For those who may not have gotten our Christmas letter this year, I provide it now :) Merry Christmas to all!
(by the way, Tim is the author of our annual letter)

December 18, 2006

Perhaps it would have been wise to include a tardy slip from the principals office with this years Christmas letter. I suppose it would be just as appropriate to write a theme paper on the topic of tardiness, as it seems the arrival of annual inspiration for this letter is somewhat later than usual. Today is rather wet and brown and very Monday; hardly an inspiration of Christmas joy. But, the good news in all of this regularness and plainness is that Christmas is a simple celebration of a birthday. Feelings are nice, sentiments often enjoyable, but the fact of the matter is that God Himself became a little baby and was born into our world with all of its everyday brownness. Majesty reaching into Monday mud; a cheerful thought indeed.

This year is marked by a number of contrasts: ending of life and beginning of life. On December 25 of last year Dad called to let me know Mom was in the hospital with pneumonia. Thirty days later on January 25 we laid Mom to rest at the end of her earthly journey. Her body was simply rendered unusable by the feisty spirit it contained. The cancer in her lungs made life here too un-life-like. Among her last words to me a week or so before her passing were “…my Jesus will see me through this…”. Clearly, He did. Trivial words to some perhaps, but eternal treasures to me, her youngest son, now overlooking age forty. I am glad Jesus makes it possible for me to say “See ya later Mom.” As you read this, please have the wisdom and courage to own Christ as the one “…to save His people from their sins.”

This local branch of Bergeron Inc. received child five into the fold on March 2 of this year. Quinton Thaddaeus Bergeron (“Fifth Courageous Shepherd” or “you need guts to have five nowadays”) came from nearly the same mold as Jot and Emma; blond hair, blue eyes and of considerable size. He crawls now and shows a clear preference for real food over that yucky baby stuff. Hannah walked on her first birthday and Quin may just do the same. The lad is healthy and fits in with the rest of the crew pretty well. We plan to keep him.

Faith passed the four year mark about a month ago. Her vocabulary is on the way to catching up with her zeal for life. Dresses and tights and hair pulled up “like bear ears” identify this smaller version of Hannah. Brown eyes add to the attitude don’t they? Faith is likely the most independent of the lot. She will disappear for hours on end simply to play with her ponies or Barbies. Never short on opinion or the eyebrow action to back it up, Faith will be one to stand on her own regardless of what you think of her. (Rental contracts for Faith are available on the family website. Reduced rates for ’07.)

Emma continues to live out her middle name ‘Joy’ most of the time. She is in constant transition between Faith and Jot (typical for a middle child?). The teams switch back and forth regularly, but it is unlikely her allegiance to Jot will ever be truly swayed very far. Jot was away from home recently for a few days and Emma spent most of the time worrying over him. “Will he get enough to eat? Does he have his pillow and blanket?” I guess if neither of them finds good matches for marriage they will have each other. They certainly squabble like old married people now, so they have plenty of practice and would do just fine it seems to me. Emma is facing birthday seven in Mid-March and carries herself pretty well for being six-almost-seven.

Everyone needs a Jot. We have one and I can’t imagine life without this nearly-ten-year-old. He is still devoted to the essentials of life and shows no signs of wavering. Cereal, toast, Buzz Lightyear, Rescue Heroes, Sunday School and evening Bible stories are the life sustainers for the second of five in our home. He is tender hearted and mostly gentle (unless he can get his hands on sticks from the woods). He is reading like a champ and does pretty well during the school day in our home. Medical issues are still a part of life for Jot and consequently the rest of us. It is about time to revisit some of the issues with his left eye area now that nearly nine years have passed since his initial big surgery. No major concerns at the moment, but it’s time to have a look again to see how he is doing.

Still commanding the position of eldest is the tall and slender Hannah. She is growing into quite the responsible young lady as she rounds the corner to age thirteen in early February. Hannah is occasionally left in charge of the others while Mom & Dad get a few minutes out of the house. Quilting, baking, making, inventing and the like are still a big part of Hannah’s favorite activities. She also has opportunity to hang out with some folks her age a few times each month in Philly at the Junior High activities at church. She seems to like those quite a bit. Occasional part-time work for a lady in the Pocono church puts a few dollars in her pocket. She is a terrific help to everyone and a good kid all around. The little ones in the church nursery like her as do the adults she helps each month. She is coming along in her school work and learning how to learn here in the Bergeron home school. Seventh grade is just about half-way over at this point.

