Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Katie and I are taking in our first thanksgiving here in Boston, and it's turning out to be a warm one! I've been getting some stuff done around the apartment (and taking in a little football, of course!) and Katie has been... sleeping. She had her first of 5 overnight shifts last night, so she is recovering. She is definitely tired! (I can tell because she just slept through a football game across the street where the play-by-play and crowd blare clearly through out bedroom windows). Later this afternoon we'll go enjoy a nice thanksgiving dinner with some friends here before Katie heads back to the hospital. In addition to today's meal, we had an early thanksgiving dinner this last weekend while we were home in NJ. It was excellent!


Mom working on the finishing touches of the meal.


Dad performing his turkey-cutting duties.


Mmmmmmmmm...


A family picture (thanks for taking the picture Ryan!)

Our big news from the trip to NJ was the retirement of our Maxima. After 153,000 miles it was time for a purchase of a vehicle that we knew would be reliable for the coming years ahead. And what is more reliable than a Toyota? We headed to Lawrence Toyota to visit Ken, Katie's cousin, where everyone was very helpful!


Katie's last picture with the maxima. She's in mourning. It might be hard to tell with the huge smile, but it must be just a coping mechanism...

And the new car is... a 2003 Toyota Camry!


The Camry and Maxima meet.


The new Camry.

The fall foliage season has officially ended (according to the Foliage Network, and what's more official than that?), but ironically, we saw our best foliage of the year down in central Jersey last weekend. Quite brilliant colors on our drive - it was great!



Katie in Titusville.

While we were there we were able to visit Christ Community for the first time in almost 6 months. It was really good seeing old friends. Hard to believe it's been six months already! We do miss our friends and family, but fortunately we are at least at a place we are really enjoying. God has blessed us with good jobs, good church and good new friends. We truly to have a lot to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day!

The Theology of Sermon Design

An excerpt from Dad's book is now online here.

Boston News

We had a pleasant visit from Jill last weekend. Both Katie and Jill are on ambulatory (which translates into almost normal work hours!), so Jill made the journey north for her first tour of Boston. Of course, no first visit is complete without a trip along the freedom trail.




At first glance, it may appear Jill and Katie are in Alaska, but no, it is indeed Boston, in front of the Paul Revere house.


Katie and I in front of the Old North Church.

Unfortunately along the trail, Katie slipped and fell. Being the great husband I am, I quickly ran to her, knelt down next to her, and took pictures.



She's down!

But she's OK!

Could be a long winter, once there is actually ice on the ground! Maybe someone will get a nice pair of cleats for Christmas :)

The previous week we grabbed some lunch with Josh and Mandy who were in town visiting with Timo and Theresa. We got our first chance to meet the new addition to Josh and Mandy's family - Micah, and he is a cute one!

A nice day in Cambridge.

The view of Boston from the Mass Ave. bridge.

And today, it’s a quick trip back to NJ for the weekend to see friends, fam and an early thanksgiving dinner! Mmmmm!

Travels

It’s been a while since we blogged and an update is long overdue. The highlight of the last few weeks is that Katie had a week of vacation and I was able to take a few days off work and we were able to get away and relax for a little while. The vacation coincided nicely with our second wedding anniversary (amazing how time flies!). Well almost nicely, I had my mid-term for my class that night, but the following night we headed down to Newport. We got a great deal on a hotel through Priceline (although not as good as the $25/night at “church camp” the year before). The rain held off and we had a nice day to journey along the Cliff Walk and to go to the Vanderbilt’s mansion – The Breakers. The place was amazing, like a European Palace. For food we had a record of 2-1-1. 2 great places, 1 terrible and one OK. The OK place was a Paris Crêperie. The coffee and atmosphere was great, but crepes not so much (especially compared to our crêperie here in Brookline!). Dinner was terrible. I ordered linguini with meatballs and sausage. Who knew it was possible to go so wrong! Every part was bad, right down to the mushy-hot-dog-like sausage. The good news is it was so bad I ended up not eating much and saving room for a great chocolate fondue dessert down the street. After Newport we headed to New Haven to visit Nick and Beth and then Jill. It was great seeing them all, and with Jill we had dinner in the Italian district which redeemed the dinner from the night before! The rest of the week we spent in NJ enjoying good times with family and friends over meals, coffee and the such. We headed back Sunday morning (through rather disappointing foliage) and was back in time for the afternoon service at our church to see our new pastor the Reverend Michael Keller ordained and to hear his father give an excellent sermon on the “secret” to successful ministry – a humble and broken spirit.

Some pics:

That's a half smile by me. Happy to be on vacation, but how can you mess up linguini!

Us on the Cliff Walk

View from the Cliff Walk

Enjoying year two!

Aunt Katie and Jillian

Hanging with the fam on the Delaware

So that’s a snap shot of our time away. Katie is entering probably the best month of the year right now with all weekends off until (and including) the weekend before thanksgiving. She’s enjoying the more relaxed schedule – even taking knitting back up! Our neighborhood was hopping yesterday with trick-or-treaters, marking the opening of the two-month eating season! Speaking of, I think it's time for me go grab a chocolate chip cookie (it's great having Katie's schedule a little more free!!)...