What does it say about me that I couldn’t get a Christmas letter out before Christmas this year, but I was able to cut, export, upload, and blog about a three year old unfinished Christmas video?
Psychoanalysis requested and welcomed via the comments.

Posted in finding myself 2 Comments »

On Christmas morning, we had one service all together at 10:30 instead of our usual three. We wanted it to be a short, joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus, in an environment where kids would be present and could enter in.
Our brass ensemble and choir added to the celebration, but the biggest part of [...]

Posted in NFC, worship & messages No Comments »

I’m behind in posting stuff from Christmas. Our Christmas Eve services are a longstanding tradition, with candlelight, a handbell choir, many guests and kids in the room, a loud, boisterous, quiet, reflective gathering of family, friends, Friends, and strangers. (Yes, there are many contradictions in the last sentence).
This year, Lecia Retter, our children’s pastor, re-told [...]

Posted in NFC, worship & messages 2 Comments »

Christmas swimming Originally uploaded by gkoskela.

My parents stayed at the Best Western in town, and Hayley and Aubrey were REALLY excited to get to go swim in the pool…

Posted in family No Comments »

…my kids are asleep.…Elaine just went up to bed.
My preparations are finished for the morning.
But somewhere
deep inside
I’m still not ready.
I’m still waiting.
God…
come near.
Be my Emmanuel.
I’m waiting…trusting…hoping…
…only 16 minutes until Christmas.

Posted in misc. 1 Comment »

So in the switch to the new domain name, I made a few mistakes with the technical stuff. If you’ve been subscribed via bloglines or another RSS reader, you’ll need to make a new subscription now to the RSS feed on THIS page. I think that I now have it right. You can use the [...]

Posted in this blog/blogging 2 Comments »

Ok, so now the switch is made to the new server…it’s time for the best part of the unfinished 2002 Koskela Christmas Greeting video! (You’ll need the latest quicktime version which you can get here.)
It’s my girls telling the Christmas story. Talli (then known as Natalie, of course) narrates, Hayley does all the puppet direction, [...]

Posted in comedy attempts, family 1 Comment »

With the help of Jason and AJ’s new side business, Webjive, I have purchased my own domain name and am making the switch over to their servers. At first, things will look the same at a new site; soon, however, I’m planning to move on up to the Wordpress format, with all its fancy features.
So, [...]

Posted in this blog/blogging 1 Comment »

Sigh. I really can’t believe I’m doing this, but you know, you’re supposed to obey your parents.
My dad is trying to decide which of three dogs to get, and he can’t decide. So, he’s posted three dog pictures on his blog, and he asked me to ask you, my faithful readers, to go help him [...]

Posted in comedy attempts, family 5 Comments »

12-21-05_1844.jpg Originally uploaded by gkoskela.
Date night !
Tonight was a great date night. I took Talli, who is really enjoying drama, to a production by the Portland Center Stage of This Wonderful Life. Mark Setlock was the star of a one man show, playing 30-some characters from [...]

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