Days With the Duerksens

                                          Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning Jesus, to Thee be glory given Word of the Father Now in flesh appearing O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord! We enjoyed a very relaxing (and strangely warm) Christmas!  The church Christmas Eve program was back in-person (although the kids had recorded their parts early), and we were back at my parents' house afterwards - much different than last year when we met via Zoom.  The only strange thing this year was the weather - mid-70s on Christmas Eve and just slightly cooler on Christmas Day.  We actually ate our lunch outside on Christmas Eve!  We waited until the 28th to celebrate with Chelan's side of the family - minus the CA crew.  Christmas Eve lunch on the deck! gift cards are hard to get to when they are trap...

 The JH Basketball season began in November, and so far, while Delaney doesn't like it as much as volleyball, she is giving it her all - playing quite a bit on the A team and contributing 2 quarters to B team.  She even had two consecutive games with last-second shots (one of them tying the game to send it into overtime)!   It has been fun to see her and her classmates improve.  Having practice every day sure helps!

 We were all thrilled to learn that Caiden received a couple of post-season football honors. His hard work earned him a spot on the Wheat State League first team defense, KSHSAA-covered/Sports in Kansas defensive honorable mention (all-state) and on the Wichita Eagle first team all-state defense team!   A few weeks later, Caiden received word that he is invited to play in the 8-man all-star game in June.  This was somewhat unexpected, but very exciting!  We get to see him play one more time - this time in Beloit with the other top 8-man players from this year.  What an honor for him and a joy for us to experience with him one last time!