2015, and Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas!
Wishing you all joy, peace and love the whole year through!

To our dear family and friends, spread all across the world,

Christmas is coming fast again. This year I planned to be prepared well ahead of time, mainly so we could enjoy more family time and down time during December. It was a good plan, however the weeks have flown by and all of a sudden December is more than half way through!

Last week we did another charity carol concert. This time we were supporting Crisis, a national charity which helps homeless people in many ways, with both immediate and long term needs. Two Christmases ago Rachel received a violin and Hannah a flute. Last Christmas Rebekah had chosen to start learning an instrument and received a cello (which I thoroughly enjoyed listening to on Christmas Day while making the dinner as she tried it out). All three have been getting a lot of use this year, and all played a little part in this years' carol concert. It is lovely when the children play their instruments together. It has been harder this year to put together and practise for with lots of other things going on, and between us having been ill for much of the last two months. The evening was good though. The children did brilliantly, the boys all sang including just the three of them, many people really enjoyed themselves, and we also managed to raised £300 for Crisis.


Sarah, Rachel, Rebekah and Hannah, meeting the pianist 
Paul Cardell on the first night of his European tour.

Rachel is 16 now. This year she has really progressed especially with her piano playing and has written some lovely songs. She had her first experience in a recording studio recording one of them to send to a friend overseas for a special occasion. At the moment she spends four days each week at a school doing music, dance and drama, plus english and maths GCSEs. She seems to enjoy and do well in all of it. Some of us got to go to their show last week, which was great. Rachel is enjoying doing more dance, and continues to do ballet classes twice a week.

Hannah, now 15, is really enjoying playing her flute, and progresses so fast each week. She is doing a geography GCSE this year, and working on some others too. She and Rachel got to go to For the Strength of Youth this year, a week at a campus with other youth from our church and loved it.

Sarah is going to a home-ed learning centre two days a week in someone's home, and has been adopted as part of the family! She has made a new friendship especially with the girl who lives there, and spends her time between there, here and the ice rink. She's been working hard to earn some money to pay for a season ticket and extra skating lessons through the winter, so is having a lesson once a week and practises two other times in the week normally. She's really improving, and most of all loving it.

Rebekah studies away through the week at her music and other subjects of interest, and is loving doing gymnastics and ballet still. She is very organised and diligent, working at the things she has chosen, and ever more confident. She practised hard and did a fantastic job of playing her cello in our concert last week.

   

Peter and Samuel also attend the same gymnastics club now and love it! Peter is set on learning the trombone, so we'll see how that goes this year. He has a lovely singing voice. He really wants to do woodwork and loves to create. All the boys are so active, rarely wanting to stay still for much, but for a book they normally will, especially Samuel. He'd love to still be doing Home-ed sports, as he loves everything sporty, but is putting his all into the gymnastics! Daniel always knows just what he wants, including what he wants to learn about. He is quite delightful, and still as cuddly as ever. While the boys are together our house gets pretty manic (for me at least!) a lot of the time, though they are creative in their play - mountaineering on the stairs etc.!



Michael got a job about 4 months ago working for Argos as a delivery driver. It has been good for him to be working again. He has found some aspects of it stressful, including the shift patterns - getting up at 2.30/3am hasn't suited him so well. He has been offered another job now helping to run someone else's business (admin etc.) so he finished at Argos last week. He's now on the high council at church, so we travel some Sundays.

I (Ceri) have been ill much of this year, though am doing a lot better than I was. At the start of the summer I found a doctor who knew more about adrenal and thyroid issues, and the supplements I have been using since then have been helping a lot. Still I have been ill with colds on top of the normal symptoms for much of the last couple of months. I'm grateful to have a lot more energy and resiliency on many levels than I have done, and am looking forward to increasingly better health the more I can do to sort it.

This year we had a visit from Michael's Mum at the start of the summer. We enjoyed two weeks away camping in Dorset in July, which was really good for us all. Peter and Hannah celebrated their birthdays while we were there, and my parents joined us for my Dad's birthday week too, staying in a bed and breakfast down the road. We also had the first two trips to A&E that we've ever had to have with our children. At the end of Hannah's birthday, Daniel ran full speed into our minibus while looking up into the air at the kite he was flying! Two days later, at the second hospital, Daniel had an X-ray after a lot of persuasion, and we discovered he had fractured his collarbone. It wasn't too many weeks until he was back to normal though, and he is fine now. Sarah and Rebekah also got to visit Centre Parks later in the year with friends. After Christmas we'll be going to the Midlands to meet a new nephew/cousin too, my brother David's new baby Caleb, born a couple of months ago.

