From The Whittakers To You
Here is our Christmas card this year.
It involved a ladder, tripod, duct tape, self timer, and 40 shots.
Just consider it in your mailbox and not on your 15″ of LCD.
I have been spending the last few days offline and giving my undivided attention to mi famila.
I thought I would sneak back in and ask how your holidays were or are going?
Anything we should know about, pray about, laugh about, cry about?
Happy Holidays!
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Something good about this holiday break for me… I lost 5.8 pounds this week! Didn’t think that would happen over Christmas! We also had the most relaxing and laid back Christmas EVER at the Saffle house. It was fantastical!
Please pray for my dad. He had colon cancer surgery on the 22nd. On Christmas day we drove 9 hrs from Mississippi to NE Tennessee to see him. (Convinced “Santa” to deliver to the car so 4 yr old Jadyn opened presents during the trip.) He’s out of the hospital and awaiting pathology results to determine if there is more cancer and if so, what happens next.
Funny that this would be the first comment that I read b/c my comment was going to be about my dad’s colon cancer… this time last year my dad finished up his radiation and chemo for his colon cancer. This disease brought my family closer and made me realize how fragile our lives are. Praying for you and your family as you await results. Praying for healing for your dad and comfort in knowing that no matter what happens God is working things out for our good and His glory.
You shoulda just gotten one of your many amigos to take that picture of you guys. But then again, it’s more fun to hear how much work it was.
Enjoyed quality time with the families in Florida. Now back in dark and bitterly cold NYC and loving it.
Well…my wife was sick all day on Christmas. Stomach sick. Sick enough she couldn’t even get up to watch the kids open their gifts. Slept most of the day and into the night.
On the other hand, my mother was with us. As you may or may not know, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer back at the end of August. The doctors said she probably had 3 months left to live. She’s still here. Doing better than she was when she first went into the hospital on August 30th. Better yet, she became a Christ follower during these last few months.
The kids were happy and Sylvia was doing better by Saturday so after we dropped Mom off in Orlando at her brother’s place (where she’s staying) – and after the three of us went to Starbucks – the two us enjoyed dinner alone before going back home.
All in all, it was very good.
Sorry to hear about your mom’s cancer Jay. But awesome that she is now a Christ follower!
Glad you had a good Christmas!
Praise the Lord, Jay!! That brought tears to my eyes!!
Awesome shot Carlos! My Christmas was good. I also laid off the tweets for the majority of it. Looking forward to my special someone visiting me from Minnesnowta this coming weekend! Pray for cheaper airline flights…
Well, my wife and I just bought our first home, so both sets of parents and siblings congregated at our house. We had a BIG dinner was a spread that was more good than good with you. It was good to have the best of both worlds. There wasn’t a need to figure out who we were going to see first, or make travel plans, because everyone came to us. It’s always “sketchy,” to start new traditions, but I think we could get use to this.
This was our son’s first Christmas waking up at home!! The entire month has been like a Magical sweet dream and we can’t believe it’s over
great memories, it’s amazing what joy a little 2 year old brings to an entire family!!
I just got back from what my family is calling a “four Christmas” holiday road trip (if you have seen the movie four christmas, just picture that).
It was crazy and long, but I am happy to be home and back to my bed. Good seeing family though
For years, I have had problems oversleeping. Part of it is my narcolepsy, part of it is that sleeping is my coping mechanism for depression. So for Christmas, one of the things that my mom got me was a “Clocky.” This is a rather annoying alarm clock. Not only is the sound unusual, but if you hit snooze, the next time it goes off, it rolls off your nightstand and starts rolling around the room. This could be fun…
I barely leave comments on blogs, but my Christmas was okay and now I’m dealing with a bunch of health issues. If you could pray for that, that would rule! I’m praying/hoping for a miracle!
This was our first Christmas in Thailand, away from all of our family. A bit rough, for sure, but praise God for modern communication technology! There were all sorts of outreaches and events among Thai Christians going out into their communities, as this is their main time for evangelism the whole year – everyone wants to know what this Western holiday “Christmas” is all about. What an opportunity!
Amid all the hustle and bustle though, we did manage to get a day away from our small town, and headed to Bangkok to find a good Mexican restaurant (those are VERY hard to come by here, and it’s our favorite!) as our Christmas present to each other. Tacos never tasted so good…
Nice Christmas card, Los! I may have to steal it from you someday. =)
Holidays are OK. Christmas celebrations were nice. Just came back to LA from visiting college fellowship friends in Bay Area. Feel kinda cheated that we didn’t catch up enough (I was only there for ONE day ’cause of work). Feeling discouraged, like time is slowly pulling friendships apart. Hard not to tear up inside.
