Christmas greetings everyone!
It’s hard to believe that we are already into the Christmas
season, but it is such an exciting time of year! We are thankful to be
currently in California, enjoying this time with our families, and relaxing a
bit before we return to our normal lives in St. Louis. We needed this break
after the month we’ve had!
November in our household was packed full of events and very
long to do lists. We spent the month in anticipation of and preparing for our
trip out to California for Thanksgiving vacation. I am a bridesmaid in the
upcoming wedding of my friend Whitney this Saturday, and when Nick and I
realized that we would have to take several days off work and school to be at
this wedding anyway, we asked (begged and pleaded) for permission to take the
entire week, so that we were able to be home for the Thanksgiving holidays to
be able to be with our families as well. We are very fortunate to have
wonderful and understanding bosses and professors, and so we made plans to
spend two weeks in California. However, this meant we were having to spend a
lot of time working ahead – I had to have sub plans ready for the week I am
missing, and Nick had to contact all his professors and get textbooks ordered
in preparation for the new quarter. We also had to do all the work that comes
with a trip – making sure we had places to stay, and rides to and from where we
need to be, as well as the laundry and packing and cleaning we needed to do in
the week before we left! It made for several very chaotic weeks.
In addition to all the trip preparation, things were a
little extra crazy at work for me! In the first week of November, I put on an
event called Kindergarten Round Up. This is an opportunity for preschoolers and
their parents to come and learn about the Kindergarten program at our school,
meet me, and see the classroom. It was a great success, but a lot of extra
work! I also was working on getting all our Operation Christmas Child boxes
ready! In addition to keeping track of boxes, I was in charge of making sure
they were all ready to go, with labels and all the appropriate items inside,
and moving them up to the church for a dedication prayer, and then back to my
classroom, and then out to my car, and then finally to the collection center.
We had 90 boxes in all and it was a very successful project, so it was all
worth it! I also had the privilege of being asked to sing for a wedding at our
church during a weekend in November. It was a new experience for me, but it was
a fun way to make a little extra income to go toward my student loans!
Nick was extra busy at school as well. November encompasses
the last few weeks of the fall quarter, so he was swamped with readings,
papers, sermons, and tests. In addition, he was scheduled to preach church services
at our church one of those weekends, so he had an extra sermon to write and
preach in that time. He also came to Our Savior and led a chapel service on the
Wednesday in his first week of break!
In this time, Nick and I both ended up sick, which is no
surprise, with the stress and changes in the weather. Nick got a cold and
cough, of course, right before the weekend he had to preach his sermon. He spent
several days on hot tea and chicken noodle soup and lots of cough drops to get
him through that weekend. The following week, I wasn’t feeling well either, and
just thought I had gotten a cold from Nick, but when it wasn’t going away, I
stopped by urgent care. They diagnosed me with strep and shingles the Wednesday
before our trip! Thankfully, they put me on the medicines I needed, and after
just one sick day at home, I was back at school in time for our Thanksgiving party
and (mostly) healthy in time for our trip! We are both thoroughly enjoying the
time that we have to rest now and let our bodies recover.
On top of all this, we started out our month with our 10K
trail race! It was a really fun experience! The race was at a state park, and
the run took place through trails and hills, going up and down hills and stairs
and across creeks. It is a really beautiful run, and it was a lot of fun to be
out there with so many other runners! We finished the run in just over an hour,
and we were really happy with how we did! Nick was actually the 2nd
runner in his age group for our race! We even got a full meal at the end of the
race, which was really fun. However, that race pretty much wiped us out for the
rest of that weekend!
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| After running the Skippo, a 10K trail race |
Our trip to California has been fun and restful. We flew out
of St. Louis at 7:00 a.m. on the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving, arriving
with enough time to eat lunch and rest a little before the wedding of our
friends Zach and Amber.
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| With Zach and Amber at their wedding! |
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| Nick went rock climbing with his little brother Tony |
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| I love getting to see our niece Teagann! |
We are thankful for so many things in our lives – God has
richly blessed us in so many ways! Although Thanksgiving is a time to reflect
on those things, I find that it’s important to reflect on those things all year
long. We are thankful for each other, for our families we love so much, and for
the way that God has provided for us every step of the way throughout this
journey. We thank Him for all of you, who support us through your prayers and
your donations. We ask Him to bless you all for showing us His love through
your actions!
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nick and Mikaela Duerr
