Merry Christmas!

In front of our house (by the way, a huge

benefit of living in church housing is that

they do all the outside Christmas decorating!)

President and Sister Ludwig passing by our

house on their Christmas Eve carriage ride.

Christmas Eve! Everybody in their new PJ's

leaving out cookies for Santa and an apple for

the reindeer.

A classic Abbie sleeping position. Her hands

are actually up in the air. She always sleeps

with her arms spread out or above her head.

Abbie in her Christmas dress. 2 months old.

Our family at the ward Christmas pageant. Angie

was an angel, Casey and Barb played Mary and

Joseph and Abbie was baby Jesus (but not a very

good one - she screamed at the top of her lungs

and flailed around for a solid 20 minutes under

the spotlights while the narration and singing

was going on! Guess she didn't want to play a

boy role...)

Abbie Mae 2 months old.

1-3-12

Happy New Year!!!

I was out on the horses again today. I really enjoy driving the draft horses. We took a small group of tourists from China around the Historic Sites. I try to fill in whenever there is a need. Lately, as the weather has turned a bit colder, and many of the missionaries have gone home for the winter, it seems that there is a need to for me to fill in at least once a week. Today was a case study in the parable of the "two willing horses" - One was "willing" to pull and the other was "willing" to let him. I think this is how we approach life sometimes. If we are not careful, we can become complacent by just going through the motions without making real progress. We have to constantly be on guard that we do not become the one horse that allows the other to do all the work. We should always be willing to pull our own weight plus that of our partner.

On another thought... Last Friday, the 30th of December was President Ludwig's birthday. He is the mission president here in Nauvoo. For his birthday, his adult daughter put a slide show together of his life. The title was "President Ludwig - 62 years in 10 minutes". She did a great job. As I sat there and watched the presentation, I was struck with the idea that life continually moves on. We are born, are children, teenagers, young adults, young mothers and fathers, middle age, grand parents, great grand parents and then we move on to the next life. It is a cycle that is constant and does not change. The thought that came to me most directly is that little Abbie Mae, born to Barb and I later in life, in a way breaks that cycle. She allows us to live a small portion of our lives over again. It is almost as if we go back in time and re-live our early parenting years. Is a sense, we become young again. She is a magnificent blessing in our lives. Both Barb and I and the girls love her very much and we can't wait to see what she will do next.