The entire family still functions best on regular routines. School happens during the week at the kitchen table. Jen has everything organized and running pretty well. In spite of our best efforts, there always seems to be something out of the ordinary happening that keeps us all on our toes. Church, school, chores and the like fill our week and keep us grounded in reality. This season of life sees a lot of the same stuff each week. We have made some excursions here and there. A visit to Ohio over the summer was full of sitting around, crafting, quilting and coloring. The heat kept us indoors nearly the entire time. It was good to simply spend time with people. We have hopes of a trip or two in 2007 but those details have to wait until next year’s letter.

Anniversary seventeen was the marker for Tim and Jen this year. The Lord has been gracious and has allowed us to grow and learn together for these years. We are approaching the 20th year of knowing one another. Married life is terrific and gets better with each passing year. We are learning from past mistakes and hopefully gaining wisdom as we move forward. Date nights are a regular part of our week and are often just a few hours of togetherness with a book or a game after the gaggle is in bed for the night. In fact, tonight we may actually go out somewhere and leave Sgt. Hannah in charge.

As I close the annual epistle, I hear little feet thumping, the dryer running and the rhythmic sounds of math and phonics lessons upstairs. This is the good life, carefully hidden directly in front of us. There is belonging, purpose and plenty to do. All of that goodness is granted to us by our Maker. Please set aside a little bit of time today as you read this fine piece of literature and assess what is happening around you. Are you pleased with how your life is going right now? Are you ready for eternity? The contrasts of life have faced us this year and by the grace of God we have grown in the midst of it all. Our prayer for you is for the free operation of God’s loving-kindness and mercy to overflow into each area of your life. May God richly bless you in the upcoming year.

With love and fond affection,

The Bergeron Family

The Nativity Story and Jot Update

Tim wrote:
Dear Friends,

Thanks so very much for covering our family in prayer. We deeply appreciate your efforts and concerns.

Jot and I saw several doctors earlier today with good result. In a nutshell, the bleeding Jot experienced in his eye was explained pretty easily. His long standing condition (venous lymphatic malformation) can occasionally cause blood to spread to various neighboring tissues around his body. This time the blood presented itself in the layers of the left eye. A little bit of blood is released and then compressed between the clear covering of the eye and the white portion of the eye. A small amount of blood looks terrible but will be reabsorbed by the body over time. There is no immediate danger or concern with this issue. Watch and wait is our current mode.

The MRI results were reviewed today. The optic nerve is supported and surrounded by the proper type of tissues and does not appear to be compressed at all. That is just about the best we could have hoped for in this case. Jot may experience some more bleeding episodes from time to time, but they are not a very, very serious concern presently. This may change over the next few months as we watch and wait. An additional MRI is tentatively planned for sometime in a few months.

For now, Jot is permitted to ride most of the fun stuff at Disney World with the exception of really intense stuff like super big roller coasters and Mission Space.

Again, please accept our most sincere thanks for your prayers and concerns over the last week or so. It is a privilege to be a part of the body of Christ and receive His love through your lives.

Tim and Jen Bergeron

Now about The Nativity Story ...wow! I really enjoyed this movie. Tim and I went and saw it (at the ONLY showtime) last night. One review I read said it focused too much on Mary??? Umm, how can the story of Jesus' birth NOT include a lot about Mary? In truth, there was only one small thing that could have been criticized and that is that they had the wise men at the stable at the time of the birth, which is sort of inaccurate. But you know what? to show the family waiting a few years for the wise men to appear would have made the movie really long! Honesty, to me it wasn't a big thing at all, it made it a nice picture ending and didn't distract from the main point of the story in my opinion. I thought the casting was super and really liked the characters a lot. For one thing, they were actually Israeli-looking...not a blonde in the bunch (contrary to many pictures we see of Jesus and Mary!) My favorite parts I think were Mary and Joseph's conversations on their travels to Bethlehem. In one, Mary asked Joseph to tell her about his dream. Joseph details that the angel told him to not be afraid and that the child was conceived of the Holy Spirit, etc. Mary then asks Joseph, "So are you afraid?" to which he replies "Yes, are you?". She says, "Yes." It was so realistic. I think they did a great job of showing how real these people were... the relationship of Mary and her parents....their response to their pregnant daughter. Lots of neat details that I was pleased to see. I was as touched by this movie as I was by The Passion, really. I think mostly because of the fearfulness and almost despair Mary seemed to feel at times. I could relate. The pains she felt at disappointing people and not being understood. We all can see ourselves in that. And even Joseph and his doubts. At one point he wonders aloud, "Will I be able to teach him anything?" Human emotions... from real human beings walking in faith. I think we too often think Mary went through her life skipping for joy that she was called to this enormous responsibility, when I believe more often she was unsure, confused and feeling alone. Anyhow, for what it's worth, I give it a thumbs up. I think it is one to have in our DVD collection of Christmas movies. Go see it :) I wouldn't recommend it for young children though. Herod's orders to kill all the young boys of Bethlehem is pretty powerful as is Rome's treatment of the Israelites. There are also some images of crucified people and violence.

