Christmas time is here.

I went home for Thanksgiving and suprised my family! It was lots of fun seeing friends and spending good, quality time with family again. Even the weather in Michigan cooperated for the most part and I only caught a glimpse of snow on Thursday morning.

We've been doing a little Christmas decorating in our Staff House. The big Christmas tree is in our living room and all the purple lights are in my room with my little purple tree:) It's a little weird trying to get in the Christmas spirit when it's still in the 70's and you have Palm Trees surrounding you, but I'm not complaining.

This weekend was quite eventful. We had a LIFE (Living In Freedom Every day) Retreat at church on Friday and Saturday. There were 7 sessions that included teaching, praying, and response time. Session topics included things like Purity, Pride, Rejection, Guilt, etc. There were 6 preceeding sessions and sermons that we had been going through as a small group on Wednesday nights, so this was the end to the series. It was a good time to connect with the Lord and work through issues and also get to know the other small group members a little more. After the retreat on Saturday, Derek (another staff member) and I headed downtown Charleston and walked around for a while. The sun came out after raining all day. We went to the Marion Square to see Santa and watch the lighting of the big Christmas tree and the park. Later on, we met up with a few other staff members for dinner.

During the retreat I received a phone call from another staff member that he had found 7 baby squirrels in the filter of his car and that he was going to bring them back to the staff house. So now we have little baby squirrels we are trying to feed and nurse back to health...just another day in the life of a Naturalist.

Thank you for all your continued prayers and support, they are much appreciated.