And Action!

Snow Day

This picture is the view from our front windows. We see seals and all sorts of birds just on these mud flats.

Our little snow bunny!
This was Benaiah's first time sitting in the snow. He didn't know what to do, but try crawling. I heard him suck in air when he got his first face-full since his face and the snow were about the same level when he crawled. This is a tree in Bill and Joanne's front yard. The birds love it since the berries stay on throughout the fall and winter. We love it because it's so beautiful!

Lutefisk

I have received several comments asking, "What is lutefisk?" So I thought I better explain for all of you non-scandinavians.
Lutefisk is cod which has been soaked in lye, then dried as a way of preservation. The lye is then soaked out of the fish once it is ready to be prepared for consumption. The consistency of the fish is changed through this process.
This is now a traditional food for scandinavians served with either white sauce or melted butter. But the way we buy it now is soaked and frozen from the grocery store, just ready to pop in the oven.
People either really like it, or they hate it. Lefse, lutefisk, ya sure, you betcha!

Christmastime

Christmas was a very good time, in spite of not being with our families. We had our church family and that was great. We had the Camps, Flencia, and the Baums over for our traditional dinner of Lutefisk and swedish meatballs. I think everyone was thankful there wasn't just lutefisk. I guess it would make a good weight-loss plan for the non-lutefisk lovers!

Anyway, we had a great time together and Benaiah greatly enjoyed having that many people seated in front of him to entertain. I think that was his favorite part about Christmas!

Christmas Eve was special with the service at our church. I played piano for the congragational carols, and also sang and played a special song. Quite a few other folks brought special music too that made it a memorable time together.

On Christmas Eve morning we had church and during our worship service sang the song, "Be Magnified." Pastor Kevin talked a bit about how we usually see God as so small in our lives, doubting whether He's able to take care of certain areas. Making the connection that God needs to be "magnified" in our lives, as with a magnifiing glass was a simple but huge thought to me. Our vision of who God is needs to expand to become closer to the reality of who He is. I guess I always thought of "magnified" and "glorified" as meaning nearly the same thing.

This is my prayer for you and me in this new year and in each new day, that we would see God magnified, until we see Him as He is (in Heaven.) God, help us to grasp a little more of who You really are!

Frosty

This was about the beginning of December, when we had some nice, cold weather. It was short-lived though, and quickly returned to our month-long series of high-wind storms with rain. If you look at the last entry on the Benson's blog, you can see a weather map showing the storm that has been hovering over us. Hmmm, looks alot like what they call a hurricane on the east coast! But isn't this photo of our yard lovely? (Well, really it's our land lord's yard, but they don't mind us enjoying it too!)