“Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of year.”

Yes, a favorite time of year. Always busy and happy and cheerful and fun. It is a great time to reflect on the continued blessings in our lives. Here are some highlights…

In January, we “cashed in” on a Christmas gift we gave to the girls. We got a dog. A brand new puppy. Buddy (named after Buddy the elf from a favorite Christmas movie – ELF) joined our family on January 13^th. I soon had second thoughts – puppies and pregnancy don’t mix well. But it was a good reminder of what having a newborn was going to be like. It didn’t take long for our family to become big fans of The Dog Whisperer. We all like to think we have a little pack leader in us. Buddy’s grown from a mere 4 pounds to about 30 and has been a fun addition to our family. (Did I really just devote a whole paragraph of my Christmas letter to my dog?) Wow!

Sarah turned 4 in January (turning 5 soon), and has really grown up this last year. Graduating from speech therapy in February, her teacher found her a spot in a preschool class on the same campus. The afternoon time slot didn’t work out for us, so her preschool stint only lasted a short little week, but it left a big impression. She is definitely ready for school. Sarah got to take a road trip in the spring with Boppy and Grammie (my parents) to visit with Auntie Amanda and Uncle Andy in Sacramento. She’s quite the traveler; she made the same trip with Papa (Brandon’s dad) to visit more family up north. Sarah has a ‘slight’ obsession with boxes, and she enjoys chatting it up on her pretend phone with any number of friends and family members. This is Momma’s last year with Sarah at home as she will begin kindergarten this coming fall. What a blessing it has been to have her home. She’s a GREAT big sister and helper!

Spring break took us to Palm Springs. Our last little vacation before “homeboy” was born. We had lots of busy work to take care of before June. We were able to remodel our laundry room and a bathroom, as well as get some painting done. It makes me wonder if impending birth is the key to getting things done at this house? Hmmmm…

Obviously, June brought our biggest blessing of the year. Judah Nichols Cash was born June 6^th. He was a healthy 8 pounds. With the girls home for the summer, momma had lots of helpers. I was sad to see them back to school in September. Judah is now six months old, sitting up, and eating baby food. He has a very happy disposition and is constantly smiling, showing off his two bottom teeth. It goes so fast! I think ahead to next year’s letter – he’ll be running through the house. Right now, I just count each day as a blessing with this sweet baby boy.

Judah’s birth was just the start of a great summer. We made another trip to Palm Springs as our annual Lake Mojave trip was cancelled – boo hoo. Also, Abigail and Esther performed in a production of Oliver over the summer. Abigail auditioned for an orphan role, which demanded more work from her, but she enjoyed it. She turned 9 in August and is continuing to grow up into a little lady before our very eyes. Theater has become a passion of hers, although we threw her onto the soccer field for one more season this fall. Her skills continued to improve throughout the season and her team did well. Abigail may have been on a soccer field, but her mind was on another upcoming theatrical performance. In November, she performed in The Sound of Music, where she earned the role of Marta Von Trapp. The pressure was a bit more intense this time, but she enjoyed it immensely. Abigail also took up an interest in golf, buying her own set of golf clubs and hitting balls with dad when time allows. Fourth grade is treating her well; she just made the honor roll. We’ve had a bumpy ride with allergies this fall, and after an allergy skin test, we found out that she’s allergic to just about everything! She started allergy shots last week and we’re hoping for a better spring.

Esther, who recently turned 7, has become quite the dramatic one, too. In addition to an orphan in Oliver, she played sweet little Gretl Von Trapp alongside big sister in The Sound of Music. She did an amazing job singing her solos and memorizing lines. Her beloved second grade teacher tells us of her dramatic readings and expressive storytelling, too. We’ve always known her to be a character, now she’s putting it to use. This summer, Esther took a big step into deepening her relationship with God, and was baptized as a believer. What better way to be baptized than by your own daddy in the ocean. Very cool! Esther also played another season of soccer, and got some aggression out on the field. She leapt and threw her body over as many shots on goal as she possibly could. A highlight for mommy and daddy was to hear from her teacher that she displays a caring and encouraging heart towards others in her class. It is a true blessing to hear that your child is modeling God’s love.

Brandon continues to stay busy in his PHD program at Fuller Seminary. He’s hoping to take his comprehensive exams next fall. He’s constantly got his nose in a book, which is rubbing off on the girls – Esther and Abigail can often be found tucked in the corner of a couch reading. He’s a very helpful dad, and is really enjoying Judah in his new, more active stage of life. Newborns aren’t very exciting for dads. J The church is doing well and the congregation continues to grow, which is always a blessing. Brandon was given the honor of preaching at a Talbot chapel this fall. The experience was humbling and a bit unnerving as many of his former professors were sitting in. I tried to convince Brandon that they were there to witness the success they had a part in. (At least that’s my humble opinion.) He added to his already busy schedule by coaching Esther’s soccer team this year. He was a good coach despite their losing record. Our marriage reached the 11-year mark this summer, and we both consider ourselves blessed with a loving and healthy relationship.

News flash – Courtney is a mother of four! You can imagine what I’ve been up to this past year. However, amidst it all, I still found time to fill a role in The Sound of Music as Sister Berthe and share the stage with my daughters. (A nursing nun? Go figure!) I’ve been on ‘maternity leave’ from the praise team at church, but will be starting back with Christmas praise this month. With three beautiful daughters and one charming little boy, I enjoy my all-encompassing role as mom. Although it can be a bit tiring, and thankless, I treasure this stage of life, and I thank God, every night for each blessing that those four bring me.

Every year I’m reminded that God’s blessings are abundant. And though I often lose sight of them in the ‘busy-ness’ of life, the holidays provide a wonderful opportunity for all of us to gratefully reflect on the goodness of God and His grace in our lives. As I reflect, I can’t help but to agree with the psalmist, “Surely I have a delightful inheritance!”

If you want to hear from us more than once a year, check out my blog – it’s a casual account of the day to day craziness of our life. www.courtneycash.wordpress.com

Christmas time is here
We’ll be drawing near
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

With all of our love,

Brandon, Courtney, Abigail, Esther, Sarah, and Judah

Welcome to the updated version of the Cash family Christmas letter. The convenient (and environmentally friendly) world wide web, helped make the decision to go paperless easy. We’re still running late, our calendars are jammed packed, and Christmas is right around the corner. TYPICAL! But for now, I will breathe in, breathe out, and reminisce on the things that have made us smile in 2007. Come with me….

In January, we started off the year by enjoying family time in Palm Springs. Swimming in January!? The girls were ecstatic. Sarah turned 3 and started speech therapy through the Torrance Unified School District. If you read the last couple of Christmas letters, you know she spoke her own language, and Mommy was the only interpreter. Over the last year she has made leaps and bounds. Her pronunciation of letters is getting better all the time and her teacher has hopes of “graduating” her early. Sarah finally started to grow, too. She’s still my runt, but getting taller. She’s finally wearing the right sized clothes for her age (just barely). She likes playing with her babies, dressing up with friends, and drawing pictures, and she can’t wait for her sisters to get home from school – they’re her favorite things to play with.

Over the summer, we took our yearly jaunt to Lake Mojave. As usual, we had a blast, always wishing for one more day. The time with such treasured friends and family seems to get shorter every summer. There was much swimming, sunning, sea dooing, tubing, skiing, wakeboarding, and kneeboarding. Everyone in our family was pulled behind a boat at some point. The girls especially liked the tube – or should I say “three person couch” During Sarah’s ride, she fell asleep!

Abigail has stretched herself this past year. Kneeboarding at Lake Mojave was only one of the many new things she tried and achieved. She began learning guitar, and in the process was filmed for a children’s instructional DVD. (You can see her at www.kidsworshipguitar.com.) She played a dancing napkin in this summer’s church production of Beauty and the Beast, and most recently portrayed Alice in our church’s Christmas production of The Best Christmas Pageant Yet. She was awesome! Abigail turned 8 in August, and had her first slumber party. High School Musical 2 premiered on her birthday (I’m sure Disney was thinking of her and her party when they scheduled the premiere). She also scored her first goal this soccer season. Abigail’s in the third grade now and she is continuing to excel across the board.

Esther has followed suit in doing new things. One of her proud achievements was finally swimming with confidence and without floaties (jumping off the boat at the lake and swimming to shore again and again…and making it all the way across Papa’s pool). She made some fast friends with the Bancroft twins this summer (Hi, Ellie and Emma!) and did lots of tubing with them at the lake. Alongside big sis, Esther also performed in the two productions this year. She played a wolf and a cup saucer (aka enchanted object) in Beauty and the Beast, and starred as Gladys Herdman in The Best Christmas Pageant Yet. This was a fairly big role for a young 6 year old, and she nailed it. Esther is a reader now. She’s moving right along in first grade, and loving it. She also just finished her first season of soccer. She enjoyed playing and scored lots of goals (she seemed really motivated by Daddy’s offer of an Icee for each goal). Similar to Abigail, you can find Esther on the world wide web where she ‘modeled’ for a cap and gown company. (www.rhymeuniversity.com – look under t-shirts and keepsakes)

Brandon began a PHD program this year at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. It will be a slow process, but he’ll get there. He’s still busy at the church, where we all continue to enjoy the new facility. It has been such a blessing to have our own building. This year, he was honored to preach at a plenary session of the Evangelical Homiletic Society’s annual conference. He also had a paper published in the EHS journal. With all of the reading that comes with a PHD program, he tends to spend his free time reading books rather than playing golf. Golf is pretty much a fond memory at this stage of life.

I’ve been trying to keep everything running as smoothly as possible. I taught the third and fourth graders in our Pioneer Club at church, and continue to stay busy on the worship team. I repeated as a chairperson on the PTA at the girls’ school and stay involved with the women’s Bible study at church. I also had a great time leading Vacation Bible School for the pre-schoolers. “Mommy” got to participate in the Christmas play this year as well. I played Alice’s mom – I think I was type-casted. The big 3-0 snuck up on me this year, and Brandon surprised me with a ticket to fly up and celebrate with my twin sister, Amanda in Sacramento.

Together, Brandon and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in July. We celebrated by going back to New York, where we had visited on our honeymoon. Auntie Manda came to stay with the girls, and we enjoyed 5 days away. We took in a Mets game (just so happened the Dodgers were in town, too) and even wore our Dodger jerseys to the game – a little heckling is a small price to pay for staying true to the “boys in blue.” We stayed just off Times Square, took in a Broadway show, a jazz club (to see a wonderful performance by one of Brandon’s high school friends whose now a Broadway star www.stephaniejblock.com) , walked up to Central Park, traveled down to the World Trade Center, and simply took in the city. It was an awesome way to celebrate 10 great years. We’re already looking forward to ten years from now, when we can report on our 20th anniversary visit to the Big Apple.

Perhaps the biggest smile for the Cash family came in October, when we found out I was expecting baby #4. Everyone is excited, and no, we weren’t trying for a boy. Although the girls all say that a boy would be nice, they also say a girl would be fine, too. I’m not holding my breath. The due date is June 9th.

There has been much to smile about this year. God has continued to bless beyond all that we ask or imagine; we pray He’s smiling down on your family as well. We hope you can take time this season to reflect on the smiles you’ve had this last year, and we pray for many more smiles in 2008. You can keep up with our family throughout the year at my blog, where I keep a casual account of the day to day craziness of our life. www.courtneycash.wordpress.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

With all of our love,

Brandon, Courtney, Abigail, Esther, Sarah, and #4