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You are here: Home / About Us / The Flanders Family Christmas Letters / Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017


The 2017 Flanders Family Update

We spent a week in Big Canoe, Georgia, last December with most of our extended family. It was a long drive, but we took lots of potty breaks (“speak now or forever hold your pee”) and stopped on the way to stretch our legs at Six Flags over Georgia (after so many hours of sitting in the van, even their famous “standup” roller coaster sounded appealing).

Six Flags over Georgia

Taking in the sights and sounds at Six Flags over Georgia

Six Flags over Georgia

Everything seems brighter when you’re with the one you love.

Matti & Noah

Matti Noah

Visiting the Peach State allowed Jon’s wife, Matti, to spend time with her side of the family—a treat since they are normally separated during the holidays.

She and Noah missed out on our “Flanders Family Flannel Photo,” but everyone else was in it, including a soon-to-be daughter-in-love, Rebekah Joy Follingstad, who stole Sam’s heart with her (to use his descriptors) “humble, efficient, and level-headed” personality.

Flanders Family Flannel Photo

We call this the “Flanders Family Flannel Photo.” (Try saying that three times fast!)

January found us in San Antonio celebrating Samuel and Bekah’s official engagement and enjoying the still-shining Christmas lights along the River Walk. The stash of glow-in-the-dark necklaces, glasses, and tiaras Mom found on clearance at the Dollar Store added to the festive spirit and made it easier to count heads once the sun went down, although most of our party retired before the midnight fireworks began….

Samuel & Bekah's Engagement

Two little love birds…

A few days later, Doug traveled to Austin for WORLD Magazine’s week-long mid-career journalism course. He’d applied last year (after the deadline) and didn’t get in, then forgot all about it until receiving word he’d been accepted into this year’s class. (He should’ve known an acceptance letter was forthcoming: When we ate hibachi a couple of days earlier, Doug’s fortune cookie read, “The WORLD is finally ready for your talents.” Ha!)

Doug at WORLD

Doug tries his hand with a can of spray paint at the Art Park in Austin

His first article for the news magazine was published the following week, with an obituary for a not-yet-dead celebrity to follow (although, the eulogized would hope, not anytime soon)….

Rachel & Abby on Florida Beach

Rachel and Abby enjoy a Florida sunrise (photo courtesy of Rebekah Lyn Flanders)

We returned to Florida mid-month, stopping along the way for factory tours of Mardi Gras World, Sally Corp Animatronics, the Tallahassee Museum, a Dolphin Research Center, and Sweet Pete’s Candy Shop.

Flanders Family at Mardi Gras World

We took a fascinating tour of Mardis Gras World to learn how parade floats are constructed

Flanders Family in Jacksonville

Mouthing off in Jacksonville, Florida

Dolphin Research Center

We enjoyed an up close and personal introduction at Dolphin Research Center

Flanders Family at Peterbrooke Chocolatiers

The kids got to dip their own pretzels at Peterbrooke Chocolatiers

We were at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans for Girl Scout Day. The $15 registration fee Jennifer spent to sign Abby up as a Daisy Scout a week earlier saved our family $106 at the ticket office, but the museum was well worth the admission price, even without a discount.

WWII Museum in New Orleans

Scouting out all the great exhibits at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans

We also visited six Orlando amusement parks in six days (excessive, even by Flanders standards) and made two notable discoveries:

Flanders Family at Epcot

Mary Poppins… practically perfect in every way!

Flanders Family at Disney World

With a smile and a song, life is just a bright sunny day, your cares fade away and your heart is young…

Gabriel on the roller coasterFirst, we found out Gabriel has no sense of shame. When one mid-coaster camera captured a shot of him with his finger up his nose, we thought it was an ill-timed accident, but when every single photo on every subsequent ride showed him in exactly the same position, we realized he was staging the pose on purpose!

Second, we learned Daniel suffers from a crippling fear of elevators—a fact that became embarrassingly apparent when at last we made it to the front of the line for the Tower of Terror and, upon realizing the entire ride takes place in what appears to be a malfunctioning elevator shaft, Daniel went into total freak-out mode. Wailing and gripping the railing with white-knuckled fists, he refused to board until Dad shot him a look that said, “Stop making a scene” and ordered Mom to pry his fingers lose and help him to his seat.