A Visit to CHOP

I'm recovering from the week. I haven't really felt too great all week, but managed through. Jot's eye has been giving him trouble and Tim took him to the ER at CHOP Thursday morning. Most of you reading this probably got updates on all that... but in a nutshell: they admitted him for testing, he had a CT scan and an MRI and was released late on Friday. Essentially, there is concern, but nothing critically urgent, so he will see his specialists on Tuesday morning. I drove all the kids down to Philly last night to drop off Hannah and pick up Jot. Hannah and Tim had planned to spend the night in Philly so he could work and she could attend the junior high gym night last night and the Salvation Army innercity outreach this morning... so I took her down and Tim stayed too. It was a lot of driving last night. I didn't sleep too great but we're doing OK. I'm looking forward to having everyone home tonight.

All the medical stuff has pushed our Christmas cards off again. I had hoped to have them out last week, but Tim hasn't had time to write our letter and I haven't made time to sit down and get the things addressed. Some are nearly done now as I worked some this morning on them and Tim said he'd do the letter tomorrow, so hopefully all will go out on Monday. I still have gifts to mail as well. Oh well, it'll get done eventually.

It has been unseasonably warm here and it is starting to be depressing :) It has been in the 60s and for December in the mountains that just isn't right! I'm ready for cold weather and snow. We've usually had a big snowfall by now. Maybe next week?

I've been hit.

Well it was bound to happen. I've been hit with the sickness invading our home. My throat aches and I feel run down. The run down part might be lack of sleep, but the sore throat seems to indicate illness :( I don't feel totally out of it yet and am praying I pull through quickly, but if not, at least I've got my Christmas shopping done :)
Today the ladies from our church were invited to a Christmas Tea in Pottstown with the Calvary Chapel down there. It was a wonderful event: the food was amazingly good, Jean McClure wonderful as always and worship was beautiful. It was a nice day out even if I am feeling sick now. I had some good conversation on the drive and though we did get lost on the way down, weren't so late to have missed too much.
Nothing much more to say really. I just felt like writing a bit.

Oh I nearly forgot... Quin's latest weight from the doctor is 24 pounds. I really thought he weighed more than that but evidently not!

Wow, I have fallen in with those who forget to blog :)
Life has been busy lately. Most of the kids have been sick and we've been working on the house again. You know... normal stuff for us.

First we had Faith's fourth birthday. It's hard to believe she is four already. She is just a hoot to listen to. She comes up with the most profound and hilarious comments. "Dad, we could kill a rooster and put it on the roof to see which way the wind blows". And just today, as she scurries to her room... "you'll have to excuse me, I have important business to return to". Love her.
This picture is her with "bear ears". It began with Mulan II. One of the princesses has her hair in these little ponytail bun things and Hannah showed Faith how cute they look on her. And don't they? Faith now calls them bear ears and requests them quite often. The grin is just too much too. What a beauty! The dress she is wearing is actually a hand-me-down from her cousin Megan. It has been featured prominently in many photos over the years!

Our little man is now crawling and so enjoying his new freedom. For a time, he hated to sit and would purposely just fall over so he could crawl. Poor thing had bruises for days! Well now he is quite happy to sit and crawl and even beginning to pull up. Tim dubbed him "touch-it" as his little hands have to feel everything. It's a good thing he is so stinking cute, because he started waking up in the middle of the night again and it is driving us nuts!

He eats and eats and eats... just like Jot at that age. Loves mom's chicken and noodles and pretty much anything else we are eating. Baby food is quickly becoming a thing of the past. He chews his food and is eating table food way earlier than I remember any of the others doing. He has six teeth at this point, the two center ones and one upper and one lower both on his left. The sort of lopsided grin is too much.

Our tree is up and all of my gift buying is complete. It is a great feeling of satisfaction. Nothing bought on credit and everything within our budgeted plan... what a feeling of freedom and power. I've made one batch of peanut brittle but nothing else at this point. The sick kids and housework has invaded my holdiay baking. I might get some more stuff done this weekend, but I'm not stressing about it. Lord knows my body doesn't need any extra calories.

The kids may very well forget that Christmas is even coming this year, because after the new year, we are all going to Disneyworld. They are beyond thrilled. Mom and Ron are giving us the trip as a gift and joining us for nearly a week. We leave on Jot's birthday (he'll just be unglued I'm sure) and return the following Saturday. Reservations and plans are made... and certainly a good time will be had by all. I'm sure I'll have pleanty to share!