Yesterday we took our kids, who are still out of school, to see "A Night at the Museum". Instead of standing in the long line, we thought we would try out one of the automated ticket machines. It's like the self-check out at Wal-Mart, so we should have known to not even try it. Sure enough, we are too dumb to use that machine. Or the machine is too dumb to be used by us. We swiped our card about 32 times, cancelled and started over 6 times and said various unkind things to the machine. After ten minutes of agony, with a toddler attached to our legs, a 4 year-old wandering over to the arcade by himself, a 6 year old trying out the touchscreen for herself, me saying "I told you not to do this" to Barry about 5 times, our wise 9 year old said matter-of-factly—-"Maybe we should get an adult to help us." We were laughing hysterically all the way to the old fashioned ticket booth.

We are under two feet of snow and we love it. Pattersons are genetically designed to get giddy when they wake up to flurries. We beg for school to shut down.

POINTS OF RETROSPECT
Darren's project is finished and will be released soon. Check out a couple of his tracks at www.myspace.com/thornsmusicaljourney. This will be a powerful tool for him as he works in the incredible open mic scene in Edinburgh.

Russell just came back from the trip of a lifetime. In our family, shooting your first deer is a right of passage. Russell passed with flying colors as my dad, took him on a trip any hunter would be seriously jealous of. He shot three bucks and one doe and came back just as good a storyteller as his Papa. They spent 10 precious days together and have lifelong memories to show for it. Thanks Papa!

WWF www.myspace.com/womenworship
Women's Worship Fellowship had an amazing gathering in November. We had guest artist Nancy Posey and dancer Marsha Ashabraner fly out from Fort Worth to participate and it was awesome. We had a more scripted experience, incorporating both planned and on-the-fly dances and music and live visual artists. We used film and original writings and worshipped to our heart's delight. We will keep experimenting in 2007!

COMING UP–RECORDING
We are gearing up to approach our recording project again. We have two weeks in February set aside to tackle it. Being a highly impatient artist-type, I have vented my frustration to God about the delay in the release of this project we are so excited about. He gave me a picture of a baby in an incubator. Needing to be there for a time. In the meantime, we have been singing a lot of these songs with our own fellowship, New Covenant Christian Fellowship www.nccfcolorado.org. Some of the songs have become like anthems for our folks. So, it is even more fun now to be releasing a project that people have ownership in. Now that these songs have been incubating in our own congregation for a year, they are ripe and ready for launching. woo-hoo! We look forward to touring this project (as much as families with four children can tour) upon it's release.

Barry's foot is out of the cast and he should be walking on it by the end of January. That's good because that is about when my nursing degree should be official. hrumph.

Merry Christmas! Thanks for reading up on us! Check our calendar soon for our 2007 first quarter dates.

Due to server crashing, we have lost my very first attempt at managing our blog. Our precious webmaster even made me a little movie to show me how to do it. He knows what I need.

Anyhow, I just got back from Canada. I went with my mom to do a women's retreat at the church I grew up in. It was fun to go back. Very, very winter. The best part was, my best and oldest friends in the world came to see me and even took me back to their respective houses. Penny and Leona had three new kids between them that I had the pleasure of meeting. All of my childhood friends married each other and it is really weird to look at their kids and see both of my friends melded together into all these little people. That never happened at my house because all my kids look like Barry. He is genetically domineering. Hey Penny and Leona, if you send me some pics of me and those kids, I will post them. Now that I am wonder-web-woman.

Did I mention that Barry had ankle reconstruction surgery last week. Due to "Patient Disobedience" 22 years ago, Barry obliterated his ankle. On the way down to surgery, he told me that he had really wanted to get back to playing basketball after the initial injury and that he didn't want to wait the recommended time to stay off of it. So, he practiced walking in his room without a painful expression on his face and casually waltzed out into the living room where his parents were sitting. As they sat there astonished to see him walking, he recited his rehearsed line "I think it feels fine, I think I can get back to playing." Ridiculous. Since then he has had the rare gift of random falls. He can be standing perfectly still and straight up fall. Makes hiking hard. Makes walking hard. So, I am mad at him that he even needed this, but at least now I know never to believe a sport-addicted son on the status of his injury. He can't walk on it for four weeks. It was a huge incision. If you would like to know what he rambled on about on his way to surgery (heavily sedated) then by all means drop me a line. michelle@barryandmichelle.com

So, I have been nursemaid for a week. Not my gift, if you know me. I hope God grows me in this area, because we both plan on getting old someday. In fact, Barry got older this week. 39. Some guys came over to visit the poor, crippled birthday boy and as soon as the party was over, he threw up everywhere from his pain meds. I am rambling because I need adult conversation.

Since the topics have been random, so shall the pictures be. My sweet and precious little brother, Darren is in Scotland with his wife Rebecca and their four kids(www.thornberryzoo.com). They are a part of the coolest YWAM school that I know of in Edinburgh. www.ywamedinburgh.com We have been working on a project for him for over a year and it is slated for completion on December 2nd. It is an incredible project that you will want to hear. When it is ready, we will let you hear a snippet and tell you how to get one.

Picture number 2–our new drummer. Sorry Brian. He is cuter.

I close with these solemn promises,
1)I will never journal again when socially deprived
2)I will never go on this long again
M