Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello friends and family! We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! We were able to see and celebrate with my (Megan's) side of the family already, and are off in about 10 minutes to see Matt's family and continue the festivities. Having a baby really reminds me of how helplessly Jesus entered our world. The King of King and Lord of Lords...completely dependent! The story really takes on a new meaning in light of our new experiences these past few months.

Some new things from the past week or so: Miles is batting at toys, smiling even more than before, putting himself to sleep for most naps (I still let him fall asleep for the night during his last feeding), and possibly teething (it seems early, I know, so we'll see). He is now over 17 lbs, and just turned 4 months old on the 28th.

Before we leave in a minute here, I wanted to post some pictures from the Christmas celebrations we had with my family (notice the difference in picture quality--we got a Nikon D50 for Christmas from my parents. Thanks guys! These are just the first of many memories we will capture with such a thoughtful gift!):

Enjoying Grandma's tickle games

Men's edition of the grab-bag game at the big Visser Christmas party (we rent my childhood school's gym, play volleyball/basketball/etc., eat a potluck dinner, visit with a ton of family that we wish we could see more often, and open presents).

Great Grandma Stob is happy to see Miles!

And play dress-up with Miles using her scarf:)

"What just happened to me?"

The next day we had the Stob-side Christmas party at my parent's house. Aunt Charity tried to soak up as much Miles as she could before going back to Alaska!

My brother Nate couldn't get off of work for long enough to make it out for Christmas, so my mom found a dessert recipe for "Orange Alaska", which we ate "in memory" of him. It consists of an orange sherbet/yogurt/juice mixture on the bottom of a frozen organge-half, topped with meringue, and broiled to a brown which makes it look like mountain-tops. We guessed that is where it got the "Alaska" part of its name.

Matt and my Dad went out for a morning of experimenting with cameras while all of the ladies got together for coffee at my Grandma's house. Here is one of our favorite pics that Matt took.

Blessings to all of you in this New Year! We pray especially for those who have spent days or nights alone during this season, and for those who have lost loved ones around this sentimental time of year. We thank God especially right now for the years we were able to spend with our sister-in-Christ Shari, who went to her heavenly home just a few days ago to celebrate Christmas with Christ himself.

Thank you for the important role that each of you play in our lives! Thank you for all of the great times we will have been able to spend with many of you over the holiday season! Oh, and many of you are reporting that you can't post comments on our blog. We'll try to check into that once things slow down again. Thanks for checking faithfully, and let us know if you are trying to post and can't.