Christmas Treasures – 2. Our Family Treasures

Merry Christmas, dear family and friends.  We are thankful for year 2025, now filled with many memories with our family and friends.  We treasure the faith God has given us, the gift of our 56-year marriage, and our children and their families.

Recently, we read the Scriptural account of how Mary treasured her role as the godly mother of Jesus, conceived by God’s Holy Spirit:

But Mary treasured up all these things,
pondering them in her heart.  Luke 2: 19

Next to the Christ child, Mary is the central character of the Christmas story.  We are not surprised that Mary is among the world’s most admired women.  She treasured God’s Word in her heart, and she also treasured her family.  We have elaborated on Mary’s qualities elsewhere (Go HERE to read more.) as background for this Christmas letter with its theme of “treasuring our family.”

Remembering Family Treasures
So, we begin with thankfulness to God for our home here in Wooster, and for the many hours we have enjoyed in our projects both in and out-of-doors in our flower and vegetable gardens.  Abby is particularly gifted with a “green thumb” and finds caring for her plants very relaxing.  We have also enjoyed teaching and loving some 2- and 4-year-olds, and also some adult brethren in Christ in our weekly small group that meets in our home as part of Movement Church (name change from West Hill Baptist Church; same Gospel-centered mission to share and grow in Christ).   [Click on Photos to Enlarge.]

After church and on occasion during the week, we have enjoyed walking the trails of one or more of Wooster's lovely city parks. 

Besides enjoying our life and activities here in Wooster, we also enjoyed many opportunities to share time with our growing family.  A highlight this year was our annual family retreat held in the Hocking Hills area.  (See family photo above.)

In August, we enjoyed a relaxing time visiting Brad and Raquel in Ann Arbor.  Brad now devotes full time to producing and marketing faith-based media for young children as founder and president of The Little Leaders Company.  Raquel works as project and program manager at University of Michigan.  She also partners with Brad in production of Little Leaders media products.

Our daughter, Mindy, is completing another year as nurse practitioner (NP) with WellBe Senior Medical.  She dearly loves and cares for her patients and they love her.  Her husband, Steve, continues as a partner in Select Painting which serves the greater Akron area with skilled interior and exterior painting.  They love their three children and their new granddaughter as described below.

Our grandson, Caleb, and his wife, Soni, live in Pittsburgh.  They love the city and enjoy hosting family and giving educational tours.  We have enjoyed their hospitality and a visit to the Heinz Museum and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.   Caleb is a truckdriver for Papa John’s Pizza and supplies fresh dough and accessories to stores around the tri-state area.  Soni works in the medical health services.

Our older granddaughter, Kiara, and her husband John welcomed their daughter Elizabeth Maetta in January.  She is Steve and Mindy’s first grandchild and our first great-granddaughter.  Elizabeth is a delight to all of us along with her mom and dad.  John works for Amazon in their HR department.  Kiara and John enjoy serving in the worship team and in technical support, respectively, at New Heights Church of the Nazarene, in Akron.

Our younger granddaughter, Della Rose, is a high school senior at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.  Her highlights for this year were her educational trip to Europe and enjoying being an aunt, thanks to Elizabeth.  After school she works part time at Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt store.  Della Rose also house-sits and baby-sits.  Her goals for 2026 are to grow in character and strengthen her relationship with God.

Realizing Real Treasures
We treasure each member of our family and we know God loves and treasures them as well.  We also treasure you, our extended family and friends.  Thank you for your prayers and for the part many of you have had in our lives and family over the years.

We hope this Christmas season will see each of us finding times of solace and reflection.  Like He did for Mary many centuries ago, may God renew our faith and resolve as we ponder and treasure the miracle of Christ, God in human flesh, coming from Heaven to save us from ourselves and our sin.  We invite you, if you haven't already, to visit our "Part 1" of this Christmas blog entitled "Mary's Treasures."  [Click HERE.]  There you will see more deeply how God has been challenging Abby and I about the true meaning of Christmas and what He wants for us to treasure as we enter 2026 in this very needy world.

We invite you to leave a greeting using the "Comments" link below, or silviusj@gmail.com.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,