Our church is building a new building, and they have a big pile of dirt behind the church. This was covered in snow, and very steep, so naturally as a guy, I wanted to clime it and sled down. I had to be careful not to hit the huge rocks that were mixed in the dirt. But it turned out to be quite fun. I had a great time with my friends.

After we were done, we went to my youth pastor’s house. His wife had hot chocolate waiting for us. There we warmed up again and then got ready to go home.

My mom, dad, and sister went up Sunday night to be with the new parents. I stayed behind at home, I had a lot of things to do that week. While they were gone, we had an ice storm.

On Monday I went to teach piano lessons, then take my woodworking lessons also. While I was out at lessons, it started to rain. It rained and froze creating a thin clear layer of ice all over the roads. You couldn’t tell if you were driving on wet roads or frozen roads until you made a turn or applied the brakes. And if the roads were frozen, you prayed while you turned..lol. Anyway, I started home and passed 5 car accidents that were caused by the ice. I had a hard time getting into my own driveway. So needless to say, I stayed home for the rest of the day. I ended up watching Jurrassic Park.

That night Elijah was born, so I was kept up to date with how things were going. It was nice.

After a while of that we all went back inside and played some games like cops and robbers (a flashlight tag game where 1 or 2 use the flashlight to find everyone else.) We played this game downstairs in all the classrooms.

At Midnight we went to taco bell to get some food. After ordering our food, we then went back to the church and watched a movie while we ate. The movie we watched was Time Changer. After the movie the girls left to go the my youth pastor’s house, up the hill. And the guys stayed and played several rounds of pingpong.

We played cops and robbers for the rest of the early morning, until it was time to clean up. The girls came back over and made breakfast, then everyone got ready to go home. It was a fun night.

This year, Christmas was a blast. My mom and dad, Abigail, and I celebrated Christmas the evening before. It was nice. I got Abigail a MP3 player, and she got me a gaming chair and Oceans Thirteen Movie. Both Abigail and I got a digital camera for also. We were so excited.

My whole direct family was at my house for Christmas Morning. We played a Christmas exchange game, and then exchanged our regular gifts to each other. It was nice.

I got to spend the whole day with family, including my niece and nephew. Here is a picture of me helping my nephew unwrap a gift.

I had a great time and would recommend the instructor to anyone taking a physics cource at Ozark Tech in Springfield.

The list of songs contained Joy to the world, The First Noel, Silent Night, and more. We always ended with We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

I personally had a great time and enjoyed seeing all the smiles, laughter, and at one house zebra print pajamas… LOL.

So in other words the picture of the person doing a flying side kick is of me. I love the new jacket.

Sam's Tae Kwon Do Jacket

My mom worked in the kitchen all morning, with Abigail and my sister-in-law helping get food ready. We all worked together to set the table when it came time for dinner to begin. We all sat down and thanked the Lord for what we had. We even played a small thanksgiving game where the first person tells one item that he is thankful for, then the next person says the same item then adds one, and it goes around the table back to the first person, who then has to name them all in order. The order I believe is: Wife (my brother’s), Friends (Abigail), Dr. Pepper (mine), Vicki (Dad’s), Home (Mom’s), Work (Uncle Dallas), Family (Grandma’s), and Salvation (sister-in-law’s).

We played a card game called golf for awhile, then my brother and his wife had to leave. We didn’t do much for the rest of the afternoon. But the crazyness came the next morning. Yep, we went out for Black Friday specials. I couldn’t believe the lines. There is a local music store that had a special on their t-shirts, if you bring some non-perishable foods in, you’d get a free t-shirt and a guitar cable. I didn’t want to take any food from my mom’s supply, so I thought I’d get some at one of the stores. One of the stops we had was walmart. I couldn’t believe the lines to check out. Here I was standing in line with 100 people in front of me, buying 2 cans of corn and beans, while others buy specials that were on sale. Anyway I got my shirt and cable, and so did Abigail. We stopped at several stores along the way including best buy, our local mall, and more.

The next day, Saturday, we celebrated my Dad’s 49th birthday. Matt and Lydia came over with their kids, and we had a great time. We played a playstation 2 game, and at one point, even got the laptops out to show eachother different stuff. But it wasn’t too long before my mom told us to put them away because were supposed to have “family time” to talk with eachother.

The whole time we had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend.

~Sam Paasch