Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

This past week, we celebrated Christmas with the rest of the world. We were blessed to wake up and find that we were going to celebrate a Colorado White Christmas. There was an inch of snow on the ground and it came down hard all day. It was a traditional DeVries Christmas celebration. Wake up and open stockings, eat cinnamon rolls, read the Christmas story, open presents, eat Christmas dinner, go out to Mom and Dad's and have the family gift exchange, eat another Christmas dinner, lay around in misery, etc.! Oh yeah; Dad DeVries hooked up the sleds to the back of the truck and pulled everybody around out in the pasture for a good time of sledding. The kids were freezing by the time it was over but wanted go out and hit it again. Ah Christmas!!! As usual, it was all great!! Matt's in laws were in from Germany so we had a lot of fun with them. Everybody got what they wanted for the most part; we definitely all got way more than we need. One significant gift was our family gift to ourselves that I mentioned on last week's blog. We chose not to get individual gifts for the kids (even though they are now at the stage where they get substantial gifts for each other!) or for each other. Instead, we had a home theater installed in our basement. 52" plasma TV, surround sound, powered sub woofer, etc. We've really enjoyed watching the Nuggets and Broncos in High Definition TV and we've enjoyed watching movies together as a family on the big screen. When you have teenagers, you think of ways to give them reasons to stay at home as much as possible; this is what we came up with. We hope to enjoy this for a long time.

Last Wednesday Michael turned 11 years old. He's doing great, and we are all proud of him. We went snow shoeing with Matt, Dad, Jason and Connie (Matt's Dad-in-law). Michael and Jason got ahead of us on the trail and almost got lost; we were all very relieved to find them walking out in the middle of a frozen mountain lake. They both received the lecture of their lives, believe me!!! Michael had 2 of his friends over for the night and had a good time with them as well.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas! Don't forget to look at the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

Your servant for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

A baby, a concert, a birthday and another driver

This past month has been a very busy one. First, we welcomed little Lily LeeAnn Esch to our church family. Lily was born just five hours after her grandfather, Bill, passed away. Ryan and Krista decided to induce Krista's labor so Lily could be born before Ryan's father passed away, but God saw fit to give Bill the chance to see Lily's birth from heaven instead. We will miss Bill but welcome little Lily to this world. She is a cutie!

The kids wrapped up their fall semester of school. Dennae and Ivy had their recital with their teacher, Malia. Dennae played an arrangement of "It Is Well" on the piano. Jami played in the orchestra concert, Ivy in the band concert, and Michael played his tuba in the 5th grace band concert. They did really well. I forgot to take the camera for Jami's concert and for the recital so I don't have any pictures. We are having Michael's tuba chem-cleaned over the Christmas break. It will cost $150! Who said raising kids ain't expensive!!!!? It's a very special tuba we recieved from Noel's grandpa who played it in his church orchestra. He is excelling at playing it (so are the girls on their instruments as well).

Noel turned 43 on December 8th. She's really enjoying real estate and is doing quite a good job. She was "salesman of the month" for the month of December. Dennae got her driver's license this past Thursday and hasn't quit driving since she got it. We were able to purchase a nice Mazda Protege for her to drive. It has some hail damage so we got it pretty cheap! Now, we have three cars! Who said raising kids ain't expensive!!!!?

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll update the blog with more pictures after the New Year. There will be pictures of Christmas, the New Year and Monk's 11th birthday celebration. Don't forget to check out the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

Hoping Christ is at the center of your Christmas!

Clay pigeons and Goof balls!

Since the last blog entry, we've begun the holiday season. We enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal out at my Mom and Dad's; it was bittersweet since it will probably be the last one we'll have at the house in which I and my siblings grew up. They have their house on the market and are hoping to downsize within the next year. So, it was a good memory making moment for us. We had the traditional turkey dinner (my favorite part is the crispy skin - help explains my thick girth!) and thoroughly enjoyed everybody's company in the DeVries family. The cousins really love getting together; never a dull moment with our crew. Anyway, I brought my camera, but the battery was dead. Sheesh!

The Monday night before Thanksgiving, Noel and I were given box seats to a Denver Broncos Monday Night Football game versus the Tennessee Titans. The Broncos won; it was Noel's first Bronco game ever. It was great! But, I forgot to bring my camera to capture the moment! Idiot!

I did remember to bring my camera to the 2nd annual Northern Ridge Baptist Church skeet shoot, so there's some pictures of guys taking their best shots at flying clay pigeons. That was a lot of fun even though it was in the mid 20s for a temperature.

