Tea with Milk and Sugar

Please forgive the tacky Christmas “card” but we have been just surviving with tough pregnancy #4. Thanksgiving was a blur, although wonderful to be at my sister’s new home, and here we are 4 days before Christmas. Thankfully our kids were happy to decorate our tree for us, haven’t complained about the lack of Christmas lights on the house, and are so content with our Christmas activities consisting of watching classic movies rather than baking and going out a lot. This year has been full of adventure. In September we began Current, our church, with friends Shawn and Dana Klinkner. We’ve had families join us along the way and dear friends from Bible school, Tom and Lindsey Salts, move here to join us. We also began a daily 15 minute radio broadcast last week, done by Joseph. You will not hear me on that but I love tuning in to to hear him. 1330 am 9:45 M-F for the locals.  Joseph Jr. (6) began Kindergarten at home in the fall. It’s been going very well, he is so eager to learn many unusual things (cursive, French) and I keep taking it on and keeping up with him. He’s reading, has a great gift for drawing and loves the computer. Jordan (4) is happy as ever sitting with me holding my hair. He and Joseph spend many hours on great adventures together, either with flashlights in their dark room or dressed up as knights fighting bad guys in the back yard. Violet (almost 2) has really mellowed and is a joy to be with. She loves her baby dolls and dancing to music. The new baby will join the brood in June and has already been seen sucking it’s thumb via ultrasound, a Branchflower kid for sure. Outside of the kids, my sister Beth moved to UAE for a great job this month and we miss her! The boys hear airplanes and Jordan thinks she’s still on it. Violet asks for “bess” often. Joseph’s wonderful and large family became larger as Jon and Christina had their first baby Lauren Ginger. We look forward to the wild and crazy Christmas Eve gathering all year and it’s almost time. We are preparing to laugh.

We hope you are all well, enjoying your blessings and looking up this Christmas.

Briana, Joseph, Joseph Jr., Jordan and Violet growing-family-008.jpg