Peace in our Hearts, Joy in our Lives

The holidays are a funny time of year. We expect to be able to attend more functions in one month than we usually do all year. We redecorate our homes, buy and wrap gifts for everyone we know, and bake, bake, bake until we start to feel half-baked ourselves.
Suddenly we find ourselves dazed and confused in the checkout line with the words “Silent Night” blaring in the loud speakers.
In the midst of the crazy times this season, and in the coming year, we hope you will take a minute to reflect on a miracle. There is Peace on Earth; His name is Jesus. Jesus came to earth with a mission—to save us from our own destructive selves. His gift to us was taking our punishment for us, enduring the consequences for all the things that we did wrong. But it doesn’t end there. He not only gave us a ticket to heaven for our future home, but true peace in our hearts now.
God’s peace is the calm that fills us in the midst of the storms. In the middle of our greatest pain Jesus is the comfort that guides us through.
May your hearts be filled with true peace this Christmas.
Love, Rory, Jennifer & Cecily

Card Tricks With Daddy

Rory loves to do card tricks. He is always looking for a new audience. Here is a video of Cecily sharing a few tricks with her daddy.

Santa Baby

Here is the whole family paying our yearly visit to Mr and Mrs Claus

Hmmm... not going to smile.
Who are you again?

Snow Babies!

Here are Cecily and Charlotte enjoying their first snow fall.

Their fun was short lived and so was the snow.

I'll be home for Christmas

We had a fantastic time going to see Jen's mom (and many friends) perform in First Christian Church's rendition of I'll be home for Christmas. It was awesome, they had a great live orchestra, awesome sets, and an all together spectacular performance. We had a great time. It was also fun to catch up with friends from First Christian. Here is a video of the Quackenbush Sisters...

Here is mom (Beth) looking very pretty after the performance.

Here are Beth and Mary-- fellow Quackenbush sisters.

Beth made their outfits, including her own hat.

Beaver Fever!

In celebration of dad's birthday, and as an excuse to get together with friends-- we had a party!

It was fun to get together and watch the Beavers beat the Ducks! For Dad's birthday present we got him and Cecily matching OSU T-shirts. Dads says class of 1977 and Cecily's says class of 20??

Cecily also got to wear her official OSU cheerleading outfit. Mom got it for her with the help of our friend Tamzen who is a professor at OSU. She looks so cute in it... wouldn't you agree?

In order to match the theme of the event, we have been collecting Orange and Black desserts and party accessories. Halloween made this pretty easy.

Dad has a thing for Hostess "Desserts"- Here is his very own "Birthday Cake" made up of his favorite Hostess variety-- in the theme of his favorite team.

Here are Rory and Cecily with Matt and Charlotte-- the hard-core Duck fans. The little girls had fun keeping their dads company during the big game.

Deck the Halls

Cecily has had a lot of fun discovering all the decorations that come with Christmas! She was a big helper to mommy and daddy as they decorated the house!

Here is Cecily discovering the "Kissing Ball." Kissing Balls are big traditions in Rory's family. Rory's mom has a kissing ball for most holidays- and just like mistletoe, if you get caught under the ball with someone -- you owe them a smooch! This Kissing ball was made for us by Rory's mom, it features geometric shapes and kittens... two of Rory's favorite things.

Oh, Christmas Tree. After last year we decided that with Jen's allergies being what they are... it wasn't worth the misery of having a real tree. Thankfully we were given this beautiful tree this year, and the fun thing is... this will be our tree for years to come. (Thanks to Julie Coury!)

"How do the lights get tangled every year? Here let me help you!"

We enjoyed some festive holiday chai. We like to make them using our handy dandy espresso maker. Jen's mug is the snowflake one, Rory's is Sylvester. Rory loves his Sylvester mug, Jen doesn't like to use it because the mug isn't soothing enough, how can you relax with a cat looking at you like that? Rory does not use his mugs to sip relaxing tea, he mostly enjoys hot beverages loaded with sugar...and he loves cats.

A mug that brings sugar and cats together... you can't go wrong!
Here is our daughter showing off how useful her eight teeth are.

Here is an artistic shot of the holiday decorations. This one is of our special snow globe. Jen got to pick it out-- it's from her Aunt Toni as a wedding present. She chose this one because she liked the little family, it reminded her of the Hartshorne clan growing up, and thought who knows? - She and Rory might have a little family that looks like this one in the future. Based on the snow globe... one kid down... two to go??? (We'll see)

Cecily in the Christmas boxes. So much fun!

Here mommy let me help you take these back off the tree!

Our decorations have a red and gold theme, and we especially like stars. Rory really likes stellated icosahedrons (stars made from a certain geometric shape), so we collect them.