Celebrate.

Dear family & friends,

We have returned to St. Louis after a wonderful visit in Wheaton and Indiana. We got in late on the 21st and celebrated with a few gifts, Krista's 21st birthday (on Dec. 20th). On the 22nd, we enjoyed seeing and visiting with friends. We started our morning off by seeing Kelsey and Tim - it's been too long. The visit was too short, but worth every minute to catch up and give Kelsey lots of hugs. We also enjoyed visiting with the Klobucher girls, the Gerry clan, James Grout and Allie Showalter. It was nice to have a day to see people we don't usually get to see on our short trips home.

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve morning. We headed over to the Haist's and enjoyed a delicious breakfast  of Eggs Benedict. We had fun visiting, opening gifts and squeezed in one more delicious meal of Rubens for lunch. It was fun to relax and enjoy eachother for the morning. Christmas Eve evening we headed to Blanchard Alliance Church for a beautiful candle lit service with the Dean's and then headed over to Aunt Chrissy & Uncle Len's house for appetizers/dinner and the gift exchange. The house was decorated beautifully, and the food was delicious. We enjoyed visiting with family.

Christmas morning we woke up and excitedly came downstairs to see what Santa brought. He was good to everyone (maybe too good!). We enjoyed opening gifts, and a beautiful breakfast of Egg Casseroles, Laffsa and Mr. Clausen's Danish ring. Delicious! It was fun to have the morning to relax, visit and enjoy each other before heading off to Indiana with the Haist's. Leaving on Christmas Day will probably never get easier for me. However, it was a JOY to spend time with the Sundheimer clan on Christmas evening. We enjoyed visiting and hearing all about little Violet (soon to be born to Molly & Ross). It was fun to celebrate Molly that day too. The Sundheimers are a fun group to be around!

The celebrating didn't stop there! We headed to Warren to Grandma & Grandpa's condo on the 26th to celebrate yet another Christmas with the Haist's. It was wonderful. We had the gift exchange, and enjoyed yummy food and time with family. We were thankful we all got to be there, even Gretchen from London! We missed Peggy and John and their family, but are praying for Jake and a full recovery from a concussion earlier this year.

The night of the 26th we drove back to Wheaton. The next afternoon, Sam and I took a mini getaway downtown Chicago for the night. We decided this year instead of gifts for each other, we would plan a fun trip downtown. We got an awesome deal on Groupon for the Whitehall Hotel and ate at one of our all time favorite restaurants that evening, Rosebud. It was fun to walk around downtown and see the lights, and do a little window shopping. We slept in the next morning and then enjoyed breakfast and a walk to Intelligentsia (of course), where we enjoyed the perfect cappuccino. It was a great way to relax and "debrief" after having five Christmas celebrations in 3 days!

The trip was wonderful. We couldn't have asked for a richer time spent with family, visiting and soaking up the gift of Jesus' birth. We were also overwhelmed with the beautiful gifts we received. We have some great gift-givers on both sides of the family! Every gift was perfect. We are beyond thankful for the gift of family. God is good.

We hope all of you found yourselves enjoying the Christmas season and lavishing in the celebrations of our Savior's birth. C.S. Lewis says it beautifully-

"In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down...down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature he has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world us with Him."

Lots of Love.
Katelyn, Sam & Ethel

1.) Besties reunited. Breakfast w/ Kels & Tim at Egglectic.

2.) Delicious breakfast of Eggs Benedict at w/ the Haist's.

Ethel loved her new Christmas sweater from the Haist's!

3.) Christmas morning, waiting patiently to see what Santa brought!

4.) Yummy Christmas morning breakfast @ the Dean's.

5.) The Whitehall Hotel- A fun getaway with my cute husband.

Ps. - Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards, definitely a highlight of the season for me and I loved opening all of them! Its fun to hear how everyone is doing and see pictures too.

Christmas letter.

Dear family & friends,

Per request of my sweet husband, we are writing a Christmas letter. Sam has always enjoyed the letters people send with their Christmas cards, as I have always enjoyed picture cards. Therefore, we sent out our picture cards and have decided to write our letter via our blog. Great compromise.

Sam is continuing to chug away at seminary. 1 1/2 years down, 2 1/2 to go. He is still enjoying everything he is learning, with the occasional distaste for Hebrew. He is taking a three week Hebrew crash course for J-term, which he seems to be dreading.  He is also still working part time at Shaw's Coffee Ltd. - still loving it. If you talk to his bosses, they will brag and rant about what a wonderful employee Sam is, and a very talented Barista. He has been busy training new employees, as well as making delicious drinks. The "regulars" at Shaw's think Sam is simply the best as well (I would have to agree). On top of school and work, Sam has also stepped up his responsibilities at church, playing drums almost every Sunday and helping with our youth group on Monday nights. Although I don't enjoy the 7:00am departure time on Sunday mornings, he is very gifted musically and adds a lot to our worship at South City. In the few hours of free time he has, he enjoys listening to vinyl records, combing and care-taking of his new beard, and, of course- reading.

As for me, I've been keeping busy. In the past year, I was hired and left a job that was the most challenging  and character- enriching job I've ever had (and that says a lot, seeing that I cleaned toilets for three summers). I was working as a two-year-old teacher for Bright Horizons. Enough said. I stayed at that job for 8 months, before being hired on by Hancock Elementary again to cover maternity leaves in November. Hancock is employing me from November 2011 to May 2012 as a Permanent Substitute. I'm LOVING my first grade class right now and looking forward to covering my next maternity leave in February in 3rd grade. Other then working, I'm babysitting on Saturdays and enjoying being a Nursery Coordinator and teaching Children's Worship once a month at church. In my free time, I'm cleaning, doing laundry and snuggling with my dog.

Speaking of dog, could we have a cuter pup? We love Ethel. She brings us so much joy. Her excitement when we get home, her funny quirks, and the strange things she is terrified of. She has such a funny personality. We rescued her last March from a shelter downtown St. Louis and she has made almost a complete transformation from the scared dog we brought home that day to the dog that won't leave our side. LOVE her.

Sam and I are loving being married. There is nothing sweeter then waking up next to your best friend every morning. I so appreciate the little things my husband does and will probably always see a million more things he could do :) but even the little arguments are well worth it. We are loving St. Louis little by little as we learn more about the city and explore new parts. We especially love our church and feel so blessed and challenged by our church family.

That's about it. We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus. Considering the fact that God actually came into our world as a real, live, baby, lived a perfect life on our behalf, took our sins on the cross, and rose again to give us new life and the hope of resurrection, it is an understatement to say the birth of Jesus is the most important event in all of history. It deserves a party!

Love,

The Haists

Merry Christmas, 2011! (Photo by Amber Duncan)

Tis' the season.

Christmas decorations have exploded at our apartment. Tis' the season. I love Christmas lights, the smell of Evergreen candles, crazy shopping crowds and the anticipation of Christmas. We are all decked out. Saturday, we put the final touches on the outdoor lights and finished the last of the wrapping. Heading to Wheaton on the 21st and looking forward to a week of visiting with family and celebrating the birth of our Savior. Yay! Here are a few pictures of our apartment!

Christmas wreath.

Christmas tree.

Evergreen candle.

Stockings.

Our sweet pup.