{"id":6192,"date":"2012-12-31T08:27:41","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T14:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.flandersfamily.info\/web\/?page_id=6192"},"modified":"2022-12-07T12:21:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T18:21:20","slug":"christmas-2011","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.flandersfamily.info\/web\/about-us\/our-christmas-letters\/christmas-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2011 Flanders Family Christmas Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

What follows is another yearly installment in our family’s complete history told via the 2011 Flanders Family Christmas Update. To see a full listing, see Our Christmas Letters<\/a>. For tips on writing your own family history in this fashion, follow this link<\/a>. In the meantime, enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Flanders Family Update: 2011<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

December 2010 Happenings<\/h3>\n

Last December was mercifully free of communicable diseases, but cram-packed with caroling parties. The Swiss student who stayed with us during the holidays must\u2019ve thought that Christmas caroling is The Great American Pastime, given how often we did it while she was here. We caroled for neighbors, caroled for friends\u2019 neighbors, caroled for shut-ins, caroled for nursing homes, caroled at the Goodman Museum, and caroled while bell-ringing for the Salvation Army.<\/p>\n

\"christmas-concert\" <\/p>\n

Most of the folks we serenaded seemed genuinely happy to listen — some even passed around trays of hot cocoa and homemade cookies fresh from the oven\u2014but one old Grinch waved a gun at our group and demanded that we get off his property. I don\u2019t know whether his fantasy fudge didn\u2019t set or what, but he was in no mood to hear \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d no matter how sweetly sung, so we breathed a silent prayer for him and hurried to the next house.<\/p>\n

January 2011 Happenings<\/h3>\n

January found us checking into a hotel for a week while our kitchen cabinets and floors were being refinished. We slept in Tyler, but took day trips to Dallas, Shreveport, and Flint for ice-skating, museum hopping, and indoor-waterparking, respectively. This was a great way to ease ourselves into a New Year that would bring many far-reaching and unforeseen changes for our family, the first of which came a few days later when our oldest daughter boarded a plane for Nepal.<\/p>\n

\"Beth <\/p>\n

\"Bethany\"Bethany (21) spent the next six months on the other side of the globe working with special needs kids. The assignment was all she dreamed it would be and more. When asked on the initial job application to define her expectations, she had written:<\/p>\n

I expect to be challenged to grow as I separate myself from a culture that caters to complacency and immerse myself in one that forces me to continuously rely on the Lord for joy and strength. I expect that it will be out of my comfort zone, and that there will be heat and insects and dirt, but that there will also be love and joy and abundant grace. I expect that God will use this time to continue to mold in me the heart of a servant and to conform me to the image of His Son\u2026. I expect that some days I will wake up and wonder what I was thinking when I signed on for this job, but I know His Spirit will remind me\u2026that ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I expect that God will fill my heart to overflowing with love for the people that I will work with, and that I will cry when my term is over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Beth\"<\/p>\n

February 2011 Happenings<\/h3>\n

By February, two of our kids were hobbling around on crutches: Daniel (5) sustained a hairline fracture to his foot, although none of us know how that happened, and David (19) shattered his fibula while bounding down a terraced lawn on campus. <\/p>\n

\"IMG_2060\"<\/p>\n

\"David'sHe actually heard the bone crack the instant it happened, but his inertia forced him to take a few more strides before he could stop, which probably compounded the injury. He had a rod surgically inserted that same day, but the break has been exasperatingly slow to heal (fast-forward ten months: November found him in a new cast awaiting a second surgery). <\/p>\n

Bad news is, he\u2019s had to miss out on a full year\u2019s worth of ultimate Frisbee and triathlon training. <\/p>\n

Good news is, this left more time for study, so he aced his classes, completed his dental school applications, and (together with brother Samuel) was named co-recipient of UT Tyler\u2019s \u201cOrganic Chemistry Student of the Year\u201d award. <\/p>\n

March 2011 Happenings<\/h3>\n

We tackled another huge landscaping project in March, expanding flowerbeds, transplanting shrubs, dividing bulbs, adding river rock, spreading mulch, and laying two new flagstone patios. Everybody pitched in to help, including our Chinese friend, Yulong, who stayed with us for spring break, but Benjamin (15) did the lion\u2019s share of the work and completed the patios with artful precision. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, Jennifer recognized this project for what it was\u2014just one more step toward getting our house ready to put on the market. Doug had been considering a move ever since we read David Platt\u2019s Radical<\/a> last year, but Dave Ramsey\u2019s Financial Peace<\/a> seminar and Barack Obama\u2019s sweeping healthcare reforms cemented his resolve.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/p>\n

Knowing this, Jennifer had been praying that if God really wanted us to sell our home, He would just send a buyer to our door<\/a> — not because she was eager to move, but because she hoped to avoid the hassle of keeping a house show-ready (while simultaneously trying to home school!) or having to vacate the premises at a moment\u2019s notice should a prospective buyer wish to see it. <\/p>\n

So we were only mildly surprised when, without our ever listing it, without so much as a sign in the yard, a colleague of Doug\u2019s saw our place for the first time this month and offered to write us a check for it on the spot. We accepted (but didn\u2019t close until June).<\/p>\n

The rest of the year is somewhat of a blur.<\/p>\n

April 2011 Happenings<\/h3>\n

\"megamindAbout a hundred friends gathered in our garage on the first of April for a private screening of Megamind<\/a>, followed by a worldview discussion. <\/p>\n

The movie night was Samuel\u2019s idea, and he did a great job moderating: <\/p>\n