Indiana Christmas

I know that this is a little late, but I need to tell you what we did over Christmas. This post will be about Christmas with the Shirks and my next one will be about Christmas with the Freeds.

Last week we drove out to Goshen, Indiana to have Christmas with the Shirk Family. We try to always be out their at around the time of Kris's Birthday, the 23rd. We had our Christmas meal, which was a turkey this year, and had fun letting Kalvary open all of our presents. One thing that we usually do with the on the Shirk side is make tamales. This year we decided to forgo that and I think it was mainly because it just wouldn't have been the same without the whole family there. Kris's sister and brother-in-law live in Portland, Oregon, and couldn't make it this year. Special thanks to them for sending the cool Portland basket though. We have been highly enjoying the coffee. I haven't tried the Hot Chocolate yet, but I'll bet it is delicious too.

We also managed to visit the Kalvary's Great-grand parents while we were there. She had great fun pushing around a little duck toy that Great Grandpa Kulp had made for her. On another night, Kris and I left Kalvary with Grandma and Grandpa and we went out with some friends and saw "The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe". We highly recommend it. It was a great improvement over the old British version.

Christmas Stuff

I just realized that since we are taking off today for Indiana and wont be back until Saturday, that I had better put an entry in here. As I mentioned we are going to the Shirks for Christmas there. I always get excited about road trips. The pictures I am posting are from LCF Family Christmas, something our church does every year. It started as an informal service for those souls that didn't go somewhere else for christmas, but it has gotten so popular that we have had to move it earlier in december so that everyone can come. Fun Stuff. Do you like Kalvary and her cousin Kaelyn's matching dresses?

My Newsletter

Every so often, (its supposed to be bi-monthly) I send out a Newsletter to people who support me financially at the radio station. This time it sort of morphed into our Christmas letter as well. I though I would put a copy of it on here for people who are interested, but don't get it.


Dear Friends,


Once again, I am late on my newsletter and it turns into a Christmas/News letter. I hope you don’t mind. First, in regards to the radio station, things are going well, although there are some significant areas of concern. Our football broadcast season went very well, and we are starting basketball season, so that has been keeping me busy. We are trying to start an initiative to get more of the local pastors involved and maybe convince them that airing a program for their church is something they would like to do. If we can get 10 or so, we will be a long way toward the stations being able to support a full time general manager.
The biggest areas of concern deal with the “Armory” Youth Center. The Armory is the organization that owns the radio station and operates a Youth center in London, Ohio. They have been having lots of financial trouble in the past year, and the Director and the treasurer have recently resigned. The remaining board members have some big decisions to make which could have a huge effect on the radio station. This is something I would really appreciate your prayers on.
Another good note is that I have plenty of Youth volunteers, and they have been getting more and more involved. This previous week London had their annual Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration, which is where they close the streets in the downtown area and have free carriage rides as well has lots of other cool entertainment. WCYC-LP played Christmas music all evening long and we had 5 roving reporters going around and grabbing people for interviews and giving out prizes. It was a fun night.
On the home front, Kalvary gets bigger and bigger. This morning after breakfast we realized that she had eaten more than either Kris or I. I hope she is going through a growth spurt. She has a new cousin. My sister and brother-in-law just had their first child, Kaelyn Liana Thoman. Kalvary got to hold her little cousin this past week and I wish I had been there to see it. Reportedly Kalvary put her cheek next to Kaelyn’s and looked very, very cute. Best Christmas wishes to you all and if you ever want to check up on how we are doing and don’t want to wait for the next Newsletter you can read my blog at www.airgrizzly.blogspot.com .

Merry Christmas!!!!
Ryan, Kris and Kalvary

Ps. Oh, and our new baby will be arriving around May 13th

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I love and dislike Christmas. I love the memories that it usually brings and the fun that is had. I get really sick of how busy we often get. Anyway. Its snowing today and cold which is great because I love winter and it seems to have finally arrived. There is nothing like curling up with hot chocolate and a book during the winter. You also always have plenty of soft ammo lying around just waiting to be hurled at some unsuspecting target. Let summer try to beat that.
Tommorrow is our first home basketball game broadcast. It should go ok. We have some new people helping out and they'll take a little bit to relieve their jitters. I do wish we could have gotten some more sponsors. Do pray for the "The Armory Youth Center" the organization that owns the station. They are going through a rough time of it lately. Here is a picture of Kalvary with Reindeer antlers.