Happy Christmas to all of you, and we hope to see some of you through this next year.

Much love from Michael, Ceri, Rachel, Hannah, Sarah, Rebekah, Peter, Samuel and Daniel Kruger xxxxxxxxx

The Fifty Days of Christmas

I just spent a whole day taking down our Christmas decorations, and tidying up from Christmas. Not quite the restful day I had hoped to have as I am still recovering from being ill again, but it was productive, and it feels good to have some of the sorting done that is needed and our home looking more simple.

We enjoyed Christmas at home in Brighton again this year, but then went to visit my parents in the Midlands on New Year's day. We returned late on Tuesday 6th January having visited with my brother and family, Michael's brother and family, my parents, Michael's Dad, and my friend from school. Lovely visits and some wonderful days. Tiring though as I was still getting my strength back from having flu before Christmas. I felt the need to push through unpacking the bags as soon as we got home before I went to bed, and am so glad I did as I'd have found it a lot harder the next day. During that night Samuel and I started to get ill, and within a few days several of us were ill with flu. We're only just all getting over it now.

It has been a long Christmas - our decorations went up at the end of November, which some of the children thought was crazy, but I had quickly realised that if I left it even a few days later I would have no available time or energy to do it with so many things going on before Christmas as well as the normal activities. It took me days, which I finally realised was because I had the flu! It only took me three days to realise how ill I was! So all in all Christmas in our home has been more than a month and a half long. ;o)

It has actually been nice this last week having the Christmas tree and lights etc still up. Michael was able to sleep in the living room with the Christmas lights on with Samuel when he needed more attention during the night, and before Michael got ill. We also got to sit all together on Michael's birthday this week and enjoy a fun Christmas movie together, which we hadn't managed to do over Christmas with no working computer around. So, I just want to let you all know that Christmas is well and truly over for this year. Just so you know!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

H A P P Y C H R I S T M A S !

Monday 22^nd December 2014

Dear family and friends,

Wow, this year feels like it has gone by ever so quickly! As you can probably see from the picture, all of the children are growing up a lot. This year, music is an even bigger part of our Christmas than ever it seems. All four girls and myself (Ceri) have been practising Christmas music for a while now, and we had a carol concert in Crawley last night that went really well. Our family's charity carol concert last Friday evening went really well too. We didn't get to prepare for it anywhere near as much as we'd have liked to, but all went smoothly and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who came (ourselves included), which is the main thing. This year we were supporting Project Antifreeze, a Brighton-based charity aiding homeless people, and we are very grateful for all of the donations – £200 as well as a huge pile of bags of clothing for them to use.

Last year, the total raised for the charity Orphan's Hope came to $450, which we were also very grateful for.

With the longer summer this year, Christmas seems to have jumped up on me a bit! Now that both of those events have passed though, and we are mostly through our two weeks of flu and colds this December, we're a bit more focused on time together as well as each preparing some surprises for Christmas day. Home-made mince pies are featuring well along the way too. :) We did get an exiting Christmas treat last week though – we got to see Sleeping Beauty on Ice at the Guildford ice rink, thanks to Rebekah's birthday gift from some dear friends. :)

We had a fun day of music last week with a friend who brought along her two cellos. She got Hannah going on her flute in the one room, while she played some cello duets with Rachel in another. Rebekah really wants to learn the cello, so will be doing that soon, and Hannah, Rachel and myself have also wanted to for a long time. All of the girls had a go. Later on Hannah and Rebekah were left playing the cellos while Rachel and Carlene went off to church to play some piano duets for a while. Rachel has been playing her violin a lot more lately, and is getting on well with that. Hannah will start flute lessons soon, and Sarah was given an alto saxophone by someone at church having said that it is the instrument she wants to learn. So hopefully there'll be a whole variety of music making in our home next year. :)

Earlier this year we also did a musical evening on Easter Sunday, with some other people from our church. This time it was organised by Rachel, who put together a really great program. We were asked to repeat that a couple of months later at the London Temple visitor's centre, which was good to do, and my parents were able to come along and enjoy it that time too.

