I gave blood today.  It was the first time in years; the last two times I almost passed out and I’ve been a little nervous since.  Deanna has always been a faithful to donate on a pretty regular basis and she encouraged me to give it another try today.  Well, I made it through and felt fine all the way through… then, I got up to go and sit-out the suggested 15-minute waiting period.  I picked up a newspaper and started to read.  It wasn’t very long before I could barely sit up, let alone read the newspaper.  Deanna noticed that I looked pale (and troubled) and got the nurses to put me back in one of the chairs where they could put my legs up.   I ended up feeling faint-headed and nauseaus for the next four or five hours.  I’m finally starting to feel like myself again.  Whew!

I don’t know what my body doesn’t like about donating blood, but I’m not giving up.  I’m going to give it another try in a couple of months to see if I can get any better at this!

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again… I love these guys.  I’ve had a couple of short conversations with Tic Long (the hair-challenged one on the left) and feel like I know Marko like a friend, mostly from his blog posts (found at www.YSMarko.com).   Here, the YS Staff offer their holiday love to youth workers all over the world.  Awwww…

Listen to this and tell me what you think… I think Pastor Brent needs to teach us some of these!

Janessa’s been a “doll” and published the pics she took at this year’s student Christmas party — thanks Janessa! Wasn’t it a blast?! Relive the memories here.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day today and had just as wonderful time with friends and family as I did.

The festivities for us started on Saturday, when we celebrated Mikella turning three-years-old. I think that she’s been thinking that every day since then has been her birthday, too, with all the present-opening! She’s, of course, been loving it!

Then, our family opened presents first on Sunday afternoon (my side of the family) and second on Christmas Eve evening (Deanna’s side). We have been excited to spend time with family from both sides: my brother Todd’s family, from Rock Springs, WY and Deanna’s Mom and sister from Pierre, SD and Grand Forks, ND respectively. We all went out and did some geo-caching on Christmas Eve — Christy, Deanna’s sister, for the first time. Lots of fun!

Today, I am up in Gettysburg, SD visiting Dad’s family and my grandmother. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen several of my cousins and it was fun catching up. For more holiday pics from my family’s time together this holiday season, visit our web site at www.youthpastors.net. Merry Christmas and much love to all!