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Hello everyone! (although I do not know how many “everyone” is anymore - I haven’t written for so long people probably don’t bother to check it out!)

The transition from Iowa to Indiana has been relatively easy. Now that I am starting to get into the swing of things here, I hope to write more regularly. My goal for this year is to write out a series of mini Bible studies on the first six chapters of Daniel. And I will have other interesting things to write about and pictures to show from mission trips to St. Lucia and... I’ll let the rest unfold as time goes by.

I wanted to show some of the pictures from my time at home. It was such a blessing to get to spend 7 weeks with family. I’m feeling kinda far away at the moment, so I hope to keep this light and not get melancholy.

I got to go home for Thanksgiving again this year!!! I was the only kid who made it home this year and Dad's side didn't come either, so it was a quiet holiday. Thanksgiving morning while Mom was on the phone talking to Grandpa (who we thought was coming over) I was peeling the potatoes Mom had in the sink. I saw that Mom had about 5 pounds more sitting in a basket on the floor. Obviously, she wasn't planning to use them. I decided to peel those too, since we always seemed to run out of mashed potatoes before we ran out of the other leftovers... well, as I said Grandpa and the others decided not to come. So we had PLENTY of mashed potatoes! Like two gallons of them!! Mom and Dad teased me all weekend over that. (and you know what? none of them went to waste!)

Pretty Indian corn that Mom got from the place where she works.

On December 21 my Dad got a special birthday present - the lunar eclipse. It won't happen again like it did that night for another 175 years, or something like that. Dad and I got up in the middle of the night to watch it fully eclipse. It was SO pretty! The picture (at half eclipse) doesn't do it justice... I should have gotten out my tripod.

This actually happened before Thanksgiving... Bogie ran through a barbed-wire fence and cut himself very, very badly on his tummy. The vet had to put in fifteen or so stitches, which he promptly pulled out with his teeth when he got home the next day. So the vet stapled him together the second time and gave him "the cone of shame" to keep him from trying his talent on the staples. Bogie HATED the collar. But I thought it was so cute! He looked like a flower, so I kept calling him "Bogie Begonia" which he didn't think was very funny!

At Christmas time Bogie was constantly begging to go outside to chew on the dead deer in the neighbor's pasture... I won't tell you any more details about that.

Roxie was cute as ever and tried to appear innocent of the "deer offense" but she got her share of it too. Gus (the cat) stayed out of trouble the whole seven weeks I was home.

Genesis has some sort of attack while I was home that resembled a seizure or stroke. But she came out of it in about five hours. She was sleeping peacefully here, by the way.

Charity (one of the "Texas Long-Legs" as Mom calls the kittens) couldn't keep his paws off the tree ornaments. It was like having kids around again for Christmas.

Hope (one of the kittens rescued from Texas) is still skittish, but very beautiful.

Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandpa Minikus' as tradition has always had it. I really enjoyed seeing my Grampa, all my Aunts and Uncles together, and most of my cousins. This is a picture of my Dad (2nd from right) and Grampa (in the middle), and my Aunts and Uncles.

Matt taught me some new chords and picking patterns on the guitar (my Christmas present from Mom and Dad). It was so much fun!

As usual, Mom cooked way too much good food! This is a very yummy pumpkin pie in progress.

And these are some happy people ready to eat our belated Christmas Dinner (we waited for Matt and Josie to get home).

Gretchen and Joe and the boys put on an amazing spread too. Grandma Schorsch would have been impressed with the pretty table setting.

Some of my family are not crazy about me putting their pictures on my blog sight. I promised them that I would only use their best glamour shots...

While at home at Mom and Dad's I looked down at the floor and laughed to see another good "feet picture." This was Bogie's stuffed toy called Bandy Bird.

My sister got me two hermit crabs for Christmas! I used to have crabs as pets when I was younger. It has been fun to have them again. And they are pets that can travel (reasonably well). This is Amerigo (who must be a female because she changes shells about every three days). Picket was too shy to get his picture taken clearly.