Christmas Blessings from our family to yours!

It’s Christmas!  We thank God at this time of year for His greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ. This time of year our minds and hearts
are also turned to thankfulness for you, our family and friends.  We pray that your Christmas will be filled with blessings and wonderful
memories. May the peace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you as you celebrate His birth.  He came to “cast out our sin and enter in.”
May He enter your hearts anew this Christmas and may it be Christmas in your hearts all year long.

The McDaniels had another full, busy year.  Things just never seem to slow down.  Here some 2011 highlights for you!

Trips:  We made 2 family trips to Big Sandy, Texas.  One was for our annual home school conference in April and then we went to Family Camp
in October. It was our first camping trip in our “new-to-us” 31’ bunkhouse camper trailer!!  Of course, we still let the boys rough it in a tent…
In May, Chris and Cindy were able to make one of their dream trips. They thoroughly enjoyed an Alaskan Cruise for their 24th Anniversary!!
 Three trips were made to Kentucky this year for Horse Camps.  First, Cindy and Sarah went for a 5 day Horsemanship Summit in June.
Making the second trip in September, Cindy, Sarah, Stephen, Micheal, David and Heather attended a 3 day Fall Round Up Camp. Cindy, Sarah and
Stephen made the third trip and enjoyed helping with a 3 day Family Camp in October.  No, Cindy has not ridden a horse this year…she served as
kitchen help for each camp!  Sarah is now working (long-distance) with the ministry that runs these horse camps and is looking forward to helping
with 2 camps in the spring and then doing about a 4 month long internship with the ministry next year.
We are all very excited about this great ministry opportunity for Sarah!

Major Home Projects:  This summer we reroofed the garage with the help of a friend from church. All of the boys enjoyed working
on this project and learning together. This fall/winter we are enjoying our fireplace again after it had a 4 year sabbatical.  The chimney
fire in early 2007 had cracked our chimney liner and in late August this year, we finally got the chimney fixed and tuckpointed.  Now we’re
ready for the predicted extremely frigid Chicagoland winter!  Another major project occurred in October.  We had our
driveway widened (to accommodate the aforementioned 31’ camper) as well as our cargo trailer (also acquired this year) and all of our vehicles.
Even though we still have to play musical vehicles every so often, it’s nice to have so much more room for everything.
Hopefully the grass will grow back in the front yard!

Big Life Events:  Our church had 11 home school graduates this year. A special graduation ceremony was held in June for all of them.
Sarah and Nathan, our twins born 2 years apart, graduated together.  Nathan’s future plans are to attend ALERT in January and
continue earning college credits via CLEP testing (he already has 30 credit hours). We already told you about Sarah’s near future plans…
Last November, Matthew came home after spending about 3 years training and serving down at ALERT. He began to work on his college degree
in December and will, Lord willing, finish it this December!  Matthew traveled in the spring for 3 months with an alpaca shearing crew.
He was grateful for the opportunity to earn enough money to continue to pay for his college courses/tests.  Matthew has moved to
Texas now and is preparing for his marriage. Yes, that’s right, marriage!  After 10½ months of courtship, Matthew proposed to
Miss Kristina Orr during Family Camp and she accepted!  It was wonderful for both our family and the Orr family to have that time together
celebrating Matthew and Kristina’s engagement.  We look forward to their March 23rd wedding date with much anticipation. We are
thankful to be gaining such a special, wonderful daughter! We are pretty sure you can easily find Kristina in the family photo!


Whew, those are just the highlights!  Hope you enjoyed catching up!  Have a Blessed Christmas!

Chris and Cindy McDaniels
Meghan, Matthew, Sarah, Nathan, Stephen, Micheal, David, Heather and Kaitlyn

clmcnm@sbcglobal.net
http://www.manymcdaniels.com