Christmas Eve Service

After the children's program, the church rounded out the evening with a candlelight service. Our family lit the final Advent candle.



Kevin gave a short message about the significance of the manger.



Zion Church traditions also include passing out bags of candy and fruit to the children, and singing Silent Night in German, remembering the fact that the church was started by German settlers and conducted services exclusively in German many years ago.

Tickling the Ivories

Enjoy the instrumental stylings of our very own Johnathan! (Sorry its sideways!)

Ticket to Christmas

Naomi absolutely loved being in the church's children's program for Christmas this year. She loved going to practices on Sunday afternoons, she loved playing her music CD over and over and over. And she was thrilled to be a sheep!




Our little girl, who would wear shorts and a swimsuit year-round if we let her, even willingly wore a fleece and sock "hooves" all evening!





Lee, Anna, and Cortland show "Billy" (aka Evan) the true meaning of Christmas.





Naomi and Cassandra lying in the fields by night.





The wise men and their camel on wheels.





Simeon tells his story of meeting the Messiah.

Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you.

It was so fun to see how Naomi has grown over the past 3 years of participating in Christmas programs. This year she actually sang in front of everyone, and she resisted the tempatation to keep baby Jesus for herself!

A quick clip of Naomi singing:

Merry Christmas from the kids at Zion Church of Kurten!

Christmas Cookies

A few pictures from our traditional Christmas cookie baking session...

These cookies came from our new nativity cookie cutter set. Though I think some shepherds and wise men may have been eaten before they made it to the scene!

What I learned from my pastor... 12-27

We learned this morning about "Regifting" - no, not "recycling" Christmas gifts, but using the spiritual gifts God has given us, from Ephesians 2:1-10. Kevin focused mostly on Ephesians 2:10, which reminds us that we are God's workmanship, created to do good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do. That means that, in Christ, we should see ourselves as God sees us, His masterpiece. And as we study His word and spend time in prayer, He will reveal the good works He's uniquely prepared us to do. And the good news is that He already has them prepared for us! It also means I need to trust God as he sets circumstances and challenged before me this year, knowing that in His sovereignty He is using those events to prepared me for the ways I will glorify Him in my life.

Millions of Lights

This weekend we went to Santa's Wonderland. It has a mile-long driving path filled with Christmas light displays and a little town with entertainment, shops, and "snow". What a fun evening we had! First, we got in line to drive through the lights display.

It had to have a tribute to A&M, of course!

Here's a video of part of the drive:

Naomi and Johnathan were excited because they got to get out of their carseats and help drive!

So pretty!

We especially liked the end of the display, which had a nativity scene...

...and the cross.

Next we went to Santa's Town, where we played in the "snow," listened to Elvis and Roy Orbison impersonators, warmed up by the roaring fires, bought a Christmas ornament, and ate peanut butter fudge.

We've often found it to be true that everything really is bigger in Texas! Even the Christmas light displays!

Extra, Extra...

Some people train their dogs to retrieve their newspaper. Others have a butler to perform the task. But we top them all. We have our very own princess who delights to bring us our morning paper, complete with pink dress and butterfly wand!

She even lingers at the gate to wave at passing cars. So congenial!