While we don’t normally recommend dealing with children’s fears in such a callous way, in the case of our nearly-12-year-old Dan, this proved to be the right move. The ride ended up being his absolute favorite (he even made us wait in an hour-long line for a second go at it) and—after surviving those 39 mph drops—he can now ride regular elevators without batting an eye (and to think that all this time, we assumed he was taking the stairs because he wanted the exercise)!

Isaac and Daniel enjoying the outdoor Tallahassee Museum

Isaac and Daniel enjoying the great outdoors at the Tallahassee Museum

Rachel leads the way on the ropes course at TreeUmph!

Rachel leads the way on the ropes course at TreeUmph!

In February, Mom got her first pressure cooker (our family has since eaten a metric ton of lentil soup), Daniel fell off the monkey bars and snapped both bones in his right arm (he needed surgery to reduce the fracture)…

Daniel right after surgery

Right after surgery… and feeling much better

… we found a new church home (when our old congregation moved out to Bullard, we started looking for something closer, ultimately landing in Grace Community’s 8 AM service), and Isaac (who at 6’ 3½” has now passed his Dad in height) attended TeenPact for the first time.

Isaac Passes Up Dad

Here’s the proof: As of this year, Isaac is officially taller than Dad!

Rebekah staffed this year and had to be there early, so Doug drove Isaac and Rachel to Austin and stayed a few days to lobby on behalf of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists.

TeenPact

Rebekah with the other TeenPact staffers

TeenPact

Three of our kids at the State Capitol building with all their fellow TeenPacters

March brought an easy transition to spring: We pulled weeds. Jennifer hung photos in the stairwell. Isaac read the entire Hunger Games trilogy aloud to the family. The girls attended a high musical tea with our new neighbors.

A High Musical Tea

We had a lovely afternoon with lots of tea and finger sandwiches

A High Musical Tea

And we hosted Nana’s Sunday school class for their annual tour of the Azalea Trail, which was resplendent in its early blooms. As usual, Doug chauffeured the ladies around town and provided a running commentary on all the beautiful homes and the people who’ve owned them. Oral tradition has long been Doug’s forte. After 30 years of parenting, he has learned that when he prefaces remarks with, “I probably shouldn’t tell this story, but…”, the children immediately prick up their ears to hear whatever it was he wanted to say. (This is so much more effective than, “Listen up, kids, I have something important to tell you.”)

Fun with Sidewalk Chalk

You can talk till you’re blue in the face, but it does no good if your kids aren’t listening!

Evidently, the same trick works with grown women, as well, for the good doctor kept us in stitches with his outlandish tales and Tyler trivia. If laughter were medicine, we would have overdosed!

By April it was obvious the lawn our builder put in last fall was in serious trouble. Jennifer hoped a little patience, patching, and fertilizer might see it through, but Doug was convinced we needed to rip the whole thing out and start over.

It didn’t take much digging to vindicate his decision. Judging by all the concrete, sheet metal, bricks, wire, and paint lids we found buried just below the surface of the old sod, Doug was right: our yard would never have flourished apart from our taking such drastic measures.

We hauled away three industrial dumpsters full of dead grass and debris, installed a couple of French drains, then leveled and graded the entire yard. And by we, I mean our trusty yard man, Anthony Bendy, and the crew of laborers he hired to help him.

View this post on Instagram

These guys took our yard from looking like a lake every time it rained to being lush and level, without a puddle in sight — even in the middle of a downpour. So grateful for all the good work done by our sweet friend, Anthony Bendy. #thanksbro #lookingood

A post shared by Jennifer Flanders (@flanders_family) on Apr 30, 2017 at 5:57pm PDT

They did all the hard work while our family headed to Missouri for a week of R&R that included blogger visits to Branson’s Famous Baldknobbers, the Butterfly Palace, and Talking Rocks Caverns.

Touring the Butterfly Palace in Branson

We made it back home in time to help lay the new grass—30 full pallets of lush St. Augustine sod.

laying grass on Doug's 50th birthday

We celebrated Doug’s 50th birthday by getting up early and laying 2 1/2 pallets of grass before breakfast.

