A Christmas to remember...

We celebrated the first Penton family Christmas on Dec 20th, then travelled to Cincy for 4 days, then Van Wert for 4 days.

In Cincy Joel had a great time with his cousins, here is a video of the Groskopf family Christmas: http://blip.tv/file/3019808

Also in Cincy we attended Crossroads Church and the program 'Awaited' which was amazingly well done. The show included "snow" from some type of bubble machine above us, a full choir and band, sweet audio and visual effects, and best of all - a huge focus on the coming of the Messiah and the reason for our celebration - Jesus! My husband even became quite emotional during the hymn 'O Come O Come Emmanuel,' it was awesome. Speaking of awaiting and my husband... Joel has been planning an awesome and much needed get-a-way for the two of us that is coming up soon and I'm really looking forward to it. A supporter and friend of ours approached us recently and urged us to take a vacation, not only that but he wanted to fund it! This is a huge blessing and extremely thoughtful of him... he is right on, we need to invest time in our marriage and spend time with the Lord. This get-a-way will provide the time and atmosphere to do both of those very important things.


In Van Wert Joel had an awesome time hanging out with more of his cousins including Lizzie who is almost exactly his age. Joel and I also had fun playing games with the fam. Here is a video of the Penton family Christmas: http://blip.tv/file/3019721

and here is a video of Joel Playing with cousin Ethan Crummey: http://blip.tv/file/3020325

So... Joel's first Christmas turned out to be momentous in many ways! He took his first steps the morning of Dec 24th (mommy was asleep!) and has taken many since then, he was officially weaned from nursing on Christmas day, just in time because.. his mommy will be leaving him overnight for the first time ever on Dec 28th (for our get-a-way), and... his Uncle Mike finally proposed to Lindsey, Mike's girlfriend of 5 years!



Here is a video of part of the proposal and a pic of the happy couple, congrats!
http://blip.tv/file/3015427