Our Christmas Letter

2006 for the FOSTER'S
Six Hilights:

1) Three day trip with my wife up the coast celebrating our 16th anniversary. With the exception of the traffic it was a perfect trip.
2) Weekend trip with my daughter, Quincy, to S. Cal. The best waves and conversation we’ve ever had.
3) Taking my 10 year old boy, Shay, to a Switchfoot concert and he gets to meet the band afterwards. Oh, and his three pointer in a YMCA championship game we won by one point.
4) My five year old, Evan, coming home from kindergarten running upstairs dumping out his piggy-bank and scrounging up $1.50, bringing it downstairs, to put it in a zip lock bag, throwing it in his backpack while saying in an exasperated tone, “I’m going to buy a hot lunch tomorrow! Dad, your lunch was terrible.” Then with his little finger he started counting, “You gave me the heel. I hate the heel. You gave me grapes. I don’t like grapes. You gave me beef turkey (that’s how he pronounces jerkey) and a power bar!” Poor guy. Only five and he already has to take matters into his own hands.
5) Black Sand Beach.
6) Speaking of Hawaii… baptizing my friend who happened to be pregnant at the time and the both of us getting completely pummeled and subsequently dumped out mercilessly on the sand by huge but surprisingly sneaky, Kanapali waves... not once, but twice! On the third try we finally got-r-dun.

Two Lowlights:

1) ER/Doctor visits. Too many of those again this year.
2) Life being hard. Didn’t someone say it was supposed to get easier?
Anyway, I could go on but I think that’s a pretty decent ratio… 3 good things for every bad. Though I’m tempted to say I’d like a year with no bad things I suppose that wouldn’t make me very strong… or blessed. Isn’t that what our Lord said? When you’re hungry, searching, thirsty, meek, low in spirit and persecuted… then you’re blessed? Seems backwards to me. But I learned a long time ago that He’s more trustworthy than my thoughts about it all. (It’s almost as if His ways are ‘higher’ than mine… hmmm…)

Merry Christmas and here’s to a good ratio for you in the coming year as well!

The Fosters
Jonathan, Johnna, Quincy, Shay and Evan