2016 Christmas Letter

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. - Luke 1:1-9 - Elisha has been obsessively writing and reciting this recently

Merry Christmas!

2016 was a fun year for our family. We spent a long weekend in June in the Duluth area with Steph's parents, sisters, and their families. We stayed in a house right on Lake Superior which had a great view and through which we got to watch a storm our last night there. It is beautiful country up there and we hope to go back sometime to do more hiking and exploring. While we were waiting to watch a boat come in one night, Izzy got pooped on by a seagull. It is one of those stories that we'll always remember.

In the middle of August, we took a road trip to Colorado. We hit each State Capitol building round trip as well as the National Parks in South Dakota. The main attraction was camping in Rocky Mountain National Park for a few days. We are excited that the kids are enjoying hiking now - we spent the better part of our time there hitting the main sites, but also took a few less marked trails. After our stay there, we spent a few nights in Denver too, including going to Pike's Peak. The trip was about 20 Hamilton soundtrack plays in length.

Earlier in August, we attended the wedding of Ryan's brother Josh. Ryan was a groomsman and Izzy was a flower girl. We partied hard that night. It was a lot of fun.

Ryan and Steph ran a few races this year - or Steph keeps signing Ryan up for races. They ran the Warrior Dash and a Turkey Trot in Madison together. They also both ran the Tough Mudder, although on separate teams. Steph also ran a 10k version of the Chocolate Run this year.

Elisha continues to push Ryan and Steph to experience new adventures in parenting. He played baseball again this summer, but this year was kid pitch and included travel. It was mostly the same kids from his team last year, so it was fun going to those games and hanging out with those families. Elisha was also able to start playing sports at school this year now that he's in 4th grade. He got quite a bit of playing time on the soccer team (4th-8th grade), although he didn't get to play in the last game which was the conference championship game.  It was a close game, but we ended up losing. He also started playing B-Team basketball. You can tell the boys are all learning as they have yet to win a game. But, they are getting better and having a lot of fun.

Izzy is in Kindergarten this year. She continues to do gymnastics and dance during most of the year. She also played T-Ball and soccer again this year. T-Ball was without Zeke, which was a good thing - they could have used the time apart during soccer. She had her first few sleepovers with her best friend. It is funny to see the dynamic of two girl pals after dealing with boys. Izzy continues to be a singer, she will definitely be a musician.

Zeke started Preschool this year, going all day five days a week. He is the humorist of the family, always making us laugh. He played T-Ball and soccer. His dermatologist checked out his scalp this year and recommended no more surgeries for a while; it looks good enough, so why bother until it has finished growing for a while. We're not sure when the next will be, but likely not too soon.

Blessings on your New Year!

Love, Ryan, Stephanie, Elisha, Isabella, and Zechariah