Advent Celebrations

Skyler has been coming to our house on Mondays most weeks. In December, he helped cut a tree down in our yard to bring inside for a 'real' Christmas tree instead of the artificial one we've had the past few years. We were just waiting for this tree that Larry planted many years ago, to get to a good size. Well, here it is and it is beautiful. There is plenty of room for decorations and the tiny lights make it very festive.

On the first weekend of December we participated in the Birthday Party for Jesus which was for 3-4-5 year olds at church. Larry was a wise man and Marlys was an angel who greeted the children and their parents and helped the children do a craft. Everyone was looking for baby Jesus. After the three craft rotations, everyone went into the big room where the manger was set up. Mary, Joseph and their real baby (girl) told the story of Jesus' birth. What a meaningful time for these preschoolers. Then the lights came on and we had a birthday lunch complete with a cake lit with tons of candles. Everyone sang 'Happy Birthday to Jesus' before finishing off with cake and ice cream. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of this event.

The next weekend was the Sunday School/AWANA Christmas Program. The children presented the morning worship service. Before the older kids performed, the preschool children sang and said their pieces. It was a touch of nostalgia as the program was scaled back to be more like the 'old days' with less glitz. The message of the show was great - it's about Jesus, not about ME! Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing.
A snowstorm on Saturday canceled dress rehearsal so the first service was more like a dress rehearsal for the second time through it. The kids knew their parts and the songs went well so it was just a little touchy for the support people to get everyone lighted correctly and on the stage at the right time. I was happy that the teachers were just there for 'crowd control' because I fell that Sat. night in the kitchen (tripped on a rug) and sprained my left hand. I missed the first show because there were no snow plows on our road so it was impassable because of wind and drifts. Also, I was in pain and icing my hand by Sunday morning.

The sprained hand affected the next weekend - the choral concert. I was supposed to play bells in the lobby before the concert and play two or three songs in the ensemble during the concert. Our director had to find a sub for me. I wound up doing the slides for the concert instead of bells. Larry video taped the program. That was the weekend for the Living Nativity. Larry was a wise man for this too. The weather was cold, but clear and not too windy. The actors were in shifts so that they could warm up after 25 to 30 minutes.

Now it is the night before the night before Christmas. The packages are beneath the tree and Marlys is cooking. Larry is doing projects in the basement. We have one big project left to make.
We are ready to Christmas!!!!
Hope your heart is filled with the presence of the Savior.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2010

I can't believe that I have neglected our blog since September. Sorry.
The Christmas season has been very good. We received a big winter storm in November for Thanksgiving and have had several more good snowstorms since then. It really looks like what we fondly remember as a 'Minnesota winter.'

Mayo Camp 2010

The Mayo Camp had great weather. The location was on Round Lake just outside Nissawa. Many cousins gathered for food and conversation and water activities. Thanks to the Sundquist hosts.

DC trip conclusion

We headed back to Minnesota on Saturday, July 31 at a very leisurely pace. We tracked down two or three bookstores in Massachusets really enjoying the small towns and back roads. There was too much to see to read, even though we had started a book about the Mayflower. We camped in the corner of NY, NH, and MA at Privacy Campground which specialized in tents and tent trailers. They also had some tiny huts. The owner discouraged big rigs by having a height limit bar at the beginning of the driveway. He was quite a character. His wife died many years ago and he is still carrying on with their dream.

We stopped in Albany and enjoyed the Empire State Mall which fronts their capitol. We crossed the state to Cayuga Lake State Park on the finger lakes and stayed two nights. That allowed us to use the local history centers and also meet up with Diane, the author of a book on Belle Sheffer - part of our family!
The next day got us back across Ontario to Windsor and out to Pickney Recreation center at Crooked Lake campground. We were thrilled to capture on film four herons in the campground as we left.
Our last night out we stayed at the Red Roof Inn in Rockord, IL. We had one more history quest in Belvedir, IL which is in Boone County. They had a Joseph Case family with names similar to ours but I think someone got things mixed up. I need to read everything again, but it doesn't fit correctly in my scheme of things. There is much to integrate with what I already know.
We arrived home safely on Aug 5th. We are so thankful to God for our safety, for the friends we met and for the beauty of the country in which we live.

