Christmas Day :0)
We had a wonderful Christmas day in the Garrett household. One blessing was that I ended up not having to go into work Christmas Eve so I was able to get a decent amount of sleep during normal sleeping hours! Aaron and I slept in Christmas morning and then headed to one of the few grocery stores open until 3pm. After a short play date with Bandit's friend Winston, we headed home to cook our Christmas meal. It was fun to cook together and bring food traditions together. Aaron wonderfully prepared candied yams and delicious green beans while I made mom's good ol' ham. And of course we had mashed potatoes and crescent rolls! With enough food for 8 we were ready to sit down and enjoy It's a Wonderful Life and open some gifts. Though we missed family dearly, we were thankful for a quiet evening of warm food and quality time spent together.
tis' the season
the days are getting crisper, with the fog rolling in and the christmas lights glowing. we bought our first christmas tree last weekend and decorated it with lights and the few ornaments that we have. we have made ginger molasses cookies and have already hiked around in some snow!
it is winter time up here in the state of washington and soon it will be christmas. but let us not forget what christmas is really about. it is about God's unfailing love for each one of us. He in all His glory became a baby, born in a manger.
'Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.' 2 corinthians 5:18-21
He was man yet without sin and came to give the good news of salvation and to be the source of a true and everlasting love with God. if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, seek Him out honestly and you will not be disappointed. we pray and hope that you will know Him and experience the peace and joy that only He can give.
miracles
i love science. i always have. and what has always continued to fascinate me is the human body and all its details down to the molecules. now my sister can probably draw you the structure of the amino acid chains or give you a lecture about carbon double bonds and their strength or angles- i love that she can too because she is such a smarty. i like more of the physiological processes on the organ level like the heart and how calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium play a role in this very important muscle beating so that the 5 liters of blood you have in your body can perfuse the rest of the crucial organs- and all this is done without us thinking about it. and i must say, whether it is the specifics of molecular geometry or the function of the heart there is no doubt in my mind that it has been designed intelligently. the greatest miracle, that is beyond science for me is the conception and development of a human being inside another body.
yesterday morning, aaron and i found out that i am pregnant and that God has blessed us with a miracle! and truly it is! i am probably about 4 weeks into my pregnancy and already the baby's heart is starting to beat in a steady rhythm. all this to say, we are continually amazed by God's wonderful handiwork and are so thankful to God for all that He has provided us. please, those of you who read this we would appreciate any prayer for the health of our growing baby as well as for me.
yesterday morning, aaron and i found out that i am pregnant and that God has blessed us with a miracle! and truly it is! i am probably about 4 weeks into my pregnancy and already the baby's heart is starting to beat in a steady rhythm. all this to say, we are continually amazed by God's wonderful handiwork and are so thankful to God for all that He has provided us. please, those of you who read this we would appreciate any prayer for the health of our growing baby as well as for me.
thank you God for...
it is thanksgiving week and i thought it fitting to write a blog about the many things we are thankful for. someone on facebook wrote that she was thankful for non-denominational holidays. well first and foremost, we are thankful for God Himself and for Jesus our Lord and Savior. for His unfailing love, the true peace and joy only He can give, and for being our hope. we are thankful for this beautiful place He has us in- for cold, crisp mornings and for rainy afternoons. we are thankful for the ability to feel the warmth of each other and to have emotions. we are thankful for family and for friends and for the capacity to love. please those of you who are reading this, stop and think. what are you living for? what does your hope rest in and will it be there when the all else fails? look to Jesus, the author of our salvation. the One who made this universe and all that is in it...made you and me. He knows you and wants to have a close relationship with you.
for God's glory
aaron and i get to be a part of an exciting project this coming december 27 through january 14 2010, with our church Calvary Chapel Eastside.
we will be traveling with a team of 12 to Rome, Italy, Salzburg, Austria and Nice, France. we will put on 4 concerts with Seattle recording artist Austen Case, where aaron will be playing lead guitar. working closely with 4 different local churches, our vision is to use music to reach this generation with the Gospel of Christ. it is exciting to simply join God in the work that His Spirit is already doing in europe!
in addition to music, we look forward to partnering with the churches in various events for youth and adults that will address socio-cultural, scientific and Biblical worldview issues. we will also bless and refresh the pastors and their families, and engage in women’s and children’s ministry. likewise, we will remain open to other ministry opportunities with homeless, sick, service projects and the arts. certainly our time and effort will not be wasted! our team has our work cut out for us as we prepare to venture to rome, austria, and france- the picture is much different in these places where christians are a small minority.