Then we had a visit from America from Michael's Mum and his sister Emma. We saw more of Emma than we had done in a long time, which was lovely, and so got to do a few nice things with her. Michael's Mum loves the sun, and so had decided fairly last minute to come for her visit here when it is warmer rather than the end of the year as she had planned. She was here for 6 weeks, and we saw her for a week each at the beginning and end of that time, and a little in the middle. As a consequence of that, she was around for Peter's 8^th and Sarah's 12^th birthdays. Peter's baptism was scheduled for the Saturday before she left in July so that she could be there. It was a lovely happy event, and a very large table full of family enjoyed a lovely meal together that evening too, including Michael's brother Tom, my brother David and his family, and my Dad's sister Carol. Quite a few of us!

Sarah's birthday was a little before that at the end of June. The very next day, we met my parents and Michael's Mum at the London Temple, and Sarah enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the temple for the first time, with my parents, Rachel, Hannah, Michael and myself in there with there. It turned out to be a very special experience for her. Again, we enjoyed some time all as a family afterwards and a meal together. Having turned twelve, Sarah went into the Young Women's programme at church, and now enjoys all of the extra activities with her sisters and other friends she has made which are a part of that. Within two weeks of Sarah's birthday, all three girls were off on Young Women's camp. They really enjoyed that, made some new friendships and strengthened others, and had some lovely experiences, including enjoying sleeping out under the stars for one of the nights.

That turned out to be the night that a new cousin came into the world. So while they were out looking at that amazing sight, over in Texas, Michael's brother Will and wife Trisha welcomed their new little boy William Jr. – a delightful and very cute addition to their family of three beautiful girls. We've yet to meet him of course, but do hope it won't have to be too long before we do. He seems to be fitting into their family beautifully.

While the girls were at camp, Rebekah and Peter were enjoying a week of mornings doing gymnastics, which they both really enjoyed. Peter got his first badge in that time too. He is on the waiting list for the gymnastics club that Rebekah goes to every Saturday, but was allowed to go along for the week's 'camp'. Rebekah is totally loving gymnastics. She also comes home and shows the other children things. One day we had everyone taking turns bending over backwards trying to get into a bridge, and yesterday I was totally surprised to see Samuel doing cartwheels! He's also on the waiting list, but probably has a lot longer to wait.

At the beginning of July, and thanks to some help from my parents, and others who loaned us a few items, we managed to go away for a family holiday – six days camping on the Isle of Wight. We had booked into our diaries the only week we all seemed to be available, but going away was a very last minute thing, and squeezed in between everything else. Just camping in the middle of a big field was really fun. The boys seemed to love having this huge 'garden' right there all of the time - especially just being able to get up and go outside to play while breakfast was being made. When we first arrived, in the rain, we nearly got blown away watching the hovercraft land on the island. We waited out the rain as we ate, and from that point on we had mostly really good weather (quite opposite to what was forecast), and all returned home either brown or sunburnt! We enjoyed a lovely beach near where we were staying, and just enjoyed swimming, playing in the sand and resting in the sun, plus the all important fish and chips when it got colder later on. We also visited the Needles and Alum bay, and Osborne House (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's seaside retreat). We saw their elegant home, beautiful gardens, and private beach, and especially loved the Swiss Cottage – a miniature home that Prince Albert had built for their children to learn all of the home skills and everything they might need. They all had their own small garden, with miniature tools and he paid them market prices for their produce.

For most of the children, and especially Hannah, their favourite part of the holiday was going horse riding on Hannah's birthday, which happened to be that week. The boys each rode for the first time – Daniel wasn't strictly allowed to but he was so upset when he wasn't included that they found him a small pony and he got to go too! Samuel looked especially comfortable in the saddle. The best bit though was that they each had a ride down to the beach; the boys for half an hour, and the girls an hour. Rachel and Hannah went to a separate beach that was especially good for riding and had a good canter. It was all lots of fun! That break was so good for us all and just lovely on our last night there enjoying a barbecue, and then sitting out in the night air while the children played around the tent – a very free and joyful feeling all-round.

