Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As you can guess, this year has been a busy one. This year we decided to put our annual Christmas letter on the blog - and by Christmas letter, we mean a letter dated January 5. We figured this year that we'd follow a month-by-month format outlining the highlights. So, here they are:

January '08
We rang in the New Year in Orlando with Bridgette's mom. We celebrated Brennan's birthday party with a cars themed party - which is ironic, because since that time he's fallen in love with Cars the movie and wants that to be his party theme this year. Bridgette also began her second trimester with Aidan.

February
Bridgette & Brennan went on a big trip out of town to visit family & friends in PA & NY - where they were caught in the "Storm of the Century" - aka a small snowstorm. Don went down to TX to meet up with some of his seminary friends for an annual event. Bridgette also celebrated her 32nd birthday.

March
We celebrated Easter with Don preaching the early 7am Sunrise service and having Don's family from Canada come down for the weekend. It was a full house of 10.

April
We welcomed the Rice's up from GA for a visit. Brennan got to spend some time with one of his girlfriend's lil' Miss Paige. Don then went to Honduras for the first time as part of a Medical Mission Trip with Liberty.

May
We combined a trip to watch Bridgette's sister Heather graduate from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN with a family vacation to Lake Geneva, WI. It was nearly perfectly halfway between us in OH and Heather in MN. Don got to enjoy a nice round of golf, Bridgette enjoyed a soothing maternity massage and Brennan loved the red trolley at the wonderful "vacation house" as we called it.

June
Don turned 30 and we celebrated with a big party on May 30 with friends and family. We followed it up by heading out to CO to celebrate (and officiate) our good college friend's wedding. It was a fun time to get together with college friends - especially since we all were able to find family to take care of our munchkins and leave them at home.

July
The month was populated by weddings officiated by Don @ Liberty and spending time enjoying our home and neighborhood. Oh yeah, we also had a little boy drop by on the 13th. He almost came the day before, as Bridgette was having contractions as Don preached the outdoor Sunday morning service. Our world began to be rocked just about this time last year.

August
Don returned to Honduras, this time as part of a construction Mission Team. Luckily, Mom Esther came to stay with Bridgette, Brennan and baby Aidan. We also celebrated our 8th anniversary on Aug 19. To end the month we headed up to our family cottage in Rome, NY and ended up...

September
...in Speculator, NY with college friends for Labor Day weekend. It was a great time, catching up and reliving our days at seminary. We returned home to begin our second church year here in Ohio.

October
We hosted Don's family for Canadian Thanksgiving (during Columbus Day weekend) and headed up to MI to baptize our seminary friend's second child. While we were there we celebrated Halloween with Brennan dressed up as a bumble bee and Aidan in a little bunny rabbit.

November
We were able to go to Myrtle Beach with Don's family for a first-ever Family vacation. Returning to Ohio, we were able to celebrate Aidan's baptism with Don's family present and then hosted Thanksgiving with some of Bridgette's family.

December
We began the month by heading down to Louisville, KY - our first venture into the state, for a Presbyterian Mission Pastors Conference. Unfortunately, Brennan came down with a cold that made the trip a little more difficult. We then were able to host Christmas for Don's family - a full house of 11 - from which we're still recovering a bit.

It's been a whirlwind of a year and we hope that we get the chance to see you in this new 2009. We may not be able to do as much traveling as we've done this past year (2 kids are a bit tougher than 1), but we have room to host YOU if you're willing to make the trip. Just let us know!

All our love - Don, Bridgette, Brennan & Aidan