There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle......
The other is as though everything is a miracle.

~Albert Einstein~

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family. We wish you a year of dreams come true. I will post all about our christmas after New Year's. There just hasn't been any time to put anything together. We have been blessed to have had family stay with us all through the holidays. It will seem really boring when everyone leaves.........once again Happy New and may 2008 be the best year yet!!!

God Bless
Debbie and gang!!!

Take the time to watch this video, it is an amazing message by a little boy named Logan.



It's the last weekend before christmas and I think I am almost ready. Tree is up, presents wrapped, turkey bought, house deocorated christmas cards mailed........I love christmas. It's my favorite holiday of the year. This past year has been a life changing one for our family. We have gone from a family of 6 to a family of 8. It has been a true blessing to all of us to have Denaye and Maya become a part of our family. Right now as I am writing this they are in the living room, giggling and dancing to christmas music. This is the girls first christmas......we want to make it special. We have all experienced so many firsts with them. What is really neat about this, is that the girls are older so we can see the expressions and the excitement and the giggles and the hugs, and just the joy that they feel for experiencing something new. It's simple things like catching a snowflake on your tongue, drinking from a water fountain, putting mitts on for the first time, receiving a present, playing hockey....the list goes on. We are so blessed and so thankful for so many things God has given our family......wonderful, faithful friends, the best family in the whole world, beautiful children that we love so much, good health.....the list goes on here as well!! We are most thankful at this time of year for the birth of Jesus.....it was the first christmas and the reason we celebrate. I love the christmas story and everything it represents.....hope, peace love, joy....all things good. I love all the presents, the turkey, the christmas cards, the decorating of the tree, but the most important event that happened was the birth of our saviour.......Jesus.

We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and may all of your dreams come true in 2008. Take the time to truly reflect why we celebrate christmas and may God's blessing be with you and your family!




Merry Christmas from all of us
Rod, Debbie, Taylor, Jesse, Kyle, Sam, Maya and Denaye.

On Saturday we had a christmas party at our house. There was about 50 people...we had such a great time. The day started off with tobagganing.......the girls had never done this before so this was a first. Maya loved it....she is such a try- anything- kind- of- kid. Denaye liked it as well, but she hates being cold so only lasted a few runs. We then headed back to our house for a potluck meal......I love potlucks!!! Santa made an appearance and this was also a first for the girls. Sam is an old pro, so he explained it all to them. They were not afraid at all...in fact they hugged and thanked santa for coming and for the present. It was a great day and we loved spending the day with friends. Here are a few pictures of the day...

Denaye is cold.....as usual...poor girl....it was only -3.....however the wind was chilly.

Maya love playing in the snow!!!

Sam always loves to play in the snow
Rod and the children.....3 of them.
Santa made his grand entrance.....he used the attic!!!
The kids waiting for Santa to come....
Maya has a beautiful smile.


NEW BEDS

Well we had to put the girls in their own beds. They were getting up far to early and I was sure that they were waking each other up. We bought them bunkbeds.....(I hate bunkbeds). I am far to old to be climbing up a ladder to change sheets....however their room is to small to fit single beds in it. I bought bunkbeds that can be separated . Maya was quite excited and so was Denaye untill bedtime. Maya was quite thrilled with her new sleeping quarters while Denaye told me "it's scarey". I assured her it wasn't and tucked them into bed. I found out who was waking who and it was Denaye!!! I tried to get this information out of them before, but they were blaming each other. I caught Denaye redhanded....she turns the lights on and then wakes up Maya...who desperately wants to sleep. Now that they know that I know, it has stopped...no more turning lights on and playing at 5:00 a.m. I just need to buy Maya a pink comforter and then were good to go........it seems to have fixed the problem....at least for now!!!



Christmas at the Kurtz's....can't wait.





We put up our christmas tree on the weekend. The girls were especially excited as this is their first Canadian christmas and also their first christmas with us. Last year we didn't know their faces and this year they are part of our family.....a lot has changed in a year. Anyway they had fun!! I had 4 helpers to put the tree up....Kyle, Sam, Denaye and Maya. They all did a really good job. Everytime we do something like deocrate the tree, put garland on the fireplace, etc.....Maya thanks me and hugs me for doing this. I can't wait untill we can have a real conversation and she can really express herself in her own words what she is thinking and feeling.....for now I'll take the hugs......they say a whole lot without saying anything at all.
It's official...the Holiday Season has started at the Kurtz house.....bring it on.

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