Since then, Samuel and Daniel have started going to a younger home-ed sports group, which they love, and Rebekah and Peter continue to enjoy theirs. Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel are all doing ballet still. Rachel is going to an extra longer class each week now in addition to her grade 5 class, which she loves and feels is taking her further. Sarah and Rebekah will have an extra class each week next term as they prepare for their grade 2 exam. Miss Carroll, their lovely ballet teacher, invites family along to the last lesson of each term, so we enjoyed watching some of their classes recently and seeing how well they are getting along.

Each of the girls are developing their piano skills, and are lovely to listen to. Rachel gets asked to play for a lot of things now. She wrote her first piece of music this year, which is lovely to listen to, and she is working on another one now. Sarah and Rebekah have spent recent weeks ice skating as much as they can, rain or shine, now the outdoor rink here is again open. They're getting on really well, and loving it!

Later in the year Rachel and I had the opportunity to spend some time with my Uncle Ken, my Mum's brother. It was unfortunately because of a family funeral, but so lovely to see him and get to know him a bit, and also the other wonderful family that we had the chance to spend some time with there while celebrating the life, and mourning the loss, of my Auntie Beryl. We also learned such a lot about our family.

I have been enjoying doing quite a lot of family history research this year, also along with Rachel, Hannah and Sarah who have each followed separate lines and found a lot themselves. Rebekah has been helping me with uploading a lot of old family photos that my parents have, and identifying some of the people in them. It's all been quite exciting!

I recently spent a few very needed days away on an energy therapy course, which did me a lot of good. I have been making some Montessori learning equipment for the younger children and thoroughly enjoyed it, and I've realised how much I miss all things artistic. So for myself, I'd like to do some artwork this coming year. Michael has been doing a lot of teaching at church this year, and is enjoying doing that. He is still working on his life coaching qualification, and has a lot of practise sessions he needs to do to complete that. So if any of you would like to try some coaching sessions with him, please do get in contact!

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas season, and hope that this year you will have peace, fulfillment, enjoyment of life, and success in your endeavours.

Much love to all, 

Michael, Ceri, Rachel (15), Hannah (14), Sarah (12), Rebekah (10),

Peter (8), Samuel (5) and Daniel (3, but 4 next week!)

X X x x x x x x x

P.S. Our e-mail address has changed to abundantkrugers@gmail.com

P.P.S. Our computers are out of action at the moment, so we have no access to anyone's e-mail addresses. If we haven't managed to send you this by e-mail, we'd really appreciate it if you could send us yours to the above address so that we have it. Thank you! Ceri xxx

Happy Birthday Mum!

I came across these cute children this week, and thought together we'd just like to wish Michael's Mum a Happy 70th Birthday today!! We love you Mum! xxxxxxxxx

2013 - Part 2

We spent a bit of time in the Midlands, staying with my parents, where we got to attend Elijah's baptism (my brother David's second son), and spend bits of time with their lovely family. We also got to see more of Tom (Michael's youngest brother) and his lovely wife Becca than we probably have before, and their dog Byron of course. Actually, all but Rachel, Hannah and I did see quite a lot of them last November when they stayed in Kidderminster for a few weeks, but this was the first time I really got to speak properly with Becca. We had a bit of time with my parents, a bit with different families combined, and we finished off that stay by breaking our journey home to join David's family in Stratford-upon-Avon for the afternoon of his birthday. The children enjoyed playing together and it was lovely to be around them all. Their little Isaac is so cute, and of course Rachel loves to be around Elodie. Samuel loves her lots too.

In Gramps' wonderful garden.

Playing Upwords in teams with Mum and Dad.

Going for a walk in the beautiful Wyre Forest...

... then playing at the playground there for a while.

Football in the park on David's birthday

Playing in the sand.

A short ferry crossing across the river.

