Dear Ones,

Merry CHRISTmas to you!   I am writing this to you while I watch our church’s children’s program practice.  Kristi is in charge of the program this year and we are very proud of her commitment to our church body and her willingness to serve!

What a wonderful year 2009 has been for our family.  Last winter we enjoyed SO much snow which meant lots of snowmobiling and snow forts, and snowplowing for Rick.  The girls enjoyed using Matthew’s fast snowmobile when he let them. The season lasted long so of course that meant tripping over boots and snow clothing well into March.  It is good that we really enjoy living in Wisconsin!  Mandy also moved to Green Bay to work for Bergstrom at their Premier dealership, premier as in Jaguar, Land Rover and warm cookies, coffee and snacks in the waiting room.

Spring brought the end of another school year and the graduation of our senior, Kristi.  We celebrated on the lawn of our cottage.  It was a beautiful night as friends and family gathered to congratulate her.  After much prayer Kristi has decided to pursue becoming a teacher.  She had worked with children in our church program and had enjoyed it which led her to think of teaching.  Kristi has always been wise with her money and when pricing colleges she found out about Liberty University on-line.  Not only did using this on-line university save her a LOT of money, but it gave her freedom to keep working at Charlie’s Smokehouse (much to Charlie’s delight I am sure!) and to continue to work with the children at our church as well.  The studying has been challenging but she is doing well and we are proud of her.

The summer brought us into the season of work where we all become very busy.  Annie and Melody were my right hand helpers with the cleaning and caretaking work.   One of the highlights of the summer was having my sister’s sons, Matteo and Alex here to stay with us.  What a delight to have young men in the house.  They worked with us and entertained us and gave us great joy.  They celebrated Independence day with us, Gills Rock style!  They were troopers as we were down to one shower for that weekend with 13 in the house!   Summer also found us busy gathering ribbon and lace, tea lights, tulle and other wedding needs, mostly in pink.  Wedding showers and dress fittings kept us busy as excitement gathered for the first family wedding!   One of the dearest memories of the summer was attending a special Beth Moore women’s conference in Green Bay with four of my girls.  What a treat to worship and feast on God’s Word with my daughters.  Rick raced but since I am unable to remember any discussion about racing through the summer I am going to assume that it was not the greatest season for Rick.  There is always next year.  Matthew brought a new truck home but forgot to buy a FORD!   It is a nice truck with the extra cab for carrying sisters!  I have already been warned that there will be no hay-hauling with his truck!

September 12 brought the much anticipated wedding of Jeni to Jason Whittington.  God is so good and He gave us a beautiful warm weekend for the fishboil rehearsal dinner and the day of the wedding.  The fish-boil and reception were held in a tent down on the water in Gills Rock.  Twinkle lights and many tea-candles transformed the property into a magical garden.  Dear friends helped to pull it all together, thanks Mark and Mel!  So many memories were created that weekend.  Although my parents were not able to travel to the wedding, my family was all present as well as some of my cousins, aunts and uncles and we enjoyed many meals out on our lawn together. The cousins roamed the area playing games and hanging out together and the whole family helped in many ways for which we are very thankful!  We know we have gained a wonderful son-in-law.

This fall brought more wind than we have ever seen in one fall season.  Rick fished well and we are glad that he and all the guys were safe.   We also found out the end of Sept. that my Father has a serious infection in his hip.  He has chosen to not do surgery as it is too much of an ordeal as he learned last Spring.  We are grateful for the knowledge that my Dad loves God and knows Jesus as his Savior.  His passing will be our loss but his greatest gain. My mom continues to model being a wonderful wife and to faithfully care for him.  I visited him in Oct. and he gave me his preacher look including the finger waving and told me to make sure that my family meets him on the other side.  Oh yes we will Dad.

Grandma Wickman is now 95 and such a sweet soul despite being completely blind. I spent some time with her last week and her memory is much better than mine!   The girls decorated their grandparent’s Christmas tree and the house last weekend so that it would look nice for Gloria’s return home. Rick’s mom continues to struggle with leg issues and Rick has been very involved with helping them.  We hope things will be easier for them in the next year.

