Christmas Lunch

Yesterday we had my family over for a Christmas lunch! We wanted them to be able to see all of our Christmas decorations. It is always fun for my grandma to come over to our house, plus Anna is here now, too! We're so glad to be able to spend this Christmas season with our families!

EBI Christmas Party

Last night was the Earth Builder's Christmas party at my aunt and uncle's house! (As most of you know, my dad and my uncle Kym are the owner's of Earth Builder's, where Dave works.) There is always great food and hilarious games at these parties, & last night was no exception!

The festivities began with an intense scavenger hunt around the house. For example, did you know that Kym and Bernie's house has 51 doorknobs and 36 steps? This style of game is definitely not my forte! :) After dinner we had a traditional white-elephant gift exchange, followed with a competition of my favorite game, Spoons! It is always customary to have 3 "semi-final" games of spoons, and then 2 people from each semi-final game head to the "championship game." Here are Dave and Bernie in their intense semi-final game: Of course, Dave was one of the winners from his table....but he was very surprised to see ME at the championship round. (This was my first time getting to the championship; of course, Dave has been in it every year he's worked for EBI.) Dave was even more shocked at my mad spoon skills as, round by round, the other 4 players were eliminated, and it was just he and I left to compete for title of winner!Although I tried my best, Dave was dealing (which gave him an advantage), and he won (in about 15 seconds)! Even though Dave wins every game, no matter what it is, it all ended well!
As always, we had a great time at the party; until next December, we'll be playing a lot of Spoons at our house to sharpen our skills!

The Latest

It's hard to believe it's already December 21! The last few weeks have been so busy! My 4th grade honor choir sang 7 concerts last week, and then this Tuesday my third graders performed their holiday program! Whew! My students did fantastic, but I am very relieved that I don't have another program to put on until February!

My Grandma Dolores is here visiting from Minnesota, and, as many of you know, she is slightly hard of hearing. I explained to my students that my somewhat-deaf grandma was coming to the concert (all the way from Minnesota--this really impressed them!) and that, if she was going to hear anything at their performance, they were each going to have to sing very strongly. (Don't worry, all my sweet vocal major friends---I don't teach them to sing "loud"--just "strong.") Well, my story apparently made quite an impression on them, because they did sing very well...but, yesterday I got an e-mail from a mother of one of my students who asked if the whole "deaf Grandma from Minnesota" story was real, because her daughter told her in all seriousness that "Mrs. Rinn said we had to sing loud enough so that her grandma could hear the concert!" I laughed so hard, especially when the mom asked if it was true or just a tactic I use to get my students to sing well! Ha! It was truly special for me to have both of my grandmothers at my Christmas concert!

We also sold our Camry tonight. We had half-heartedly been trying to sell it via the newspaper since we bought the Tahoe in September. But, my parent's good friends Kenn & Kath bought it and are going to give it to a family as a gift! We had a lot of great memories in our car (many, many long trips to Colorado and Minnesota!), but we are very happy that our car is going to someone who is receiving it as a gift through our friends! God really does work all things out--even the details of selling a car! Here are a few good-bye pictures of us with the Camry!

Lunch at Mac's

Mac's is our favorite place to eat after church on Sunday, and today Grandpa and Grandma Bergstrom treated us all to another delicious lunch there! (Sadly, Dave isn't in any of the pictures since he was taking them all, and Mom is in Minnesota until tomorrow!)

Our Annual Progressive Dinner

Our annual Christmas progressive dinner was a blast last night! We started the evening at our house with appetizers and carol singing!
Then we headed to Kimi & Rob's for the main course (served on Kimi's beautiful Christmas china!). Kimi and Rob just recently moved into their new house, so they were very brave to have 16 people over so soon after moving! Our evening ended with dessert and an hilarious white elephant gift exchange at Brian and Tiffany's. We somehow ended up with a Kenny Rogers DVD compilation and a "Dance Like a Superstar" DVD, which we immediately gave to Jenny, who truly wanted it! ;) We feel so blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with such wonderful friends!

Bible Study Girls

These precious girls have been an amazing encouragement to me this fall as we have studied Hannah's Hope together!
(back) me, Terri, Kimi, Jenny (front) Tiffany, Courtney

Birthday Time!

Last night we celebrated Dad's 55th birthday along with Nate's 21st birthday! We brought a bakery red velvet cake--both Dad and Nate's favorite--that everyone loved. (If you know my family at all, you know that we all LOVE good bakery cake!! My dad was even successful in sneaking extra pieces when my mom wasn't noticing!)
My grandma crocheted Nate an afghan in his UNT school colors, and Nate also got some useful presents for living on his own in his new apartment.
Dad had a LOT of fun opening his presents--an adorable photo book and poem by my mom about their cruise to Alaska, a fridge stocked with steaks (because all my parents eat is chicken!), a new Mannheim Steamroller CD (his favorite, and he always plays it on maximum volume), and a new game from us, Ticket to Ride. We all were having so much fun with Ticket to Ride that we played until 11:30 last night! I think it might be our new favorite, second only to Settlers of Catan!