Three of us had birthdays this month: Doug celebrated the big 5-0, Jennifer hit 52, and Abigail (sans her central incisors) turned seven.

I can't believe my baby turned 7 this year!

I can hardly believe my baby turned 7 this year!

Sam and Bekah Joy tied the knot in May, exchanging vows on Mother’s Day. Interestingly, Samuel has only known his beautiful bride (who grew up in Kenya, the daughter of Wycliffe Bible translators) a little more than a year. His sister Bethany introduced them last April, opening with, “Bekah, I’d like you to meet the brother you’re going to marry. I hope you don’t mind.”

Dr. & Mrs. Samuel Flanders

Dr. & Mrs. Samuel Flanders

It was a beautiful wedding.

Four days after the wedding, Samuel graduated from McGovern Medical School in Houston, and Doug had the honor of hooding him during the ceremony (exactly 25 years after earning his own MD).

Samuel graduated from medical school four days after his wedding.

From Houston, the original Rebekah Flanders drove Rachel and Isaac (who turned 14 on the road) to Tennessee for TeenPact National Convention while Dad, Mom, Nana, Joseph, Daniel, Gabbers, and Abby boarded the Carnival Freedom for an 8-day cruise to Belize. We offered to take the newlyweds along, too, but they declined, preferring to honeymoon on their own instead. This, despite the fact we promised not to ask them to babysit more than an hour or two a day. Go figure!

Cruising to Belize

Soaking up the sun

Dad and Mom were invited to speak at FEAST’s annual homeschool conference in June, but when early ads for the event billed us as Doug and Jennifer Flowers, we thought maybe they’d contacted the wrong couple. “Thanks to Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers probably has better name recognition at this point,” Mom told them, “so you might draw a bigger crowd if you leave it as is, but we wouldn’t want folks to be disappointed if they show up to hear salacious celebrity gossip and get a mild-mannered homemaker instead!” The conference organizers assured us the error was a typo and corrected it immediately.

The view from our booth at the FEAST convention

Bex took charge of her younger siblings while Mom and Dad gave their talks. The six of them had a blast exploring quirky, offbeat corners of San Antonio and trying as many vegan restaurants as they could find.

The fun never ends

We used to call these Dreamsicles, but I don’t know what kids today call them. Don’t they look yummy?

Rachel turned 16 on the 16th, but a decoy celebration ensured her surprise party was a genuine surprise. She loves reading, crafting (she won the top competitor award at the East Texas State Fair this fall), and staying up late to finish her schoolwork or to stealthily attend, like a cobbler’s elf, to the neglected chores of her unsuspecting family.

Bekah loves taking glamour shots of her sister.

Rachel Joy Flanders

Our sweet Rachel Joy sure lives up to her namesake: She brings us bundles of it. (photo by Bekah)

We got another grandson this month when Ben’s wife, Mikayla, gave birth to a chunk of lead named James Michael. He has the same chipmunk cheeks his dad had as a baby and, by four months, outweighed his 2-year-old cousin.

The proud parents

The proud parents

Grandma gets another baby to hold!

Grandma gets another baby to hold!

A few weeks later, David’s wife, Bonnie, gave us our first granddaughter, Gwendolyn Duchane. She is sweet and petite with delicate features and a shock of dark hair.

Isn’t she a sweetheart?

Shortly after Gwen’s birth, Jon and Matti announced they have a new baby on the way, too (due next March). According to a recent sonogram, this one’s going to be a girl, but after that streak of six sons, we’ll believe it when we see it!

A post shared by Matti Flanders (@mattidanielle) on Nov 7, 2017 at 8:50am PST

Except for a day trip to Van Alstyne for the Cowan Clan reunion and another to Longview for the 40th Annual Great Balloon Race, we stayed in Tyler for the entire month of July. This gave us time to work on a few home improvement projects. Jennifer refinished Rebekah’s bedroom furniture painted 1 Corinthians 10:31 on the arched wall over our kitchen (“Whether then you eat or drink… do all to the glory of God.”)…

Wall Painting

“Whether then you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”

…and made serious headway on emptying the rest of our moving boxes. Doug oversaw construction of several new garden beds, which the kids helped us plant with two Japanese maples, two crepe myrtles, dozens of azaleas, hostas, and hydrangeas, plus as many annuals off Lowe’s bargain rack (AKA: the stuff they forgot to water) as Jennifer thought we could nurse back to health. All those previously neglected plants pulled through and proliferated profusely, by the way, proving that a little TLC can work wonders.

