What is a winter wonderland for???

So we get:
...at the Refuge, and what do we do?

We sing...
...and dance...

...to celebrate!
For some reason sledding seems like the right thing to do. :)
Well sledding at the Campground has never been that safe... ;)

Okay, so we are weird just every once in a while!

But that is a big part of the fun!

Great friends...

Great place...

What more could one be blessed with?

This is what we do to annoying little kids toys.

For weeks the Refuge has been plagued by this annoying toy phone. This week we decided to exterminate it!

Proof that all we did was legal. (There are two more I just didn't get the pictures)

First gunman.

Second gunman.

Third gunman.

There were talks of the Campground having a wedding chapel someday. Wouldn't it be perfect? Shotgun weddings? We provide the shotguns!

After about five or six shots all they could hit were the edges... :)
I think we enjoyed watching this far too much!

Jamie got a Bulls Eye!

See the look of pride in his wife's face???
Wahoo!

Christmas: Refugee style

Well even though the Refuge is a "young" church we already have our own Christmas traditions.

One would be our Christmas program.

This year the roles were played by: Zoe, Gab, Christian, Dawn, Isaac, Joy, and Rachel!

We'll do anything to see Dawn dress up! :)

Joy wasn't very happy to play Marry. And Isaac was a very distracted Joseph.

The Lees and Jess signed a couple of songs. Isaac really stole the show!

Another tradition would be going to the Christmas Eve service at Willow Creek!

Our traditional see how many people you can pile on the couch picture! (I think we missed our see how many people can squish in the bathroom picture this year...)

Are we excited??? :)

What a fun group!

These cool lights everyone thought were to be used to shine in other people's eyes...

Another part of the Willow tradition is to leave notes at Lauren and Wolfgang's house! This year we did a little decoration with lights too! (Light was the theme of the service.)

Christmas Eve was celebrated with a Candle Light service at the Refuge.

Fire hazard?

Cuteness award!!!

Merry (late) Christmas!

Matthew 1:22-23

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said to the prophet: The virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son and they will call Him Immanuel which means God with us.

Christmas time is here... :)

Last week it was time to begin decorating for Christmas at the Refuge!

We got all of the decorations out...

...and put them up all around the church!

It is always an exciting time of year (at least for me!) to work together with others to make the place look so pretty!

And it is also a good reminder of the seasons not being about us...

...but about sharing the joy with others!
Alright this is a short post. But that is what you get when the photographer helps decorate! Besides that means that you will have to come to the Refuge to see what it looks like in person! :D

A beautiful fall day. Perfect for a walk!

Here it is November and we still had gorgeous weather! So why not take advantage of it and go for a walk?

Rachel had sustenance! (M&Ms :P)

And when that ran out she found some corn! Nummy, Nummy!

She actually tried it! :O

Mrs. Hemmer had fun trying to figure out the game that Lauren and Wolfgang brought.

She was determined to figure it out and she spent nearly an hour with it! Talk about determination!

Summit joined us! She ran the entire time!

She also found out that she loves Dandelions! She kept running and pouncing on them!

Pretty as a picture!

We took our walk into the woods and went to the creek.

I heard it was really cold!

But everyone enjoyed it because it was a really warm day!

Everybody joined in on the fun whether they were in the water or just watching!

Great explorers!

After that we were all 'Dog Tired'. :)