DC Trip Part 2

Sunday, Larry picked Marlys up at the hotel around noon. It was still HOT! We drove to Mr. Vernon, George Washington's home. The visitor center and movie were great, but then it was time for our tour at 3:10. We hustled to the tour area in the sunshine and warm day. The 3:00 hadn't left yet! Well, we finally got near the building by 4 or so. Then Larry had to go find a toilet! I stayed in line and entered Mt. Vernon. It was really interesting. We were 3/4 finished when we got word that a storm was coming, electricity was out and maybe we would need to evacuate!!!

For that short while when I was in the building, storm clouds had blown in from the west and the wind was really whipping up dust. We got to the entrance before the heavy rain came. It lasted about 1/2 hour and by the time we headed to our car, it was over and steam was rising from the pavement. We were heading toward Richmond for the night in a motel. The next day we'd visit Williamsburg. But, I was able to get a picture of the Capitol building before dark and we found a laundromat to get our clothes clean.


We had a day of history at Williamsburg and Yorktown before we headed north to Pennsylvania. We took time to do research in Lancaster PA but found no breakthrough's in the Rail, Riggle or Wilson families.
Then we went on toward Philadelphia to visit Phil and Elizabeth. We caught up with each family and seemsed to take up where we had left off last time we talked. Sharon and family joined us for dinner. We even were treated to deer in their back yard!
We stopped in Trenton, NJ for the Capitol picture and then drove throught the western part of the state. We touched a corner of NY and then drove to Hartford,CT (for the capitol, of course). We stayed in a State Forest in the east and then got to Rhode Island the next day. Distances are much shorter in the NorthEast. We did research in Providence and then stopped in Plymouth, MA to buy a book. We also took a picture of the capitol in Boston before heading to Tom & Diane's house on the coast. We enjoyed our two days with them. We walked the beach and even played 'Mayo' bocci with rocks.

Trip to DC Part 1

Our summer trip this year was to go to Washington DC. Marlys attended the Triennial XIII for women of the Covenant church July 22-25. Of course, that was the perfect reason to head east camping. We left July 15th heading to Wisconsin. Our first stop was in Appleton to see Marlys' cousins, Jud and Marge. We surprised them and had a nice visit. They even returned one of Larry's games which we promptly gave away again as we traveled. It was fun to share our travels to Norway and Ukraine with Marge and Jud.
We have always talked about taking the ferry to Michigan, so this year we did it! We enjoyed the historical sights of Two Rivers before driving to Manitowac to board the ferry. It was fun to visit with other travelers - sharing stories and getting advice.
We camped in Luddington, Mich. and then headed toward Detroit.
We were very disappointed to miss seeing Ryan & Laura and Elaine and Bud, but we appreciated the offer of a place to stay near Detroit. Since we were doing Wilson family history, we met Phil - a fellow researcher and distant relation - at a cemetry outside Detroit. We spent some time in history centers and county offices. We had to keep moving, so we took the short way east through Canada. It got late that day so we opted to stay at a campground near Niagra Falls in Ontario. Larry even took advantage of their pool!
Then it was on toward Rochester to look up more genealogy and visit cousin Tom's son, Tom Jr, Shelley and their 4 children. We had such a great time getting to know them. The last time we were there, they had no children! After two lively kids, they just had twins! It is a jumping place and we loved being there.