Garden bed

We nursed these annuals back to health.

We also installed a top-of-the-line basketball goal and even painted a key on the driveway, so the kids would know where to stand to practice their three-pointers. That was fun while it lasted, until our home owners association informed us we would have to take it down. Although basketball goals aren’t expressly forbidden in the bylaws, the permanent nature of the one we erected fell under “new construction” and required prior written approval, which—the fine people on our HOA board assured us—would not have been granted had we bothered to ask. Since maintaining a good name in the neighborhood is more important to us than shooting hoops at home, we donated the equipment to some friends who live far enough out in the country that nobody will complain about an in-ground goal, but we were all sad to see it go. Mikayla captured the prevailing mood perfectly by fashioning a small wooden cross out of sticks and hammering it in the ground where the goal once stood.

Knockout

We sure have missed our basketball goal.

August brought a 7-member production team to our house to record part of a documentary the BBC will be airing in January about faith in America. They were here for three days of filming. The star of the show is a 76-year-old powerhouse by the name of Miriam Margolyes, considered a National Treasure by adoring fans in England, but better known in the States as Professor Sprout of Harry Potter fame.

Miriam didn’t know until the day she arrived she’d be interviewing a family with 12 kids; yet, despite her protests that she neither likes children nor knows how to talk to them, she made fast friends with ours, seeming at times even to prefer their company to that of the adults. She helped prepare their meals, fold their laundry, hold sleeping grandbabies, comfort cranky ones, and — with a little coaching from Jennifer — even gave Gabriel a haircut.

Gabriel's new haircut

There isn’t another person on earth who can say Miriam Margolyes gave him a haircut. Not bad for a first attempt!

She also read them stories, moving us to tears with a favorite passage from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The only thing we weren’t able to talk her into was playing a game of four-square or giving her heart to Jesus, but she was a real trooper in every other respect, and we’ve devoted that second matter to fervent and continued prayer. In fact, we’re praying for the entire crew, who were lovely people all, though not a believer among them.

We fell in love with the entire crew and are praying God will draw them to Himself.

David and Bonnie came to town mid-month for one last visit before moving to Germany for the next three years. This was our first time to meet Gwen, already a month old and even more adorable in person than she looks in photos.

David and Bonnie Flanders

Photo by GraceAnne Photography

Mom, Dad, and Beth flew to Peru on Eclipse Day. Doug had mentioned several months earlier he was considering such a trip: “Bethany has always wanted to climb Machu Picchu,” he explained, “and I have a week of vacation in August, so I think I’ll ask if she wants to go together.” When Jennifer reminded him the reason he had requested that week off in the first place was to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, Doug graciously invited her to tag along, too!

We had to get up at 3:00 in the morning to make it to the summit by dawn, but as Bethany wryly observed, “Watching the sunrise over Machu Picchu is soooo much more breathtaking when you’re actually there—mostly because it involves climbing a mountain, and at altitude there’s literally less oxygen in the air that you are frantically gasping to breathe.”

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was breathtaking — literally.

Full disclosure: We took a bus to the front gate and skipped ascending Huayna Picchu altogether, lest the menacingly-named “Dead Woman’s Pass” prove prophetic. The bugs ate Dad alive while we were in the mountains, but—surprisingly—left Mom and Beth completely alone. Either Peruvian mosquitos prefer darker complexions and were attracted by Doug’s nice tan or (as Samuel suggested) they assumed legs as pale as the girls’ could only belong to corpses!

Ben and Mikayla stayed with the rest of our kids while we were gone and led some grand adventures of their own, including a day trip to Waco to shop at Magnolia Market, then a stop at BSR Cable Park to try out some incredible water slides.

Magnolia Market

You can’t see the crowds in this photo, but Magnolia Market is a hoppin’ place!

Magnolia Market

It has some great photo-ops, too!

