This year’s celebrations did not go down quite as we all had envisioned–the flu bug came to visit just in time for the holidays–but by God’s grace, after several days of lolling around we mustered up enough strength to have a semblance of seasonal spirit.  Thank God for hot tea and cololidal silver!

We ended up postponing our “Christmas” an extra day since I was still pretty heavy in the recovery mode on the 25th and Jonathan had come down with the fever.  It wasn’t the funnest bug, with my case including a 102+ degree fever, and the worst case of sinus congestion I can remember, for about 3 days.  Jonathan’s version was thankfully much less severe and Mom only got the head cold part of it, while Dad miraculously escaped unscathed.

Thus on the 26th we had our festivities (although greatly subdued) and opened our gifts.  We seemed to have more family gifts this year….some of us were a bit preoccupied with another project for some reason….However we did all concur that the Kitchen project could definitely count as a family gift!

So here are a few pictures of our days:

Our pretty Christmas tree–with handmade village ornaments

Jonathan distributing gifts from under the tree

Mom and Dad

Even Baxter got a gift!

It all made for quite a pile of empty boxes!

Roses from last Christmas are still pretty!

 We also enjoyed a lot of good food over the break:

And burgers seem to always taste better when grilled outside after dark!

If only that crazy string would stay put! Once you’ve tried it with the included string you’ll quickly agree–it’s time for a new one!!

Much better!

We take our games very seriously! :-)

Someone got the camera away from me!

We’re getting close to the end…

Time for more Christmas Punch!

 On New Year’s Day, we had a very similar modus operandi–Family, Food and Fun!

PotterVilla Pastured Pork–It can’t be beat!

Deliciously paired with Buttermilk Pancakes.

 After Brunch it was time for more games….

An all time favorite

By later in the afternoon the goodies were calling loudly!

The ever-popular!

Skip-Bo — partners

Gaming action!

Two games at once anyone?

Happy New Year!

Matthew

In lieu of a long  textual update, I took a few minutes today to take a quick video, showing some of what we did today (decorate for the Christmas season).

This video was impromptu and completely unscripted, taken on a phone and lit by flashlight. So I hereby apologize for the poor audio, low quality video and dismal lighting, dizzying camera swing/shake, factual inaccuracies, and lack of storyline. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the tour and have a wonderful Christmas season.

Notes:

• Bold Threadz: http://boldthreadz.com/
• White Christmas was released in 1954
• Nativity #3 (the one in an igloo) was from our trip to Alaska.
• We did not go to Bangladesh to get the 4th nativity.
• The angles were not back-lit, they were severely front-lit, making shadows. Back-lit would cause silhouetting. 
• The tree is actually green, but is decorated in blue.
• J-O-Y spells…
• I actually don’t work in my office. My desk is by the pile of computer equipment that I showed shortly after going inside. 
• The journey of the Gospel started at Creation, not Christmas. Correction would be, the journey of the incarnation and the temporal epicenter of the Gospel.

 Bonus video: Placing the reflection of a candle’s flame above our firepit in a window.

May God bless this season for your family!

In Christ,

Jonathan

Today is the day that the Jubilee Awards ceremony is held. Over 200 films were submitted, and tonight the field was narrowed down to one Best of Festival Jubilee Award Winner, who received a check for $101,000. But first, there were more films to be seen. First thing in the morning, Rescue Haiti’s Children sponsored a screening of ‘Rescued: The Movie’ and included a celebration and testimony of families who have adopted children from around the world. The big surprise of the week turned out to be Seasons of Grey. The reactions I got ranged from, I had never heard of this film until watching it today, to I was looking forward to it, and it blew my expectations out of the water. Just before dinner, Geoff Botkin gave us a look at how his family views films together, by taking through a few minutes of the film, “How to Train Your Dragon.”

The Jubilee Awards ceremony began at 7:30 p.m., with performances again by Charlie Zahm and George Sarris. Soon, awards began to be announced. ‘Lady Jane Grey’ took runner up in the Short film category, and ‘The Jester’ took the Short Film Chrystal Award. In Great Commission, ‘The Koren: Forgotten but not Forsaken’ took runner up, and Two Hats was awarded the Great Commission Jubilee Award. ‘Crying Wolf,’ which has been highly acclaimed all week, was awarded the Jubilee award in the Creation division, and ‘Check This Out’ came in as runner up. After a brief break to watch some the Hazardous Journeys trilogy of shorts again, the Best Feature announcement was made. Unsurprisingly, Courageous took the Jubilee trophy, and slightly more surprising, 7 Days in Utopia took the runner up. Two great films by Colin Gunn headlined the Documentary category, Captivated (which took runner up) and Indoctrination (which received the Jubilee award).

Finally, the two most hotly anticipated awards were announced: Audience Choice, and the $101,000 Best of Festival award. The Audience choice film won by a landslide—it went to ‘Seasons of Grey.’ This feature about a modern day Joseph will have a theatrical release soon. The runner up for the Best of Festival award went to IndoctriNation, and the winner of the 2012 SAICFF $101,000 best of festival award went to Courageous! The film from the Kendrick brothers has been at the top of the DVD sales leader board for some time. If the Oscars snubbed George Lucas when he produced the evolutionary but best-selling masterpiece Star Wars, the Christians will not make the same mistake. Courage has triumphed!

In Christ,

Jonathan Potter