The other pictures at the bottom of the page are some goofy candids of Ivy and Dennae trying to be creative and funny! I'll let you be the judge of that!

Hope you all are having a Happy Holiday season and trust you will have a very Merry Christmas! I'm sure I'll update this blog once more before Christmas.

For Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Friday night: pizza and a movie

At the DeVries household, we have family night each Friday night. Actually, we go out to eat every Tuesday night, have pizza and a movie each Friday night, have a barbecue each Saturday night, have sweet rolls and frappucinos each Sunday morning, and go out for ice cream each Sunday night after church. This blog's pictures are primarily from this past week's Friday night pizza/movie night. We got Shrek the 3rd and Amazing Grace. We are beginning the movie as I type. Hopefully they'll be worth watching.

This past week, Michael and I went with Michael's tuba teacher to a Boston Brass concert. Michael's teacher was roommates in college with Andrew Hitz, the tuba player for the Boston Brass. We had a chance to meet him and speak with him. He is an excellent tuba player and the Boston Brass put on an excellent concert. Michael was truly inspired as could be seen by his intensified practice sessions the days following. (The picture was taken on my cell phone since I forgot my camera; sorry it's not too clear.)

(So far, Shrek the 3rd is pretty good!)

I also had the chance to go down to Fort Logan National Cemetery on Veteran's Day in South Denver and visit the graves of my Grandma and Grandpa Norden; these were my Mom's parents who passed away in the late 1990s. My Grandfather was a WWII veteran; I have his WWII army jacket framed on my study wall. Anyway, both Noel and I have great and fond memories of our grandparents; it was a privilege to down and pay mine some respect in retrospect.

Hope you are doing well and that you are growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ! Don't forget to look at the pictures at the bottom of the blog!

MJD,Sr.

A trip to Clearwater, Florida

This past week, Noel and I had the chance to fly down to Clearwater, Florida and check out Clearwater Christian College. Dr. Dave Burggraff, the VP for Spiritual Formation at the college, worked it out for us to come with a few other pastors to check out the college and see what God is doing there. It was a fun trip. We got to see the beach, the school, some old friends and teachers, and just be together. The kids stayed home with Shane and Sjanie Medhurst. They are neighbors, fellow church members and Shane is Noel's business partner in real estate. All in all, it was a great trip. Don't forget to look at the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

One prayer request: Mike's cousin, Julie DeVries, had emergency open heart surgery this Thursday night. She is goind OK considering, but she has a long way to go in recovery. She professes to know the Lord and would appreciate your prayers.

Hope you had a good week too for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Family birthdays and family picture

We got together as a DeVries family on Friday night, the 26th, and celebrated these respective birthdays from the month of October: Mark, Eric, Dad and Simone. My Mom made chicken enchiladas (both flour and corn tortillas - corn being my favorite), Simone made the dessert, Noel brought toppings, chips, etc. and Steph made the bean dip. It was great. You can see their pictures at the bottom of the blog.

We also had our first family portrait done in years. It turned out all right; we are definitely getting older, that's for sure!

Hope you are doing well for Christ's sake.

Go Rockies!

MJD,Sr.

1st Annual World Missions Conference

We are enjoying our 1st annual World Missions Conference here at Northern Ridge Baptist Church. It has been a blessing to have Pastor Kafunga Namuhindura here from the city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is a choice servant of God laboring in a very difficult and distressed area. Please pray for him. It's also been great to have Steve and Jane Gibb, missionaries heading to islands of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Steve has been a long time friend of mine since college days, and we've been able to keep in touch since then. Steve and Jane have been serving in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia for the past decade or so and have recently left that ministry to go as missionaries to Vanuatu. It has been great to have them and their family here; they will be here up through the 1st of November and leave for the field of Vanuatu at the end of December. Please pray for them.

We've had the chance to do a number of things together like go to the mountains, hike, see the wildlife and watch the Red Sox and Rockies games. Steve is from Massachusetts originally and is a rabid Boston fan. We may have to quit being friends for a week if the Rockies play the Red Sox in the World Series. Dad, Matt and I go to go to one of the Rockies games during their march to the World Series. It was great fun!

Dennae and Jami are done with softball season. Ivy scored the winning goal in their game this morning, and Michael has a playoff football game this afternoon. The kids are all continuing to work on their instruments and are slowly but surely progressing. Things are going well and trust it is the same for you.

Don't forget to take a look at the pictures at the bottom of the page.

For Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.