My San Antonian Grocery Clerk

I love my grocery store. Just right around the corner from my house stands my Dahl's Grocery Store. Part of one of the main grocery chains in Des Moines, and only the second ever branch to be constructed (opened in 1952) in Des Moines, it is something of a landmark in the city. When people around here ask me where I live, all I have to do mention the Dahls location I shop at and say that I live around the corner from it, and everyone nods knowingly and says, "Oh, yeah! I know exactly where that is!"

Because of the ecclectic mix of shoppers there, Darin and I used to say that we were looking for a congregation that resembles our grocery store when we were searching for our church home here. Our neighborhood is a middle class area sandwiched right in between the "old money" and "very little money" parts of town. And we all congregate in the same grocery store. It's fabulous!

Shopping there now for over four years, I've come to recognize many of the employees. One gal who checks groceries there has always stood out to me as one of the friendliest and most kind-spirited people I've ever encountered. She always has a smile on her face and and greets customers with cheerfulness.

Well, a couple of months ago I discovered the reason why she's so great! She's a Texan! And not only that, but she is from San Antonio! When we made the connection that we have the same hometown I couldn't help but blurt out, "I always knew there was a reason I liked you so much!"

Now every time I shop, I scan the checkout lines to see if my Texas friend is on duty. And if so I'm sure to get in her line when my shopping is done. I knew that she had gone home for Christmas this year, just like me, so when I went through her line tonight I knew we'd be able to share the joys of our Texas Christmas over my credit card transaction. As we animatedly chatted about the 65 degree temperatures, the Riverwalk and the South Texas Hill Country, she paused for a moment, flashed a smile at her co-worker who was bagging my groceries and announced, " We're both from Texas!"

He gave a polite nod and then continued bagging my items. I suppose we shouldn't expect him to understand... : )

Our Iowa Christmas and Reunion with Minnie!

It's nice to be back in Iowa! Tonight we had all of Darin's family over for one last Christmas 2007 celebration! We had a good time munching on pizza and cookies and exchanging gifts. Seeing Darin's family also meant reuniting with Minnie who stayed with his folks during our entire 10-day trip. They pulled up to our driveway today and when Minnie came bounding out of the car to greet me she was looking particularly festive. This is what she was wearing:

And I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that I then gave her a Christmas present... a sweater I knitted for her:

It's nice to unwind now at the end of most of the holiday excitement! I think it's a nice night to slip into the cozy pajamas Dan and Judy gave me along with the "lambie" slippers his siblings gave me and curl up with my husband, puppy and watch one the the Audrey Hepburn DVDs my parents gave me and enjoy a quiet evening (that is if Darin is agreeable to watching an Audrey Hepburn movie!).

I hope you have a chance to unwind as well and enjoy this time! It's hard to appreciate all the generous gifts from our families and friends and not be reminded of the gift the Lord Jesus gave by coming to our world in human form to save and redeem us! I hope you get the opportunity for some quiet moments to enjoy Him at during this time as well!

A Merry Texas Christmas!

Wow, again it's been a VERRRRRY long time since you've heard from me! I apologize for the lengthy gap. Darin and I just returned from a 10 day trip visiting family and some friends for Christmas!

We began our southward trek by driving to Kansas to see my wonderful sister, Kelly, her husband, Greg whose birthday it is today (Many happy returns, Greg!) and their three beautiful daughters, Abby, Emma and Grace! Darin and I had a great time exchanging gifts, eating my sister's great cooking, watching movies, playing musical instruments and visiting the Exploration Place in Wichita! Here's one of my favorite pictures from the Exploration Place of just us girls:

Then we continued our drive and ended up in San Antonio where we ate some great Tex-Mex (a craving I regularly have especially since I've been living in the mid-west for 4 1/2 years!), went to the movies, attended the church where I grew up, went to the Riverwalk, opened presents and ate a lot of yummy food! It was such a joy to spend Christmas with my parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins! This is the second time I've been back in San Antonio for Christmas since getting married and moving to Iowa! Thanks, Mom and Daddy for a great time!

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the "double date" Darin and I took with my parents, Rick and Gail on the San Antonio Riverwalk! (The Riverwalk was in it's full glory lit up for Christmas and brought back great growing memories!)

