El Orfanato

Our landlord, Medea, recommended a movie to us a while back. Her enthusiasm for the movie caused us to really want to see it.
So we did.



She told us it is called "the Orphanage" and I remember her mentioning something about subtitles... Little did I know there wasn't a word of English in this movie! It is entirely in Spanish - hence it's title.

This movie was so good! It was weird that a genuinely scary movie could also have such a great story (Whitney cried at the end).
It was creepy, is was funny, it was a Spanish lesson... all the things I could ever want in a movie. There aren't many movies that I would watch again right after seeing it the first time, but this one I would. Let us know who's in and we'll have a private screening at the McWhorter cottage (you bring the bagel bites).

random things

I know we haven't blogged in quite a while so this is going to be a random post. We had a pretty fun January '09. The Hoehne's posted a couple of those events. We've seen a lot of good movies, we had a fun Super Bowl Sunday, and my baby sister is no longer a teen. And recently Jon and I decided it's more fun when we cook together, so here are a couple of things we made. We're ameatures...

Pizza...Jon's favorite.


Chicken Parmesan


And we have been watching these two princesses once a week.

Our Home

For those of you who have yet to visit our home, we wanted to post a picture for you to see. We are proud of our little cottage (although we only rent it).
Here it is.

our street...


our house...


one of the tall, skinny palm trees on our street...

Our First Christmas

Here's the summary:

We can comfortably be categorized as 'less than wealthy,' to put it politely, so when it came time to decorate our house for Christmas we drew upon the most wonderful of resources - wedding gift cards. It only took a $50 card to wal-mart to establish the beginnings of our Christmas decor. Since our cottage has some personality even without decoration, it didn't take much to turn it into a festive Yuletide getaway. A bargain box of tree ornaments, some garland and lights for the mantle, and cinnamon scented pine cones helped make our first Christmas special.



Being 'less than wealthy,' we were forced to be creative and have fun rather than wallow in our lack of riches. One trip to Target proved most rewarding without spending a dime. Here were the rules: we had an imaginary budget of $100 to buy a gift or gifts for each other. Upon entering the store, we split up and rushed to (what we thought) were each other's favorite isle. We picked out what gifts we would purchase, then met at a neutral location. First, I took Whitney to the present I picked out for her...



It was a beautiful white vanity set that I knew she would love. Priced at $99.99, it was just within my hypothetical budget (tax didn't matter since we didn't purchase anything)! And she picked for me a great jacket that I loved plus the DVD set of Planet Earth! I love it! We each felt the joy of giving without feeling the pain of purchasing.




Christmas day was special for us. We were blessed to spend time with Whitney's family throughout the day. My parents and sister drove down to spend time with us a few days before Christmas which yielded wonderful quality time.

A list of favorite gifts:
2 Disneyland annual passes!!!
2 sets of fine China
5 disc Planet Earth DVD set (yessss!)
1 amazing Kerurig individual cup coffee maker
A plethora of gift cards

To be honest, I realized recently that no matter what the bank statement says we are not, by any means, poor. It is a worldly temptation to think of ourselves as poor, when in reality, by God's graciousness we have so much. How can we be poor with a family who loves us so much, and a loving, fun group of friends to experience life with? How can we be poor when there's food on our table and freshly brewed, delicious coffee in our mugs?

It is amazing to remember God's words to Abraham way back in Genesis 12 when He said "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Add to that Jesus' descending to earth to become flesh - the reason for this whole season - coming to die and redeem mankind to himself. God's love for his people and Jesus' perfect sacrifice can provide the richest blessing we can ever experience on earth - and I hope you have.

I hope that you too had a blessed Christmas.