A Very Busy Christmas – Part 3

If Christmas day was the busiest day of the season, then the following Sunday was a close second. After going to church, we went to Scott and Gwen’s house to celebrate Christmas with Trent and Amber. We ate once again a very tasty meal prepared by Scott and Gwen.
After lunch, we ate some yummy desserts and then exchanged gifts.

Scott gave Trent a motorized helicopter that entertained the family (and Rosanna) for quite some time.

We had to cut our visit short because that evening, we were hosting Jay’s Aunt Linda and Uncle Ray along with Jay’s parents for dinner. When we got home, we finished making the rest of the meal before they arrived. After our ham beans and potatoes meal, Amy brought out her new dessert recipe.

Jay then entertained Uncle Ray with his electronic gadget and they finished the night watching the Eagles game in the basement. Amy, Aunt Linda, and Jay’s parents talked in the living room.

It was nice to get to spend time with the aunt and uncle who are responsible for Jay being an Atlanta Braves fan. We were sad to say goodbye and can’t wait to see them again next year!

D'Antoni Visit

On Sunday, Chelle D’Antoni and the kids visited from North Carolina. Upon arriving, Gabe immediately went to the kid’s room and played on the computer, Acacia played outside in the 8 inches of snow that we got the night before, and Jay played Wii with Dano. After a little while, the kids opened up presents that we got them. The rest of the afternoon, Amy and Chelle hung out in the family room and the kids played with their new toys.
It was nice to see the D’Antoni family minus Jonathan. Hopefully next time, he will be able to make the trip.

Small Group Christmas Celebration

Friday evening, our small group got together to celebrate Christmas at the Derstein home. After eating a lot of food and desserts, the children opened presents.
When the kids were in bed, we read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke in the New Testament. Also, John Schreier prepared passages from the Old Testament which prophesied the virgin birth. It is amazing that Jesus’ birth is prophesied as far back as Genesis 3:15.

After reading the Christmas story, we wanted to get a small group photo. For what should have been an easy task, it turned out to be a lot harder with the camera battery dying and all of the shenanigans.

After several takes, we finally got an acceptable small group photo.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Tractor, Truck And Backhoe Pull

On Sunday, we got up and headed off to church. We had just sat down when Jay’s phone rang. It was Jay’s mom and she wanted to know what we were doing. Jay told her that we had just gotten to church and it was about to start. She then asked if there was any way that we could go to their house because Jay’s dad had gotten the truck stuck at the pond. She then told Jay that his dad then got the tractor stuck trying to get the truck out of the mud. With this, Jay hung up the phone and we got up. While leaving, we ran into the greeter and he asked, “Leaving so soon, you just got here?” To this we responded, “Jay’s dad got the truck and tractor stuck in the pond and we need to help him get them out.” In the car, we decided that we have definitely become true Quakertonians.

Jay and his dad worked for about 1 ½ hours in the pouring rain and had only moved the truck about 15 feet. Mike Burns then showed up. He helped for about 10 minutes until he decided that he would go to his parents house (about a mile away) and get his dad’s backhoe. Mike came with the backhoe and since the ground was so wet and loose, when he tried to get around the truck, he got the backhoe stuck. Mike worked for about 15 minutes to try to get the backhoe unstuck when he finally gave up and called his dad. Mr. Burn then came down from his house to try and get out the backhoe, tractor and truck that were now stuck.
Mr. Burns has 35 years experience working on a backhoe and he got it unstuck in minutes. It looked like they would finally be able to get everything unstuck. That was until he was working his way around the truck and a hydraulic hose snapped on the backhoe. That was the end of day 1 as a new hose needed to be made and installed before the backhoe could go anywhere.

On Monday, a new hose was installed and within 1 hour, everything finally got unstuck from the mud. Here are a few photos of the carnage.

The truck needs a good car washing, inside and out.

December Birthdays Get-Together

This Friday, we got together with several friends to celebrate the many December birthdays. We talked, ate lots of food, opened a few presents and ended the evening by watching one of our favorite Christmas movies; National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It was a fun evening spent with our friends!

Eagles Snowman Tackle

We had our first snowfall of the season and Jay made a snowman after church this afternoon. When he was finished making the snowman, he dressed it up with some Dallas Cowboy gear.
Jay always wanted to but has never tackled a snowman, so he decided that today was the day. For motivation, he put a Philadelphia Eagles hat on the snowman and the rest was caught on film.

Amy's Company Christmas Party

Tonight was the Lacher & Associates Christmas party at the Washington House in Sellersville. Amy is always on the planning committee so we arrived early for setup. The room was festively decorated so we took photos around the Christmas tree.Before dinner, appetizers were served. This gave us time to mingle around the room talking to one another.Dinner and dessert were AWESOME as usual. After the gifts were distributed, we spent the rest of the evening socializing with friends and coworkers.