Not many weeks later, Sarah, Rachel and I (Ceri) travelled up to Chorley in Lancashire to stay at our church's Preston Temple site. We were there for a couple of weeks to take part in a historical play (a pageant) about the early members of our church in the British Isles, most of which travelled to build up the church in America. It was the first pageant of its kind to happen in this country, and we were so happy to be involved with it. We lugged our suitcases half way by train, then talked with and sang to my Dad the rest of the way (still learning the songs we were to sing) as he very kindly drove us up from the Midlands. Taking part in the pageant stretched us in many ways. For me it was an effort as though I love music and wanted to take part, acting in any way in front of anybody has never been something I felt anything like comfortable about! Yet I found as I put everything I had into it that I could do it. I was also stretched to my limit physically, yet found I had the strength to do what was needed. We sang, danced and acted together each day, the first week learning our parts, (while another cast were performing), and the second week performing each night after joining in the pre-show activities with our guests. The pageant was set in Lancashire in 1837, and we had music, dancing, craft activities, childrens' games, photos in costume, etc. for people to have a go at or watch beforehand. We each grew in confidence as we did new things and spoke with lots of people each day. Rachel and I especially enjoyed going around meeting and talking with people who were visiting. Sarah preferred to join in with the folk dancing a lot of the time. She loved wearing “old-fashioned' clothes, and she also loved the friends she made while there. That was probably her greatest joy – meeting great friends. We all made some lovely friends there, and were blessed to renew some old friendships. Now the challenge is to continue those friendships while the rest of life happens! Participating in the British Pageant was an amazing experience for us. It was like one huge family (hundreds of people) working together. To be in such an uplifting absolutely positive atmosphere for those two weeks did us so much good! 

Sarah very excited and full of bounce after our dressed rehearsal.

Outside the Preston Temple

Ready for another performance.

Sarah with some special pageant friends.

Rachel with some of our company.

Me with some lovely new friends.

 
Michael and the other children enjoyed coming up for the last night of the show, and they then stayed for the weekend in Chorley with us. We spent the Sunday together, then on the Monday we visited a few church history sites there before travelling back to Brighton, while Rachel travelled by coach with other teenagers from the area to a special Youth Conference she was attending at Nottingham University for a week (“Especially For Youth”). So she had a third amazing week added on to the two she'd already had. She had some great experiences there, saw again some of the people she'd met at the pageant, and made plenty of other new friends. Partway through that week Hannah spent a few days on a church youth camp for 12 and 13 year olds, which she also really enjoyed. 

Music at the activities beforehand

Inside the pageant theatre

Back together again.

On the Monday - all apart from from Rachel who was already on the coach to EFY.

The River Ribble, where our first baptisms took place.

Dad and Daniel by the River Ribble.

2013 - Part 1

Well last year seemed to speed by. The children are one year older (and I suppose we are too!), and they are bigger too of course. Some things we wanted to happen did, and others are left as yet undone, but other things have filled their places for now. We have seemed to go from one big thing straight into another. Yet those things have brought a life to our family which we are grateful for. Following are some of the highlights for us from 2013. It'll come in several parts as with all of the photos I've added in it's getting a bit large! It's a bit of a jump from two years ago. We hope you enjoy catching up on our family a little...

 

In May/June we thoroughly enjoyed a visit all the way from Austin, Texas from Michael's brother Will, his wife Trisha, and his lovely girls Naomi, Lydia and Alison. We had only ever met Naomi when she was a baby, and Trisha not many more times. It was a joy to meet nieces and cousins for the first time, to both establish and renew friendships, and to spend a bit of time together during their stay. Some of our girls are exactly the same age as theirs, with only a few weeks between them, yet they didn't really know each other. They have begun to be able to do that now. It was delightful to see those girls so naturally pair up and be chatting away like they'd known each other for years. Also to see the older girls doting on little Alison. We loved getting to know them all in person which really seems to be the only way to get to know someone's character and their ways of being. I loved the bits of time spent with Trisha too – a relationship I have longed to build. We all felt pretty sad to say goodbye again. It wasn't long enough for any of us, but we are very grateful for the time we have had together so far, and hope it will come around again a lot sooner than ten years next time!

On Samuel's 4th birthday, playing with his new golf set, ...

... and with cousins.

On Brighton seafront.

Cousins getting to know each other.

They immediately paired up.

The boys at play!

It was freezing, but they decided to go in anyway!

I love this picture. Beautiful Auntie Trisha.

Sheltering in a dip on Rottingdean Beach for a picnic.

So alike!

Uncle Tom wading into the river in search of Byron's toy.

Byron decided to join him, and went for his first swim.

We all went for a ride on the Severn Valley Railway.

I love this one!

Exploring the railway museum.
Peter's pulling the train whistle. :o)

Built in Brighton!

Sisters in law - enjoying Tom and Becca's barbecue.

Three brothers

After church the next day in Kidderminster with ALL of the childrens' cousins so far - English and American.

The children

The grown-ups!

Saying goodbye!

One last little goodbye - at the London Temple.