Iowa Christmas

Our church staff gathered for a REALLY fun party on December 19. There was great food, lots of laughs, sweet worship, and did I mention laughs? Jeff came up with a super fun game - jeopardy style trivia, including a category just for Troy - our resident self proclaimed red-neck. It is a blessing to work with these folks through the year and always fun to gather together to celebrate Christmas.

Mark and Mandy Stenberg - enjoying the party!

This is "my mexican" Joy. She's the preschool coordinator at Cornerstone. We have a ton of fun together.

December 25

Ames, Iowa

Stenbergs

We aren't exchanging gifts with Mark's family until January 6, but we had lunch at Red and Marilyn's for anyone in the family who could make it. We spent the day there with family and friends. It was fun. Below are some pictures from the day.

1) Elliot Stenberg

2) Noah Stenberg

3) Mark and Hattie

Merry Christmas from The Stenbergs

Dad's 60th Birthday

Thank you to everyone who helped make my dad's surprise party so much fun! It was great to see him so surprised and so excited!

The day began with a phone call to Dad from Mark and I who were "supposedly" in cold, cold Iowa. Dad kept commenting on how cold it must be up here for us. How were we supposed to know? We were 15 miles down the road from him in Waverly. But he didn't know that! I just played along, telling him how we wished we could be there to celebrate with him.

We rode with Angie B to the camp to see Dad. We stopped right outside the camp for me to jump in the backseat for the surprise. Angie pulled right up to Dad where he was outside visiting with his friend Charles. He never saw us in the backseat. So we popped out and said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Of course he laughed, he cried, he hee-hawed! It was fun! He just couldn't believe it.

So, we made our way to Monroe where he thought he was having a nice, simple dinner with Ginger and Buddy and us. But WOW, was he surprised and overwhelmed! Even we were a bit stunned at the number of people who gathered to honor Dad.

It was awesome!

Here are some pictures! For more pictures visit http://photos.yahoo.com/missmandybee and check out the "Tom's 60th Birthday" album.