Christmas at the Koutz House, Part 1

The Christmas season has officially begun at the Koutz house.

Mom, Dad and I arrived in Vestaburg late last night after visiting my Grandpa in Indy. Lois and Adam arrived about an hour after us from Missouri. Anna and Ryan are coming tomorrow from Illinois. Elizabeth, Anthony and the girls are coming Friday or Saturday. We will all join Matthew's family on Saturday to celebrate Christmas. This is the first year EVERYONE will be hear since...well...I don't know when. I'm excited and I know my parents really are as well.

Today we helped Mom finish cleaning the house and making room for everyone to sleep. We wrapped presents and decorated the little tree we have. Lois sang Christmas songs as I played the piano. We played a quick game and watched the first Christmas movie. Tomorrow Dad and I are hanging up my favorite set of lights in the living room. So tomorrow the house will be completely decorated. All the presents will be wrapped. We'll begin preparing food for the gang and Christmas will be in full swing.

Everyone else is thinking of putting decorations away and our fun is just beginning. When we were younger we never did much about Christmas until after we celebrated my birthday. When Anna, Lois and I were at college things waited until we were all home on break. Now that all the siblings are married we celebrate Christmas on the New Year's Day, but this year it is a little earlier. Our house will stay decorated until late January when Mom finally decides to take things down and the rest of the world if far bast the Christmas season.

We know we are an odd bunch and we like it that way.

Christmas Eve

Guess who didn't have to go to school today. ME!!!!!

I slept in and then finished making cookies for some friends. I cleaned a little bit and packed for my trip to Indy.

I spent the first Christmas Eve service hanging out with my special friend, Dominic. We watched Veggie Tales, danced, played the drums, played the computer, watched the fish and other exciting things. Then I attended the second service with Brooke and her family. It was incredible!!!! The creative arts department did and excellent job arranging the music and all the artist did a phenomenal job.

Then I jumped in my car and started my journey to Indy. The roads and traffic were great. I met my parents at the hotel and we will go over to my Grandpa's tomorrow morning. I'm ready to call it a night.

Have a great Christmas celebrating Jesus!

Anna's Graduation

Here are the picture's from Anna's graduation. Unfortunately, they are horrible. Sorry Anna.

Blahs and Ughs

This week has been full of the blahs and ughs.

Look out your window. BLAH!

I missed hanging out with my buddy Dominic this week because I was on the road. UGH!

I'm tired of dealing with drama at school. I'm not just talking about typical middle school drama; I'm also talking about serious, dangerous drama! I thought most of the latter was fading away until I was pulled aside today to deal with some things. BLAH!

The last few weeks have been so busy with concerts that I've done a horrible job of keeping in touch with friends. I beginning to think some of them aren't so happy about it. UGH!

I am completely exhausted! I feel like I've been going strong for months with no time to come up and breathe. However, I can't sleep at night partly because I keep thinking of other things I have to get done. BLAH!

If I have to call another parent and hear another disconnected message again...If I have another parent request a phone call but refuse to return them...UGH!


Corey asked this question on his blog several weeks ago, "Can I handle a season with no fruit?" I had to think about that one quite a bit. I wasn't satisfied with my answer but basically concluded I would find a way to handle it, despite the emotional and mental beatings I might take. After a frustrating day yesterday and today I asked the question again. Although I thought I could handle it, now that I've discovered I'm dealing with possible emotional, mental and physical beatings I'm not so sure.

Lord give me extra strength and courage to keep doing the right thing, despite the consequences. Teach me to keep loving, to love my way through anger. God erase me from the picture and make yourself evident, because I know you are the only hope in these lives.

Another year down...

Thanks to everyone who said happy birthday today. I was shocked at the number of messages I received. I got awesome card from Michael and Jeannette, which was the highlight of my day. Lois's and Elizabeth's kids called to sing to me, another highlight of the day.

We had our Lifeline Leader's Christmas party tonight. It was a great time. I'm so glad Angie was there to cheer me up from yet another drama filled day at school. However I survived another day, without any scars or bruises. This seems to have become more difficult to do. Nothing to exciting today but to celebrate my birthday, I'm going to bed EARLY!!!! Hooray!