Rick went shopping and bought a bright red FORD and it is an awesome and safe truck.  It also has a sweet sound system so that makes it fun for me to use on the rare occasion that I am allowed to!  He also started the work of replacing windows so that we can finish siding the house.  We may have it all one color by the time we have another wedding!   Melody attended her first Packer game which is always a Johnson milestone.  She enjoyed it and said it was fun.  Another Packer fan in the making!                                                                                                                                                                                     So 2009 comes to an end, another year of the grace and goodness of God bestowed on our family. We look forward to Christmas day when our family (all 9!) will be here to celebrate together. We are blessed with all of you in our lives and we wish you many blessings in 2010.

Our family according to Melody, our budding writer and poet.

MATTHEW is a very good brother.  He has made lots of friends at work and they say that he always has a smile on his face. I think he has one of the greatest smiles! . He works very hard at his job and helps people when they need him. He is a very joyful man and we love him very much.  We are always glad when he comes to visit.

JENI got married to Jason Whittington on Sept. 12.  She works hard, staying on top of her job for Mr. and Mrs. Honnold.  Jeni keeps very busy taking care of her new husband and their new dog Bailey.  She is a lovely woman and I think she is doing a great job at being a wife.

JASON is a good husband to Jeni.  We often brag about him to our friends.  He is a very funny, loving and caring guy.  Jason is in college and is almost done.  He has a good business mind and is smart about money. He is the perfect match for Jeni and we are glad to have him in our life.

MANDY is a happy woman.  She has been living with a roommate named Ashley.  She is very nice.  She is glad Matthew is near so she can call him when has problems and needs his help.   She would like a new job and we are praying that she gets one.  We love her.

KRISTI is now in college and is also directing our church Christmas play.  This is helping her learn how to handle kids and she is doing great.  She still loves art and this summer she refurbished an antique vanity for her room.  She is a beautiful young woman.

ANNIE loves God.  She has blossomed into a beautiful young lady.  She does well in school.  She loves working with children and helps out with the youth at church doing games and crafts.  She is always kind to them and is so nice.

I am doing well in school and love all my subjects.  In the morning I have to feed and water the dogs.  If I forget, Morgan our lab comes and finds me and herds me into the kitchen until she gets her food.  Jazmin does not care because she always hopes we will feed her our food.  I like to do crafts and make things.  Dad likes my whole wheat honey bread the best.  I make it all by hand.  I sing on the Worship team at church with my sisters and I fold the bulletins to help out.    I am thankful for my family and all the fun we have playing games and reading books together.  We are reading Pilgrims Progress right now.   I hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas.

This boat is the Skipper.  It was owned buy two of the Weborg brothers of the older generation.  Howard and Emery fished together until Emery became unable to go on the boat.  Then, Rick took Howard (when he was 91!) along with him for another couple years because everyone knows a fisherman’s life is no good lived out on dry land.

They were so sweet and seeing their boat has resurfaced lots and lots of memories  of them and commercial fishing.  They were old school, no EPIRB, GPS, or even a cell-phone in those last years of fishing.  They did things the way they had done them for well over 50 years.

Howard and Emery had those beautiful blue eyes and the weathered faces of men who had exposed themselves to the elements of nature far to many times.  But each wrinkle told a story, unfortunately un-kept for the most part.   The best wrinkles were around their eyes as they had the sweetest smiles which would cause crow’s feet to appear, telling the observer that they had laughed much in their life.  I think I mean more like a chuckle as I do not remember ever hearing loud laughter from them, just chuckles with blue eyes twinkling.  I can imagine those faces at the portholes in the picture, checking the winds, looking for buoys and watching for the dock as they headed home.

The Skipper is in the process of being put into our local fishing museum and she sits now in our neighbors field.  Mark, a second generation fisherman himself decorated the boat for Christmas.  It is beautiful and poetic.  It fits well that this little fishing village should have an old-time boat decorated for the holidays.

