'Tis the Season!

Hello dear friends,

I hope that you have had a marvelous Thanksgiving with family and friends and are eagerly anticipating the celebration of the birth of our Savior - JESUS! My friend Linda came to visit me over Thanksgiving and it was great to see her! Unfortunately I got sick for most of her visit and completely lost my voice for her last day here...but when you're such good friends who needs to use words anyway?!

These past several weeks since I last wrote to you have been busy, laid back and lots of fun. Let me explain... I was able be at 2 more craft fairs with my photography business Glory Displayed. I have a love/hate relationship with craft fairs which you understand if you have ever tried selling something at one! I have also been busy trying to learn more about photography and Photoshop and running a business. I attended a Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership simulcast that was amazing. I am reading blogs, articles and books and having fun putting into practice what I am learning. I am grateful to have a friend who is very good at giving me the kick in the butt that I need to keep learning and making my photography the best it can be! I have so much to learn that it can be overwhelming sometimes, but I get really excited when I learn something new...I have been getting really excited a lot lately :-)

Work at the church is going well. I love this time of year and it is great to be able to focus on the real reason for Christmas and to give to those in need instead of focusing on what we want! Our church is doing the Advent Conspiracy again this year and we are trying to raise enough money to drill a well in a community in Liberia so that the people there can have clean, safe water.

I have also had some laid back weeks. I have been fighting that nasty cold that has been going around since the first part of October. Just when I think I am getting better, I re-catch it from someone or maybe it just never went away in the first place. So the last couple of weeks have been full of doctors visits and antibiotics. I would appreciate your prayers that I would be able to get and stay healthy...I really don't want to go back to wearing the dreaded mask every time I go into public like I had to do a couple winters ago. I have also been losing a significant amount of weight and might have to do some more testing to figure out why that is happening. Please pray for that too! So yes, there have been some laid back weeks as I was housebound and coughing up a lung. Let's just say I get a little nutty when I'm stuck in our little apartment for days on end!

Let's end with the FUN! I already mentioned that my friend Linda came to visit me and that was lots of fun! My roommates and I went to the International Dinner at UW-Stout and that was a ton of fun! We got to eat yummy food from all over the world and watch a cultural show. It was great and made me think how boring we are in America sometimes! The other amazing thing I got to do since I last wrote . . . I got to go to the Packer/Viking game! That's right, I was in Viking Land to watch them get beat by the Packers and it was a blast :-)

It is hard to believe that Christmas is just a couple of weeks away. I haven't even been able to put any of my Christmas decorations up yet. So these next couple weeks I am looking forward to making giant snowflakes, decorating and listening to Christmas music! I love this time of the year...even if it is cold here! I pray that you have a wonderful Christmas with those you love and that you remember the reason we celebrate. God bless you friend!