Saturday February the 28^th, was a fun day. It snowed early that morning, but regardless, we had a church activity going roller-skating. The church rented out the whole rink, and we only had to pay $4 per person, then $3 more for in-line skates. We got them on and got ready to skate.

My brother was in charge of the music. He was told to get some good peppy, Southern Gospel songs. So the background music was right up my alley. I loved singing along with the songs while skating.

At one point I decided to skate backwards a little. It had been a few years since I last skated, so as I started going backwards I started to get a bit proud. I could still skate backwards! But God has a funny sense of humor. I started to weave a little and, well, I lost my balance. Then I tried to regain my balance by picking up my feet and… you guessed it.. I fell down; right on my back. I fell right in front of my pastor, and whomever he was talking to.

Halfway through everyone stopped for a devotion that my youth pastor gave. All the kids sat down on the side during the devotion. Afterwards the main lights went off, and the spotlights and disco balls were lit. We all skated backward during one song, and then we also speed-skated during another song. At the end of the speed-skate my youth pastor lost his balance and fell down in front of everyone.

At one time my friend and youth pastor started a snake (or chain). More and more people attached themselves, making it hard to maneuver. Eventually the chain broke in the middle when someone lost their grip. That teenager fell and got trampled by two others. He wasn’t hurt bad, just a few bruises.

After the last song, everyone was tired and sweaty. It was a fun two hours of spending time with other church folk. We thanked the skating rink for having us, and left. I loved every bit of it.

Friday evening, the 27^th of February, my family decided not to go to a concert, but to stay home and relax a bit. My sister was gone at a church activity, so it was just the three, my mom, dad, and myself. We got a phone call from my grandma that said she was coming over. Soon she was at our door, and behind her my brother and sister-in-law and nephew.

It was a nice surprise to see them. Grandma got to hold the new baby for the first time. We got pictures. We then called my other brother (Matt) to bring his family over. So we ended up having a little family reunion. It was also the first time for Matt’s family to see baby Elijah. We got several family pictures of the grandparents (my parents) with their grandkids. It was a nice evening.

My mom worked in the kitchen all morning, with Abigail and Ana 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: Ana (Ben’s), Friends (Abigail), Dr. Pepper (mine), Vicki (Dad’s), Home (Mom’s), Work (Uncle Dallas), Family (Grandma’s), and Salvation (Ana’s).

We played a card game called golf for awhile, then Ben and Ana 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