We rounded out our trip with some quick visits with good friends in Dallas, and one more overnight visit in Kansas and now we're finally back to 20 degree temperatures and our warm and comfy home in Des Moines!

Hope your Christmas was wonderful and that you have happy New Year!!

"Getting Ready For Christmas"

I never got the opportunity to meet Darin's grandmother, Alma, because she passed away several years before I met Darin. From what I hear about her-especially from Darin's mother, Judy, it sounds like she and I (as Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables would put it) would have been "kindred spirits".

Her hands were always busy creating things like cross stitch samplers and various other crafts. She enjoyed making a home, and what she is most famous for in the family is beginning a tradition we call "Getting Ready for Christmas".

I don't actually know what year it started, but at some point in time, she and Darin's grandfather, Howard, began to give all the "kids" in the family one "Original Snow Village" house at Thanksgiving to encourage the excitement and anticipation of Christmas and to help all the kids build their collection of Christmas decorations for their homes. Even though Darin's grandma was no longer with us when I was "grafted" into the family by marriage, his grandpa (who apparently always pretended he didn't like all of his wife's nic-nacs) continued the tradition in her honor.

This year, since we have a wild puppy on the loose, we weren't able to put our entire collection of village houses out, we were able to put most of our display on top of our dining room armoir as part of our "getting ready for Christmas 2007" routine :

We also of course enjoyed putting out our tree, nativity scene and various other Christmas decor a couple weeks ago:

Darin's grandma made the angel you see below. The little Christmas tree was our first and only tree we had up for our first married Christmas... we've come a long way since then! : ) Many of the ornaments you'll find on our Christmas tree are ones I grew up putting on my family's tree. My mom kindly gave them to me when I got married. The stockings and Christmas books you'll see on our mantle also came from her in our first couple years of marriage!

Merry Christmas!

A Birthday, Minnie's First Snow and Four Years of Marriage!

You haven't heard from me in awhile. Please excuse my absence! It's been a busy few weeks! Here's just an overview of a few items of interest:

• Darin had his birthday last Thursday and we had a great celebration together! Among other things, I brought him breakfast in bed and gave him Season 3 of NBC's The Office on DVD. Needless to say, he was really happy about all of that.
  

Bobblehead Dwight joined Darin for breakfast:

• Here's another bit of late-breaking news: I'm going to a have my first "White Thanksgiving". This is rather strange for this Texas girl.
  

I must say that with the arrival of this snow, some concerns of mine have been relieved: ever since we got the puppy, I've been slightly apprehensive about how she would do in the snow. Mostly I wanted to be sure I wouldn't have problems getting her to do "her job" outside in the winter weather. Housebreaking is hard enough without throwing snow into the mix. And I am happy to say that Minnie has taken to the winter wonderland quite beautifully:

• And I can't part without sharing my joy that tomorrow Darin and I celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary! And how fitting that it lands on Thanksgiving Day!

I hope you take joy in celebrating tomorrow and reflecting on the things that God has blessed you with in the past year!

Our Houseguests

Last night Darin and I had the opportunity to host three little boys (two from India and one from the Philippines) who are touring members of the Children of the World Choir. We had a lot of fun together even though they weren't with us for long!

Our church had hoped to have them sing in our misison conference this spring but it didn't fit in their schedule. They were, however, passing through last night and needed a host homes so on Tuesday afternoon our church pulled together a few families to take them. Darin and I were privileged to be one of them!

Darin just loaded them all up in his truck to take them back to their tour bus, so I decided to spend a few minutes looking up their website. I found their program and ministry to be quite interesting... you might too! You can learn about them here: Children of the World.

Here's a few pictures from our time together last night:

The "Big Hair" Ball

I think that one of the reasons Darin and I enjoy working with the high schoolers from our church so much is that they very well may be the only people who are willing to humor us by participating in our crazy party ideas! Our most recent hare-brained party scheme? Last night's Grace Student Ministry "Big Hair Ball".

Yup, the name of the game was to out "do" one another with crazy hair. I thought I'd share pictures of the creative hair ideas they came up with just in case you're feeling the need for a change in hairstyle and needed some inspiration... Enjoy!

Girls just wanna have fun:

You didn't think they boys were going to let the girls have all the fun did you?

Perhaps Darin and I could start our own salon...

Any ideas/suggestions for a theme for the next party at the Stevenson's are welcome! Your "two cents" worth is invited.