hilarious.
— Christmas Eve we delivered 4 dozen donuts to two different nursing homes, as we did our families part in an Element Gives Back opportunity. Ryan (volunteer) did an INCREDIBLE job organizing the event. We showed up at the church about 5:30 PM and Ryan had our boxes of donuts neatly packaged in a sack. With the sack was a slip of paper that had our delivery addresses on it. Out of 28 confirmed families to deliver we had 2 no shows. I’m not sure how many total locations we were able to serve Christmas Eve, but it was a lot. Thanks again Ryan for heading that up.
— Sabrina and I watched It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. That movie is good every time. LOVE the message in it. We watched Famil Man last night. Another great movie.
— Christmas day Sabrina and I got up to find that Jonah had set the table already for breakfast, and he also had all the presents from under the tree neatly arranged in piles for each person ready to open. The kids had a BLAST (obviously) opening their Christmas presents and stockings. They got some pretty cool stuff. Jonah was super excited about his ipod shuffle and the girls all got some very cool baby strollers for their babies. I don’t think they’ve stopped playing with them since.
— Today we just relaxed, played some games and hung out at the house. I braved Wal-Mart (we’re actually going back tonight) cause we needed laundry detergent.
— I gave all the staff Wednesday through Saturday off. I need to go into the office and finish my sermon tomorrow. I am SUPER excited about this weeks message. We’re celebrating what God has done in 2008 and looking ahead to what He wants to do at Element in the coming year(s). I believe GREATER things are yet to come.
Remembering Christmas,
Jeff
