Blizzard!

Well if you live in Minnesota you have experienced the lovely snow blizzard that we experienced over Christmas. If you do not live in Minnesota, but rather in a nice and warm place you did not get to see this lovely snowfall that the Lord blessed us with! It is official, I have a snowbank taller than me at the end of Mike and my driveway. On Christmas Day we were able to drive down from Hutchinson to Maplewood. It really only took us 30 minutes longer. Maybe because Mike was driving and so we weren't too hindered by the weather (except for the silly other drivers). We spent the weekend with Mike's family down there and it was a great time! I pray that each of you also had a wonderful Christmas season filled with joy, family, and friends!

Love!

Amy and Mike

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas all!

Wow can you believe how fast time flies, it seems like only yesterday that Mike and I were running around with chickens with our heads cut off trying to get all the final arrangements on the wedding. Or that we were getting ready to move to Hutchinson in the first place. Which was about 9 months ago. That's right, I got hired at my current job on St. Patrick's day, so a little over 9 months. It was about 9 months ago today that Mike got hired at Menards and now we are about to celebrate Christmas for the first

time as a married couple/family! I am in awe of how fast time flies and how we cannot take those little things that get in our way for granted.

As I look to this week of celebration with family and friends, and hear what the meteorologists are saying about how terrible the storm is that is coming I am reminded of the little things once more. This morning while helping with Release Time (a program we have in Hutchinson that allows Elementary kids to leave school for 1 hour per week for religious study) I noticed how the kids reacted to our service project. We went Christmas Caroling and the kids just seemed so excited not about toys or anything

(which I am sure they are a little too) but to sing to the elderly members of our church. They were excited to see where they lived and fought over who got to give the elderly members the gift we had made for them. It was amazing to see these kids started to not only know, but express the true meaning of Christmas. While driving the kids back to school one of the girls stated that she was going to tell her parents and older sisters that they were going to go Caroling on Christmas Eve. I just was in awe, that during this time of joy that the media has changed and corrupted into something of materials there is still hope for our generation as well as the next generation that we and they will see the true meaning of Christmas and be able to bask in the glory that is the birth of Jesus our Saviour.

Spending time with family and friends to share with them love and be present where we are. So as I prepare for Mike, Thiessen, and my drive into the cities in these "Blizzard-Conditions" I am open to the pace we will have to take. We don't need to be there in 1.14 hours, we can take our time, be content, and enjoy even that drive to Mike's Folk's house.

As you prepare for this amazing season the DuFrene family (newest DuFrene Family) wishes you the very best. May you be filled with a joy that cannot be measured and that you may have safe travels and can truly see/feel the real meaning of Christmas.

Following HIM,

Amy

p.s. the picture below is from our wedding. We went bowling!

1 month down...lifetime to go

Well we made it, we have completed month 1! It has been a great journey. We celebrated together and our families the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a lot to be thankful for. We had a fantastic wedding, we had safe travels to and from our honeymoon, we have a wonderful home together, we both have jobs (Mike at Menards, Amy at Oak Heights), we have a little puppy who is getting better and better behaved.....(jury is still out on that one), and most importantly we have a God that watches over our daily activities, dreams, joys and sorrows.

Now that we have month number 1 down, we have started to learn how to show each other love. And how to really embrace who each other is. As we are preparing for this lovely season we are super excited to head to the cities for the Christmas weekend. We will spend the Eve, early Christmas morning with Amy's family; her tradition is Anderson (mom's side) is Christmas Eve, then Christmas day only with immediate family. Mike's family is being very welcoming to us whenever we can get there. So we'll head out to Maplewood late morning on Christmas Day and spend our time there until the 27th! I know we are both very, very excited to see friends, enjoying the weather in this cold season.

We pray for you as you embrace what this holiday really means!

Blessings,

Mike and Amy

Thanksgiving weekend

Wow November flew by for us, as you can imagine with all we had going on. But we ended it with a bang! On November 26 I hosted most of my mom's side for Thanksgiving dinner. That's right, Mike and I had family over for the holiday for the first holiday we spent together as a married couple. It was fantastic and now we can sit back and enjoy other holidays for a while until it is our turn again. But the weekend of family didn't end on Thanksgiving. Rather, our brother-in-law, Andy, sat out at Best Buy for us to help us get a nice new television. Mike had to work on black friday, making it difficult if not impossible to sit out the night before. And I have been fighting a cold since October, so trying to avoid getting get worse. But we got the tv thanks to Andy's awesome effort, and I went shopping on Black Friday to complete our Christmas shopping list! We are mostly, if not all done for this year! I am so proud of my first married Christmas season and being done, so I can actually enjoy it.

But again, Black Friday is not where our weekend ends with family. On Saturday, as is my family's tradition, we all get together and bake Christmas cookies. Well starting last year we decided to make it a bit more fun, add Ugly Christmas Sweaters. And so for the second year in a row Mike and I have donned Ugly Christmas Sweaters while I bake cookies with the girls and he watches sports or plays video games with the boys. After the cookies are completed we head down to the lovely Hutch Bowl and bowl a couple of games in our awesome sweaters! Then head back to Mama Gelsch and Papa Jon's place for some dinner and cards. The weekend ends on a time of games and cards and laughter on Saturday afternoon, because everyone needs the Sunday to recover from our weekend of chaos, but loving family!

Please continue to pray for us as we continue on this new journey together. We are learning a lot about each other. We too, are praying for you as you enter this season of joy and thanksgiving.

Peace and Blessing,

Amy and Mike