I can’t help but smile when I think what Howard and Emery would think if they were still alive.  I think they would stand their together and chuckle, eyes twinkling, shaking their head at this foolish waste of money to run those “expensive” lights.  But down deep I think they would like it, a boat is a fisherman’s pride and maybe, just maybe, the hearts of these plain men would be warmed at the beauty of their boat decked out for Christmas.

I am a person that does not take a lot of glory in material possessions but I am thankful for what I have and I do enjoy having tools that work well for me.  I bought a new mixer in the past week because my 22 year old Kitchen Aid had bit the dust, no more eating metal dust from the beater and bowl banging each other, just kidding!  I also have a new washer and dryer arriving this coming week as my 23 year old Maytag washer died.  A washing machine that in 23 years had NEVER been serviced!  That is pretty good in my book.  I went to Best Buy to buy another set and when  told the salesperson that story he commented that I had better not set my heart on another experience like that!   “What!” I said, “You mean I can pay a small fortune for a new set and not get the same quality?”  He just said that they do not make things the way they used to.  Sad.  I bought Maytags anyway, if you are still reading this blog in 20 years ( I hope that Lord does not tarry that long!) I will let you know that status on them.  By the way, when one has not shopped for washers and dryers in 23 years the prices can be a little shocking!   And they do not make large ones that do not have all the bulls and whistles as in multiple buttons.  I remember helping my sister Angela with her new washer with all the buttons, one that looked like a small rocket with control panel to match!    It was confusing, although with 7 boys she needed something powerful!  Ours will have the same amount or more,  I am holding classes between CHRISTmas and New Years for everyone in the family to learn to use it.  I should teach Rick but I am sure that he will use every excuse in the book to avoid this class!   Maybe when he hears about all the buttons!!!!!!

Battles,  so things break down in the real world as I can attest to in the past few months.  One thing that stands strong is our family.  Material in flesh and blood but oh so filled with the the mystery of the human mind and emotions and feelings and thoughts and dreams… beautiful.  The last two weeks have been a time of praying and interceding on behalf on one of us, not the first time by any means and not the last I am sure.  How wonderful to battle as a family, to gird ourselves up in the Word and pray and intercede.  How beautiful to see the fruit of teaching and training that God’s WORD is enough, is the Sword, is our shelter, is the only TRUTH, that the Holy Spirit does minister to us, that we can TRUST our God and call out to Him.  How beautiful to see the power of GOOD worship music as it feeds the soul and lifts the spirit and brings TRUTH to our mind.  How beautiful to experience as a mom the trust that a child has in me, that I will only tell them the truth, that I will walk with them through this time in their life, that more than a mother I am their older sister in Christ.   I write this with tears in my eyes because this battle fought by my child challenged my faith as well, brought me to my knees in complete abandonment to God knowing that in this war between good and evil I must rely on God and believe Him to be all He says He is.    I can not teach my child what I do not believe whole-heartedly in and KNOW myself.  God showed Himself strong as always, calming, strengthening, giving the Wisdom of the ages to me and giving me sleep when my mind was not at rest.  He is so good, I cannot say it enough.  I have never been afraid to battle for the Lord and this victory just shows me one more time that we serve a Mighty God!

Because God is so cool………   We were supposed to start reading Pilgrim’s Progress in Nov. for school.  It did not happen.  Why?  Because God wanted it for the last two weeks.  That powerful book written ages ago has ministered to us EVERY day.  Every day the next adventure for Christian exactly fits what we have experienced in the previous day, completely!   And if you have read the story you know how the Scriptures just floods your mind as you read every page and encourages.  What a bonus!  Isn’t God the bonus God?   He takes you through life, this incredible adventure with it’s many hard times and non-eventful times, and hair-raising times, and hysterical times and then……….. bonus, you get a bonus round of Spiritual Wisdom, insights, blessings and delights!   Who says this Christian life is boring…. they are missing out on the ride of a lifetime!

Blessed to be in the Army of God, blessed to not be alone in the battle, blessed to know that I do not need to fear, blessed to have a God-fearing family who believe in prayer!

Joyce