God has already done so much just in providing me (andrea) with the time off and enough vacation accrued to take this step of faith. He is also continually growing aaron's knowledge base regarding apologetics and how science simply displays the elaborate handiwork of a Creator down to the cellular level! we would love it if you would partner with us as our prayer support. please keep us in prayer as we prepare for this big trip: finances, health, spiritual equipping beforehand, and effective communication when we are there.
'oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.' psalm 34: 3
fautumn kitchen adventure
so i (andrea) decided to try some new fautumn recipes. i boiled the meat of our field pumpkins, pureed it, and then endeavored to make pumpkin soup!
the days are getting colder and soup makes me feel all warm and cozy, like that campbell's soup commercial, you know, the one with the snowman who comes in for a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup and the snow starts dripping away ending with a cute little boy full with good soup. well, no snowmen have come through our doors but the hot soup has made for some cozy rainy days.
fautumn is here!
**note regarding the title: one day i (andrea) was talking to aaron about the season that is upon us and i said, "i love fautumn!" i was so excited that i said both fall + autumn...= fautumn. this is now a regular vocabulary word in the garrett household.
indeed, fautumn is here and the colors around us are simply amazing. below are a few pictures aaron took just outside of the apartment.
we have had some great october weather with sunshiney days and cool nights. we have made it a tradition in our little garrett family to visit a pumpkin patch and do some pumpkin carving around this time. i have included some pictures from previous years here. aaron and i miss this little farm- mangini's fruit stand and farm in good old pleasant hill; it is one of our favorite places.
october 2007
october 2008 with finnegan
our visit out west to the olympic peninsula was a beautiful one. we drove the hood canal loop starting in bremerton and going southwest to hoodsport. there we stopped by a small farm (hunter farms) that had some good looking produce and a neat little hay maze. our drive then took us north to quilcene and ended with a ferry ride from bainbridge island back to seattle.
we didn't get any pumpkins at that little farm so the next weekend we searched for another place. we found Remlinger Farms in Carnation, WA. it was so cute. they had dozens of scarecrows and plenty of fresh produce...but the pumpkin patch was not open!
so with our hands still empty, we searched on for a pumpkin patch. and what a beautiful search it was! we saw some amazing valleys, streams and colors on our drive. we even saw steelhead and salmon spawning- there must have been over 100 fish in this small creek!
we picked our prize pumpkins at 2 bros pumpkin patch where aaron had to use shears to cut the stems away.
it was an unexpected beautiful fautumn drive and it left me thinking that it is amazing what an artist God is and that He blesses us with wonderful days of crisp air and scenery that is so pleasing to the eye.
we had fun carving our field picked pumpkins and baking some of the seeds.
did i mention that i love fautumn?
indeed, fautumn is here and the colors around us are simply amazing. below are a few pictures aaron took just outside of the apartment.
we have had some great october weather with sunshiney days and cool nights. we have made it a tradition in our little garrett family to visit a pumpkin patch and do some pumpkin carving around this time. i have included some pictures from previous years here. aaron and i miss this little farm- mangini's fruit stand and farm in good old pleasant hill; it is one of our favorite places.
october 2007
october 2008 with finneganour visit out west to the olympic peninsula was a beautiful one. we drove the hood canal loop starting in bremerton and going southwest to hoodsport. there we stopped by a small farm (hunter farms) that had some good looking produce and a neat little hay maze. our drive then took us north to quilcene and ended with a ferry ride from bainbridge island back to seattle.
we didn't get any pumpkins at that little farm so the next weekend we searched for another place. we found Remlinger Farms in Carnation, WA. it was so cute. they had dozens of scarecrows and plenty of fresh produce...but the pumpkin patch was not open!
so with our hands still empty, we searched on for a pumpkin patch. and what a beautiful search it was! we saw some amazing valleys, streams and colors on our drive. we even saw steelhead and salmon spawning- there must have been over 100 fish in this small creek!
we picked our prize pumpkins at 2 bros pumpkin patch where aaron had to use shears to cut the stems away.
it was an unexpected beautiful fautumn drive and it left me thinking that it is amazing what an artist God is and that He blesses us with wonderful days of crisp air and scenery that is so pleasing to the eye.
we had fun carving our field picked pumpkins and baking some of the seeds.
did i mention that i love fautumn?