We continued east through the Finger Lake region for more genealogy and then headed south to Pennsylvania. We had been reading Chesapeake by James . They mentioned going to the head of the Sussquahanna River and we were camping on its banks! How neat!
By this time it was nearing time for the conference to start in Washington DC so we continued in that direction. Larry dropped me off at the hotel and continued on to TaKe It Easy Campground in Maryland. All would have been great except for the 105 temperatures over those days when he was camping and Marlys was basking in the luxury of hotel air conditioning. Continued n next blog...
The Sussquahanna River

Camping experiences

Tent camping is really nice. You are really out there listening to the breeze in the trees and the singing of the birds in the morning. You can’t expect that it will be perfect all the time. The air mattress that we were sleeping on went flat. The first night we slept in the van. I thought I had it fixed for the second night but it again went flat. That night we stayed in the tent. It wasn’t too bad. We had worse. One time in Orlando there were five of us in the small station wagon all night. In North Carolina we were locked out of our campgrounds because we came in late. That night it was hot with lots of mosquitoes. We are now shopping for a new air mattress. Most nights it is great being in the tent.

AWANA CAMP

These students are some of the book finishers from AWANA. Only those who finish a book during the year are eligible to come to this camp. The Lord answered prayer during the camp as storms went around us but we were able to be outside all but a short time on Friday night. Swimming, biking, boating and eating are wonderful activities for kids. They learned about being fishers of MEN and like the Hershey industry, they could spread the good news about Jesus by word of mouth. It was an exciting and fun filled camp.

Graduations galore

We are proud grandparents of John Patrick Kilmartin Wilson, who graduated at the beginning of June and will be attending the U of Minnesota in Minneapolis this fall. His parents had a great grad party for him. We also tagged on Larry's 70th birthday celebration and many of his cousins showed up to 'sing' to Larry in the middle of the grad party.

Then the proud grandparents attended Genevieve Wilson's dance recital. Again, those little ones are so cute!
We will be camping with our two dancers - Gen and Rajah and their cousin, Luke, next week.



Also graduating, was our son, Peter, from Minnesota Business College, Globe College, with his MBA (Masters of Business Administration)!!! He is the first MASTER is our family!!! We joined his proud family at the celebration in St. Cloud.

Grandchildren are a gift from God

It is the girls turn to shine this time. Rajah had her dance recital. Gen will have one soon. Vivienne is just happy to be sitting up and rolling around. She is just plain happy!

Moppets

We have had some fun times with Moppets this year at church on Tuesday mornings. I have a group picture that shows the character of these mostly three year olds. Trying to get them all to look at the camera at once was a challenge. We had a fun year. They grew so much!

Debora visited us for 10 days

Our friend from Taiwan flew to Minnesota at the end of April to experience Minnesota. What fun to take her up north and to the Mall of America. She joined us for our regular life. Marlys took her shopping. Larry got her to doing his things - chopping down a tree, mowing the lawn, tilling the garden and making a picture frame for the sillhouette of herself.

Our family gathered last weekend to meet her. It was a beautiful day and we could be outside and even have marshmallows over the fire.
We encouraged Debora to do some cooking - egg omelettes, banana bread.

Larry made sure she saw some 'farm' life. Our friends have sheep, so we watched them being fed one evening. Then he took her to the Critter Man's house to see many kinds of animals and she even got to ride a horse!

She is heading to Seattle tonight. We will miss her.

Grandchildren visit

We have had the pleasure of grandchildren's visits this past week.
We had Skyler, Spencer, and Rajah (Paul's kids) here last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then this week Gen and Viv (Pete's girls) have been here. Today, Anna brought JP, Mark, Matt and Luke here for a short visit. They enjoyed playing with the baby and running with Gen. So we have seen them all this week.:)

We have enjoyed the nice weather. It has allowed the kids to be outside. Gen just got the playhouse open today. She has moved many toys into it already.

Remodel update

Larry has been busy since we got back from Texas. The cupboards he built last year now have doors completed. Then he started working on the vans. He is trying to cover the rust on the doors with metal panels. He is learning on the first van with hopes that the we use all the time will look great when he is finished.

Easter 2010

The entire Wilson clan was together at Pat's house. What a beautiful day! We could eat outside if we wanted. The older children hid eggs for the littler ones. We enjoyed the family time - no computers for one day! Luke's real birthday was one day before Easter, so he was very happy to celebrate on Easter. We also sang for Pat, Pete & Paul.

The Casas Mission Team