Please pray for me – not sure what to do. Also for a new home I’m moving into next year — scared and excited all at once.
Much to be grateful for and much to learn from. God asked me very nicely to quit my job as a bilingul teacher this summer while back home in South America. He just said Quit your job, not quit your job and I have this for you to do. Just three words uttered three times. My husband and I being humans, were perplexed. Did he mean now? Will he tell us when? School started, I stared third day, ah, you want me to quit my job NOW. That bad the third day. SO, I quit my job. I think I have an idea of what he wants me to do but not really sure, so I’m walking out in faith. I’m joining Extreme Response, (great org) to teach teachers how to teach or offer professional development to schools that can’t afford it. I’ll be kind of an roaving nomadic missionary. Pray that God would reveal this to be his will by whatever or whichever way he wants to. Obviously, I will need financial assistance and I need to contribute to the family income, so provision and clarity there would be awesome.
My son has “rejected” Christianity, he’s 18 so I pray he returns to the fold and for his salvation as well as my 23 year old daughter and her boy friend’s salvation.
Please continue to lift my pastor, Matt Chandler and the Village Church in Dallas up as we weather the challenge God has given Matt and the church.
Christmas was awesome! Spent it in Illinois, in Washington, Illinois and enjoyed our time with our daughter, her boyfriend and his family. Oh and their crazy dog. Lots of snow, lots of food and lots of laughter. Missed John Piper preaching at church, darnit but it’s on the web, so if you want to know what he said to The Village Church go to http://www.thevilagechurch.net.
Can’t wait to have a chance to visit your new church Carlitos.
Peace and may 2011 be filled with blessings,
Adriana
If you’re still up for praying >> We’ve been in Brunswick GA for two weeks now – living in our pastor’s basement until we get some house-buying stuff figured out. It’d be nice to have our own place in the next month…. But, if not, that the Lord would give us endurance – and appreciation for no housekeeping at this season!
Christmas this year was both lonely and wonderful. Lonely because we have no family here, and wonderful because we served with a church to feed/give items of need & gifts to ~1000 people. Perspective was quickly gained.
As far as prayer goes, my wife has had some health issues for around 2 yrs now, and we’re hoping that in the coming months we’ll have answers. Pray for her with that, ’cause I like her. A lot.
Please pray for my grandfather. He was very sick, and took a turn for the worse on Christmas Eve. Last night at around midnight, he passed away. Please extend your prayers to him, that he may enjoy the happiness of heaven, and to his family and friends to cope with the loss. Thanks.
We had a GREAT! Christmas. Overall it has been a good year… problem is I still can’t shake an overwhelming sadness and anxiety about the future that has been compounded by a big disappointment. Matter of fact, I’m disappointed with my whole life in general.
So, if you can pray for me, pray that I find peace with my life as it is, and that I can beat this depression, melancholy… whatever it is. Pray that God gives me such a large dream to chase that I live every moment with a God ordained thrill for life.
Merry Christmas to you too Carlos.
Here’s our family’s Christmas Card…
can you find the 6 LOST Easter Eggs? (kinda helps if you watch LOST, but even if you don’t, still fun anyway)
http://bryanallain.com/archives/2009/12/24/the-2009-christmas-card-lost-easter-eggs/
bryan
Pray about getting a wireless remote for your camera! Seriously! Less than 10 bucks on the Ebay! Then again, you probably lost a couple pounds running up and down that ladder pressing the shutter button for the self-timer to start… (c; But with the remote you could snap those 40 shots in 30 seconds and get a great one without the fuss!
Had a great Christmas. Love your pic.
Well, we brazilians, even when we live outside of our country, we normally celebrate the Christmas on December 24th before midnight and we finish at 25th midnight. Here in London I had a great Christmas Dinner on DEC 24th at my friends home, w/ more 12 friends and my brother and his wife. We had a “Christmas secret friend”, a lot of food: turkey, ham, lasagna, chiken, beef rib and a lot of desert…
we had food for almost 3 day lol..had also some games like UNO and Image&Action (mimic and divining kind of game)..well, gave to us a pretty good laugh time!
i started my first counseling session with my pastor last week…
Please pray for a new job, I got laid-off December 11 (Merry Christmas to me!) and my wife is in school full-time until May, so I’m the only one bringing in money right now. I got a severance, so that was nice, but just pray that God brings me a new job ASAP.
This shot is beautiful of you guys. I hope you had an amazing Christmas and fabulous 2010 celebration. I also hope everyone is healthy as you move forward into this coming year. Thank you for being on the journey you are on. You and the Mrs. are so so great and I am thankful for you both.
Look at that gap family.