2012 Favorites

January 1, 2013 - Happy New Year! Since we did not send out Christmas cards and letters this year for various reasons, I have decided to give you a little 2012 year in review here by telling you our "favorite things" of 2012. I will start with the youngest and newest member of the Penner home....

Lucy: favorite books: Olivia books (to be honest, Lucy reminds me alot of Olivia) Favorite movie: Well, she isn't much for sitting still long enough to watch a full movie. Favorite activities: playing with baby dolls, looking at books, playing outside (without snow), and imitating all her siblings....both the good and the bad activities. :) Favorite food: ice cream

Isabelle: Favorite books: Berenstein Bears books and Look and Find books. Favorite movie: Curious George. Favorite activites: dressing up!!!!!, riding on a big girl bike, and swimming. Favorite food: "mac 'n cheese and grapes, hamburgers with only ketchp on it". Favorite lesson learned this year: "letters".

Aiden: Favorite book: Huckleberry Finn. Favorite movies: Tin Tin and What's In the Bible. Favorite activities: reading and swimming, skiing in the winter. Favorite food: hamburgers and sloppy joes. Favorite lesson learned this year: "learning about artists like Vincent Van Gough and the weather and plants."

Ian: Favorite book: Tom Sawyer. Favorite movies: Brave and Miracle at Midnight. Favorite activities: Legos, swimming in the summer, and working with his electronic snap circuits. Favorite food: mac 'n cheese recipe (baked beans, mac 'n cheese, hot dogs, and cheese on top......Blech!) Favorite lessons learned this year: "different forms of energy and cells".

Laura: Favorite book: It is too hard to narrow down to just one book, so since I do the blogging, I get to put more than one: Kisses from Katie, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, and The Heavenly Man. Favorite movies: October Baby and Les Miserables. Favorite Activites from 2012: trip to China and finally having Lucy in our home, taking the family to Waterpark of America, weekend away with Jason for our 11th Anniversary, Okoboji Bible Conference in August to hear Skye Jethani and Gracia Burnham and running my third half marathon. Favorite lessons learned in 2012: Lesson 1: I am not always called to an easy and comfortable life. I am called to follow Jesus. Challenges will come my way and there is so much joy to be found in those challenges if my focus will remain on the ultimate goal.......following Jesus with my entire life. Lesson 2: True and genuine and unconditional LOVE comes from something beyond myself. It comes from the Holy Spirit. Even if the love is not returned to me, I am still called to love. (O.k. I am still on lessons learned....I have a lot of lessons I have learned this year, let me tell ya!). And last, but certainly not least.....a third lesson learned in 2012.....waiting is hard, but so worth every minute for everything learned in the waiting. What joy it brought me to finally bring our Lucy home after so much waiting and what joy it was to learn many lessons in the waiting. To God ALONE be the Glory!

Jason: (written by himself.....this may finally be the blog post I have been begging him to do. :)) Favorite book: Phil Vischer's book Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story about Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables. Favorite movie: Hunger Games and The Help. Favorite activities in 2012: skiing with the boys, going to China, a shockingly bountiful harvest despite the drought. Favorite food: donuts. Favorite lesson learned (or more accurately "lesson being learned"): Having God plus anything is no more or better than having God alone. That is to say having a wonderful family or good health or all our physical needs met and then some, or even a dream and ministry for some great thing I can do for God's kingdom plus having God himself is no more or better than having just God.  He is life, hope, love and all that we need.  Nothing on this earth can add to Him.  He may or may not give me those other things, but if he does they will not fulfill me and in fact I may very well make them my idols if I seek my identity and purpose in them.  Instead, whatever I do have must be given back to God and used for his purposes only. 

Our year was filled with so many other memories, but this post would get too long to read. We have been blessed with family and friends that challenge us and love us at the same time, overall healthy bodies that allow us to serve God, and a God who is faithful and loving whom we can call Abba Father!

Happy New Year from the Penners!