Hello friends and family!
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy 2017! I have
to apologize for the lack of blog posts recently – life here in Washington, MO
has been busy and full! We have been kept busy with work, friends, and family,
all of which are wonderful blessings!
November brought about our first major break of the school
year at Thanksgiving. Although I had several days of professional development
with my staff over the week of Thanksgiving vacation, those extra days off were
extremely enjoyable, as our only break before that – Labor Day – was busy with
my sister’s wedding in South Carolina. Even better was that the weekend before
Thanksgiving break, I was able to fly home for a (very) short time to surprise
my sister and be with my family for a glorious 36 hours! My mom gave me the
gift of a plane ticket so that I could be home with my family for the secondary
wedding reception for my sister (since they got married in South Carolina, most
of our extended family was not able to attend). It made for a few late nights,
but we packed those hours full with family time, including my almost 2-year-old
niece, Teagann, and it was wonderful. Nick and I were both busy with church
services on Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Eve – he was doing liturgy and I was
singing in the choir – and were kindly invited to Thanksgiving dinner by a
church family. We spent the day after Thanksgiving getting the house all ready
for Christmas, which was so much fun! We put up all our decorations, bought a
tree, and then watched the Washington Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting. Those
few extra days made all the difference and allowed us to catch up on projects
around the house and prepare for busy weeks ahead.
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| Getting our house ready for Christmas! |
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| Ready for the Washington Christmas Parade |
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| Coloring with my Teagann! |
Another exciting November event was helping out with
Immanuel’s Pork Sausage Supper. Most churches in the area put on a sausage
dinner of some kind, but Immanuel’s was unlike one I’ve ever seen. Since it is
a large church in an area full of small churches, their sausage dinner is very
well attended by the church members and community – about 1,700 people are
served over the course of the day. On top of that, for the majority of the day,
they serve the meal restaurant-style by seating groups at tables and serving
them. Nick and I worked a 3-hour shift at the dinner, and our job was to serve
food to the tables and clear them when the people had finished eating. It was
incredible to see the way that everything was run and how everything worked
together like a well-oiled machine – it is obvious that they’ve been doing this
for many years. It was so much fun to be a part of this huge event and get to
know more people at church by volunteering alongside them. On top of that, all
the food was incredibly delicious because it is all homemade, from the sausage
to the applesauce. We even bought some to take home with us and eat for dinner!
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| After working at the Pork Sausage Supper |
December kept us quite busy between all the events at our
two churches. In a matter of one weekend, we attended a Christmas piano
concert, I had my school’s Christmas service and dinner, and I attended an
Advent by Candlelight event at Immanuel. We added on top of that Wednesday
night Advent services for Nick, extra services and rehearsals for choir for me,
and a very fun staff social night with the Immanuel staff that included an
outrageous White Elephant gift exchange.
The highlight of the month was, of course, Christmas. It was
fun to be living in a house in a cute little small town for Christmas. Nick and
I were also very involved in Christmas services – me in choir, and he did
liturgy on Christmas Eve and preached on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, Nick
was sick for the whole week before Christmas, but he regained his voice just in
time to preach! Christmas for us also included a visit from Nick’s family!
Since this is most likely the last time the whole family will be able to be
together on Christmas, his mom, dad, sister, and brother made a road trip out
from California, and his older brother drove out to Washington from St. Louis,
and they all came and made our house a little (or a lot) more cheerful, busy,
and noisy for a week. We had so much fun with them here! We got to attend
Christmas services, open presents, decorate cookies, eat good food, and play
lots of games together, which was so much fun. We also took a few adventures
into St. Louis, one day to St. Charles to take old time photos, and another day
to go race go carts and see the Arch. It was a fun week full of wonderful
family time, and we were sad to see them go, but we are thankful for the
memories we made.
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| At the Arch with photobombing siblings! |
We were able to take some time to ourselves in this busy
time. One Saturday in December, we drove into St. Louis to see a movie (Rogue
One, in case you’re interested) and go to Mauhaus, a new cat café that opened
recently in Maplewood. Yes, you read that right! It’s a café where you get to
buy food and drinks but most importantly, cuddle a bunch of cats! It was a fun
date day for the two of us. We also went to see The Nutcracker right after my
break started, which was Nick’s Christmas present to me, as I hadn’t seen this show
in years, since I danced in it as a middle-schooler. It’s always nice for us to
be able to get away and go on a date occasionally, and we love spending the
time together.
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| Chilling with cats at Mauhaus |
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| At the Nutcracker |
One not-so-fun adventure this past month was when an ice
storm hit unexpectedly on a Friday afternoon. It hit right around the time
school got out, but no roads had been salted, so when I left school, the entire
parking lot and my whole car were both iced over. The roads were incredibly
slick, and I was nervous about driving home. However, both fortunately and
unfortunately, there were several accidents on the highway I take home, so the
stop-and-go traffic kept me going an extremely safe speed (almost
non-existent), and I got home safely. On the unfortunate side, my normally
45-minute long commute took 3 hours that night. I’m thankful that I got home
safely, and I had a full tank of gas and extra snacks in the car, but I am
hoping that never happens again!
Now that we are a week into January, we are getting back
into the swing of things – I’ve started back to school and Nick is finally just
about better from being sick for the last few weeks. We are currently doing a
second round of Whole 30, and so far it’s been a lot easier than the first time
around! We’re excited to see what we learn this time and how we benefit from
it.
Overall, we have had a good couple months, and we are
looking forward to what the next few months have in store for us! We thank you
again for your constant support and prayers as we continue this seminary
journey.
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nick and Mikaela Duerr
