Christmas News 2009

Greetings from Sleepy Eye in the name of our newborn King!

The “word cloud” above is a representation of the busy year of activities we have enjoyed, full of blessings and challenges and abounding in God’s forgiveness and grace.  Some of the highlights included:

• The joy of being members of the St. John’s family
• Vacations to Mississippi (with two lay-overs in Branson) and Sioux Fall
• Stanley’s confirmation, Camp Phillip fun and first semester of high school, including parts in two plays and first year Latin
• Luke’s diagnosis with Diabetes and adjustment to a “new normal” plus participation in Lego robotics camp, Forensics and violin
• Ben’s unending consumption of books, Scratch programming and violin
• Sallie’s summer adult and kid computer classes
• Kevin’s full schedule filled with services, catechism classes and baptisms
• An increasingly digital lifestyle with the addition of several iPod Touches, a new laptop for Stanley and an under-the-counter kitchen computer

For photo highlights of the year, we invite you to view our online scrapbook at bit.ly/draperschristmas, and as always you can visit us all year long on the web via our family web site, The Draper’s Diary www.txnetstars.com, and our church and school web site, www.stjohnsse.com.

May God bless you and yours with a joyous Christmas and a very happy new year!

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things
they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” – Luke 2:20

Decorating Draper Style

We spent a few hours decorating our Christmas Tree this afternoon and took photos along the way.  We’ve turning them into a time lapse video for your enjoyment.

Demonstrating Legos Mindstorms

Luke recently participated in the MLC Forensics Meet, doing a demonstration speech on Lego Mindstorms and earning a blue ribbon in the process.  We thought you might enjoy the watching speech.

And here’s Luke with the rest of the all blue 2009 St. John’s Forensics Team!

The Supers

We’ve spent the last two evenings being entertained at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School (MVL) as they put on their fall dramas.  They did a series of nine 10 Minute (+) plays, and Stanley was in two of them.  Here’s video of him as “The Curdler” from November 6, 2009.  Enjoy the fun!

Brown County Free Fair

We had a great time at the fair last night. First stop were the livestock barns. My favorite had all the poultry. Click the image to view a larger version.

Next we took in the Combine Derby. Imagine nine decorated combines going after each other until only one is left running. There were some who lost tires and other parts in the process. Our friend Stephanie went along to watch with us, and we all agreed it was pure fun! I think the combine owners in the crowd were pulling for their favorite brand. In the end it was a John Deere that outlasted them all.

Enjoy the video of the action …

We took a few family pics to round out the evening. What fun!

Happy Birthday Wishes!

Today Sallie’s Mom is celebrating her 79th birthday.  To celebrate, we’ve created a video tribute to her.  We hope you enjoy the show!

We also created a Wordle, visual word cloud to describe her.  Click the image to check out a larger version …

We love you Mama / Nana / Nina and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!

Vacation09 – Part 2

Tonight’s pics are from our day of geocaching with my sisters in Natchez.  My hometown is loaded with history, and we found a few neat spots to explore – antebellum (pre-Civil War) homes Monmouth & Melrose and the National Cemetery.

We even visited the Turning Angel statue in the cemetery.  It has long been told in Natchez that the statue turns to look your direction if you pass it on a moonlit night.  It even served as the title and focal point of local author Greg Iles’ book, Turning Angel, which is set in Natchez.  Just had to get my photo by it while I was there.  It is inscribed with a dedication to those who lost their lives in a explosion and fire at the Natchez Drug Company in the early 1900s.

The last photos are of the sisters.  We purposefully took advantage of the blooming hydrangeas to pose in front of, since we had done the same about 43 years ago.  We look just the same, don’t we?   🙂

Vacation09 – Part 1

Our trip south for the first two weeks of June was a refreshing break, and we all had a great time.  Much time was spent in the car, listening to audio books and wishing the miles would go by just a little bit quicker. (Hint: Click images for a larger view.)

We also enjoyed several days in Branson, both on the way to and returning from our ultimate destination, Mississippi.  Here are the Draper boys enjoying White Water.

And we all enjoyed our time at Silver Dollar City!

Silly boy

From the creative mind of Benjamin Draper

Video of Confirmation Examination

Just wrapped up Confirmation examination at St. John’s for this year’s eigth grade class, including our very own Stanley (green shirt, far left)!  Here’s a video of the big event: