What's New

Hi Everybody! Here's what we have been up to the last few weeks. Hope you all have been well!

Steph's 29th Birthday

There was a huge snowstorm here on Jan. 19, so after Matt made the grueling ride home from work, we celebrated with fondue and birthday cake. It was a wonderful evening!

Thank you for the beautiful flowers Matt!

Pond Hockey Tournament

Miramichi is famous for it's yearly pond hockey tournament. We braved the freezing cold and went to cheer on our friend, Brett, and his team. They ended up winning the tournament in their division.

Our friend Brett and his team

Steph and Brett's wife, Ann

Superbowl Sunday

Before heading over to a friend's house for a small group Superbowl party, some people from the church had an afternoon football game in the snow.

Oops -we need new snowpants for Matt!

Aww... Matt

I went out one evening last week with some friends and when I came back home there was a surprise dessert for me in the fridge.

Fredericton and St. John

The last two weekends, Matt and I have been cheering on our two favorite basketball players, Lyndsay and Peter, as they played in their provincial tournaments. We love being their groupies!

Sorry this is so bright and red...

Matt is the more serious basketball fan

The House Blog pt.1

Well here it is -some pictures of the house! This is the first floor. It was the clean one that day! :0)

Our kitchen





The guest room



Our family room -yep that's a TV! Our rabbit ears can get 2 channels!



The front room that we painted over Christmas -mmmm chocolate!

Renovating over Christmas

Here are some pictures from renovating the front room over Christmas. I don't have a good picture of the finished product yet- it's coming!

Before...
We love this room because it's so sunny and it's so big! But it was definitely in need of a face lift. It was just a cream color with this one coffee-ish color wall.


Matt, the handyman, had to replace a part of our ceiling that had leaked a while ago. He did a great job!


The hardest part of that job was the sanding. Poor Matt!


The painting begins....

Be watching for the completed pictures to come in the next couple of days!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas and New Years!

Christmas Eve in Millerton



Over the New Year's weekend we had a few visitors. My mom and dad came to spend the weekend with us and we also got to dog-sit "Bubbles"! She is a chinese pug that was having her very first time away from home with us. She was so well-behaved and cuddly.

When I was growing up, we had a Chinese pug with us and this was a typical scene at our house.

We got to celebrate Christmas with my mom and dad that weekend too. We surprised my dad with an old chair that we had refinished for him. It used to sit in his mom's house and was in need of a facelift!

Some favorite presents -I'm holding a roasting pan and Matt's holding an Old Testament Commentary -can you see him drooling? :)

Making breakfast New Year's Day -what a good looking chef!

Pre-Christmas

Before I post all of our pictures from Christmas and New Year's, I wanted to make sure that I got these pictures in -Christmas pictures are on their way soon!

These were 2 more pictures that my mom just gave me on the weekend of Matt and I after the dedication service at church for Operation Christmas Child.

This one is from P.E.I. Matt had to go over for a day for business and I got to tag along. Matt had never been across the Confederation bridge (Over 13 km...approx 8 miles long) -an engineer's dream!

Back to Bethlehem

This past week and weekend, Matt and I got to play "Mary and Joseph" in the Christmas concert at our church. We got to do this last year too and always have a fun time. It's a great part -no lines, we just get to sit there during the concert looking "thoughtful" :0)

(More updates below...sorry I've been so out of touch lately everybody!)

Christmas in Bathurst

After enjoying "The Living Christmas Tree" with mom and dad in Moncton the last weekend of November, Matt and I headed to his mom's house in Bathurst for an early Christmas celebration. Barb and Roger have gone to Florida and will be there through the winter, so we had to bring Christmas to their house before they left! We had a great time celebrating with Roger's two sons and their families as well.

More Operation Christmas Child Pictures

Thanks for the pictures Tara! Here is our small group HARD at work during collection week!

Ann and Jodi had alot of fun making those "odd" sized boxes fit...

Operation Christmas Child -Collection Week!

Well -we made it! Matt and I survived our first Collection Week as the new Local Collection coordinator team here in Miramichi! We were practically living at the church last week receiving boxes from the surrounding community. It was a great time getting to meet people from the different churches in the area, as well as people from different schools and other organizations who got involved.

A teacher in one of the middle schools got excited about the program just last week. She sent notices home and had the students bring in different items that could be packed into a shoebox. In just 2 days, the students had collected over 3000 items to donate! This was just one of the many stories that we heard throughout the week.

Our total was a new record for this little town of Miramichi, New Brunswick. We sent 1672 shoeboxes to the near by processing center today! Praise the Lord!




Our small group was a HUGE blessing last week -they came in one night and packed over 400 boxes. Then on Saturday they helped us to get all of the cartons up onto the stage for our Dedication service on Sunday night and then helped to pack everything up and get ready to go after the service! We are blessed with such great friends who are so supportive!





More pictures to follow soon....

What's New With Us

Hey everyone! Matt and I have been super busy this fall with work, Sunday School and Operation Christmas Child. I would appreciate your prayers as the collection week for Operation Christmas Child comes next week. It will be a busy time getting all of the boxes together and sending them to Moncton to the processing center.

Here are a few highlights from the last 2 weeks at the Esson house!

A friend from small group needed to be away for a couple of days, so we kept Hershey for her -a chocolate lab puppy with LOTS of energy!

Last weekend we headed to Fredericton to see Paul Brandt do a concert to promote Operation Christmas Child. We then headed to Portland, Maine the next day with Tiger and Sharon to catch the Phillips, Craig and Dean/Selah concert! We had a great time shopping and eating out and the concert was incredible! We were so glad that we were able to go!

Tiger and Sharon had never been to an Olive Garden before -they loved it!

Also, my sweet nephew Andrew turned 5 last Thursday -he's a big "Cars" fan.
Happy Birthday Andrew!
(If you're wondering, Jen has a "Cars" tatoo on her cheek...that was a big highlight of the party :0)