Family Christmas Letter 2010

Dear friends,

For those of you who did not know, the reason you did not receive a Christmas letter last year is because our daughter, Rachel Lynne, was born on December 14. So while we did celebrate Christmas, a family picture and letter simply didn’t happen. Thus, this year has been twice as busy as last year – at least on the home front – yet we are able to find time to send you our greetings and news of 2010.

The first few months of 2010 were spent getting adjusted to the new ratio in the home – two children and two adults. Caleb enjoys his little sister… almost as much as his cars and his bike. Steve continues his work at Prairie Christian Academy and Sarah manages to chase after Caleb while holding Rachel.

The first real highlight of the year was April 11 as Sarah’s sister, Lois, was married to Gregory Lewis, a medical student from Wellsville, New York. Sarah was a (beautiful!) bridesmaid and Caleb, along with Greg’s nephew, served as ringbearers and pulled Rachel to the front in a wagon – or at least that was the plan! Since their wedding, Greg & Lois have been in Albany, the Philippines, Cambodia, Tulsa and again in Albany as Greg completes different internship rotations.

Later that week on April 17, Sarah’s brother, Jon married Kim Plett. Steve was privileged to give the charge to the couple at the wedding ceremony. “Uncle JB” & Auntie Kim live in Three Hills and are much enjoyed by Caleb and Rachel.

Over the summer months, we stayed fairly close to home, not feeling adventurous (or energetic) enough to go too far with two little ones. We took a few days to visit friends in Sexsmith, stopping at Uncle Nathan and Auntie Ruth’s in Edmonton each way to “break up the trip.” We went camping with Mom & Dad Ibbotson and Amanda for a couple days. We also took a very fun trip to Heritage Park with Mom & Dad Hunt. As you can see, we are very blessed to have both sets of parents in town and Caleb and Rachel thoroughly enjoy the blessing they receive.

Sarah and Rachel also flew out to Vernon for a couple days so that Rachel could meet Great-Grampa Friebel and visit Great-Gramma (Nana).

The school year started in late August, and along with his other responsibilities as Christian Education Co-ordinator at Prairie Christian Academy, Steve is also enjoying the challenge of teaching the grade 12 Bible class. One surprise “assignment” which Steve more than gladly accepted was to coach the PCA Sabres Football team (9-man league). It was the team’s first year and they managed to win one game in front of their home crowd! It was fun and a great chance to build into the lives of a group of young men as the school year started.
Sarah enjoys the weekly Mom’s Time Out group, attending the Tuesday morning group this year that Mom Ibbotson facilitates and for which Mom Hunt leads the childcare. So Tuesday mornings are an obvious highlight for Caleb & Rachel! We host a small group of 3-4 other couples with young children on Sunday nights and have also had other families in our home.

Sarah’s Grampa Friebel (95) went to be with the Lord on Friday, November 26. Sarah was glad to be able to fly out with Rachel (and Jon & Kim) for the memorial service, and even more thankful that she and Rachel had been able to go out in the summer. We are grateful for the examples we have on both sides of our family of serving Christ and loving, committed-for-life marriage.

May you have a rich Christmas season!
In Christ,
Steven & Sarah Ibbotson