Three of our kids had birthdays in September: Bethany turned 28. She finished her third half-marathon this year and was in her ninth wedding (“always a bridesmaid, never a bride”). She loves her work as a pediatric dentist (especially oral surgery), but would give it up in a heartbeat if the right guy ever showed up to make her a wife and a mommy.

Beth, Bekah, and the Bridesmaids

Photo by our beautiful, brilliant, sweet, and talented daughter, Bethany — the perpetual bridesmaid. How is she not married yet???

Joseph turned 20. He lives at home, but between school, job, and girlfriend Emi, we often see him only in passing. Emi’s folks invited him to vacation with them in Cozumel in June, which helped compensate for the fact he missed so many of our family trips this year.

Cozumel

These two are muy loco about one another.

Rebekah turned 18. We see more of her than of Joe, despite the fact she also takes college classes and works two jobs (three if you count all the portrait shoots she’s done for her photography business this year).

We wouldn’t have nearly as many family photos if it weren’t for Rebekah. She never leaves home without her camera.

Intern year

He’s been running on fumes… and lots and lots of prayer.

Although Samuel and Rebekah Joy’s second-floor Houston apartment was spared any flooding, Samuel had to pedal his bike through a foot of water during Hurricane Harvey to get to and from the hospital for his shifts, which were stacked such that all his most grueling rotations came first.

Good news: he got them out of the way early. Bad news: the stress nearly killed him. Nevertheless, God has been faithful to carry him through, a fact the rest of us could see even when Sam was too sleep-deprived to recognize it.

We pitched our tents for Family Camp in October. It fell out of sync with Doug’s vacation schedule this year, which means he missed out on the fun of sleeping outdoors (on hard cots with icy feet, gritty linens, and fire ants) more nights than not. He did spend the first weekend with us (as did Sam and Bekah, who got a much-needed break just in time to join us for starlit evenings and shut-eye and s’mores).

Dad also made it back the following Friday in time to compete with Mom in a couples’ canoe race. We came in fourth out of six, but as we didn’t tip the boat or need to be towed back to shore, we consider our performance there a wild success.

Making memories

Never a dull moment!

Jennifer’s mother turned 80 on Saturday, so the girls struck camp early and drove to Grapevine for a birthday retreat (the brilliant brainchild of Jennifer’s thoughtful sister). Nana looks about 20 years younger than she actually is—even before the facials Bethany gave us — and is as healthy and active as ever, which makes the rest of us grateful to share her genes!

Nana's 80th Birthday

Nana’s 80th Birthday

By November, Doug had wrapped up or resigned from all administrative responsibilities. He finished out his term as Chief of Anesthesia at UT, chaired his last meeting as head of the Peer Review Committee at ETMC, rotated off the Board of Directors at Magdalene Home (but still served time in the dunking booth at the Caring for Kids festival this month), and declined requests for any additional leadership roles, citing the fact that our kids are growing up fast and he can’t afford to miss these formative years. His increased involvement at home will hopefully include some triathlon training (he has just the truck for toting the bikes).

New Bikes

Dad bought Mom and Abby matching bikes

It has been over a decade since the last time our family backpacked Europe, but we finally saved enough frequent flyer miles to get eight more free tickets, so by the time you get this letter, Mom, Dad, and the Super Six should be landing in London, the first stop on a circuitous route to Rome.

Backpacking Europe

Setting a course for adventure… off we go!

We’ll be back home in time for Christmas. We pray the season is packed with meaning and memories for you, too. Let us hear from you soon!

Let us hear from you soon!

The famous Flanders family annual Christmas card assembly line

With love from the Flanders family:
Doug & Jennifer,
Jon & Matti (and kids), Beth, David & Bonnie (and Gwen), Samuel & Bekah Joy,
Ben & Mikayla (and James), Joseph, Rebekah, Rachel, Isaac, Daniel, Gabriel, and Abigail

It's a Wonderful Life

Life is a wonderful gift. May we all live it to the glory of God!

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Doug & Jennifer Flanders - www.flandersfamily.info

We love Jesus, love each other, love our 12 children, and love the life God's given us. We started this blog as a way to share resources with others who want strong marriages, happy families, & healthy homes.

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