Merry Christmas!

Wow! I can't believe (I say this often, don't I!) that next week - NEXT WEEK - is CHRISTMAS!!!! It sometimes feels like just yesterday we were in Easley at Christmas waiting to find a place to live here in Louisville. Now we've been here almost a year and have moved from the rental house to the apartment too!! It's crazy how time flies. I remember being in school, especially high school, and people saying, "Oh, you just wait until you graduate. Time will go by faster and faster every year." I thought they were crazy; now I know they were right.

December has been pretty busy for us. Aaron finished up his 2nd semester on campus at Southern. We are anxiously (or maybe he's not!) waiting for his final grades. He had exams the first week of December so I'm sure he won't have his grades anytime soon - being that Christmas is NEXT WEEK. Oh - I mentioned that already, didn't I?!? :)

I finished up my SWI classes and am excited about taking more in the winter/spring term. I will be taking OT/NT Survey and Baptist Beliefs. Sounds exciting, I know!

I also had my 31st birthday this month. It's funny to think that I'm 31. I was telling my friend just last night that as a kid I never thought I would make it to be 31. I always thought the Lord would come back to rapture His church before I grew up. Well, here I am, all grown up! At least I guess I am :)

Briggs is progressing along. We have been going through his workbook more regularly lately, and he is learning a lot. He can write his name all by himself now and recognizes most of the alphabet and can write many of the letters. We have also started on his numbers. I am proud of his accomplishments! Most days (especially now with the colder weather) he wants to play Wii ALL DAY LONG. I seriously believe I could leave him here by himself playing the Wii and he would be right in the same spot when I returned! I guess if he goes to school next year he won't be playing it as much! Having said that, I am contemplating whether or not to keep him out of school another year, send him to K5, or home school him. The cut off date here is October 1 so he would be eligible for K5, but he would probably be one of the youngest in his class. I think he would do fine. It's me I'm worried about :) At the same time, I realize that I would almost likely be homeschooling him at what ever point we go oversees as missionaries so I feel like I should just start doing it from the beginning so that there wouldn't be a change in that area since there will be so many changes in all other areas of our lives! Pray that I will use wisdom and discernment from the Lord in this matter!

I so enjoy being here with him. I really never thought in a million years that I would enjoy being a stay at home mom as much as I do. I sometimes feel so guilty with Aaron going to school and working and think that I should pick up some of the financial responsibility, but I am so grateful that he has not once pressured me to get a job. God has really changed my heart in this area. I'm not gonna say that I LOVE cleaning because that would be a lie! But I can honestly say that cleaning up, getting Aaron's clothes ironed for work or school, fixing his lunch, dinner, etc. has become such a joy for me. I totally believe that this is worth more than any amount of money in the world. We don't have all our wants, but we have every bit of our needs. God is good!

We will be spending Christmas Eve and Day here in Louisville as a family and then heading out for SC after Christmas. I am so looking forward to seeing our family and friends ... and then in the same breath I don't want to go home because it makes it that much harder to come back to Louisville. I have so much more respect now for our service men and women who sacrifice and are away from their families, and for missionaries who leave their families to go tell about Jesus, and for others who give up so much for the sake of the Gospel. God never said the road would be easy, but He promised He would always be there for us. I can certainly attest to that. I definitely wouldn't have made it through this past year without Him.

I can't fail to mention how grateful I am to God and His divine providence. He brought us to Louisville at just the right time, sent us to just the right church, and allowed us to become friends with just the right people. I never thought when we left SC that we would ever find as good a friends as we had there. God has placed some very special individuals in our lives here, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will remain friends with them for life. Again, God is so good.

This is the first year that I haven't sent out Christmas cards. I had every intention of doing so, but just never got around to it. I kept telling Aaron that we needed to figure out what we were going to do this year. For those of you who have gotten our cards in the past, you know that we like to do something different! Well, anyways, this blog/email is going to serve as our "Christmas card" to you this year. I know, I know, it's not nearly as personal, but I would have run out of room on a card for all this! Plus, I would have gotten tired of writing it over and over! :)

So from our family to yours, we wish you the very merriest Christmas ever! We wish you the peace, joy, and comfort of knowing Jesus as your Lord. We wish you His presence as you look into the faces of your children and family. We wish you the remembrance that God sent His son in human flesh to be born on Christmas day - with the sole purpose of dying for our sins one day. We wish you the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to rest upon you during this most wonderful, blessed season of Christ's birth.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Riddles