Christmas Letter 2009

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas. It has been an interesting year in the Riggan household. Each family member has had points of seeing God clearly. Let us explain:

Rick: After being an employee of the Siemens’ Corporation for 14 years the company decided to downsize significantly. Rick was laid off in July this year. Rick sent out dozens and dozens of resumes and began networking on several websites and seeking the Lord diligently. Finally, in October, after several interviews, he was hired at Platronics in Santa Cruz, California (www.plantronics.com). It is a good company that has been in existence since the 1960’s when Neil Armstrong wore a Platronics headset on the moon! The Lord taught Rick many things during this waiting period; probably the most important one is God is the Mighty God!

Mendy: This year has been a challenge for me physically as well as maternally. My fibromyalgia has been getting worse. As a result, I have had to slow down and reevaluate what is most important; being a wife and mother! So, I have stepped down from many activities and chosen to be home more. I have also had two urgent care visits (one with each child) that have stretched my faith. God has made Himself known to me in these difficult times; He is my Prince of Peace!

Katie (8): Last spring Katie was playing at the park with a friend and fell off the monkey bars. I took her straight to the urgent care knowing she’d be coming out of there with a cast. And sure enough she broke her elbow and got a blue cast. This was one week before Easter. So she wore a blue and white dress to match her blue cast on Easter Sunday! We have also decided to home school Katie this year. She is in second grade and doing great. We have always said we would take each year as it comes. She, however, has decided she wants to home school until she goes to college! We’ll see. This year, I’d say, the Lord is teaching Katie that He is her Wonderful Counselor!

Eli (3): Eli is always full of energy and surprises. He is quite the comedian. This year his big excitement was nearly cutting his finger off. He didn’t get all the way through the finger so we were able to save it! He had finger surgery and is now doing great. We’re hoping his nail is back by Christmas! Eli has learned that God is the Eternal Father!

We do hope this little update finds you well and at peace with God.

God Bless,

The Riggan Family

Lion King Live

Eli's favorite movie is Lion King. He watches it almost every day. This morning Katie and Eli have decided to to "Lion King Live" in my living room. They are singing and dancing. The funny part of this is as they sing the words, I notice they don't know the actual lyrics. They were singing Hakuna Matata. But the words came out "hakuna matata. what a wonderful page. hakuna matata. ain't no passing cage. it means no worries for the rest of your days. it's our problem fee colostopee. hakuna matata." Always fun at the Riggan house.

Easter Sunday

Rick, my husband, is the Worship Pastor at our church (www,ccmv.org). Every year we are busy at Easter time preparing worship music and having band practices. This always makes it hard to really instill in our kids the reason for Easter. They've never heard of an Easter Bunny, of course, but I sometimes worry they think Easter is when Mamma and Daddy become busy and distracted, instead of really celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
Two years ago I bought a thing called "Resurrection Eggs" in which each egg tells a part of the story of Passion Week with a symbol. For example, a cup for communion, a set of praying hands for His prayer on the mount of olives, a piece of leather for the whipping of Jesus, crown of thorns, rock for the tomb and so on. The final egg is empty because Jesus isn't there any more! We've done these eggs with Katie, but I wasn't so sure how much she was getting, until Thursday. She came up and said "Mom, Easter is soon, right? how come we haven't done the egg things yet?" I asked wheat egg thing she was talking about and she proceeded to tell me all 12 eggs! My daughter knew the Easter story and the true reason for our celebrating!
This year we are going to add one new element to the Easter celebration at the Riggan house. I found two recipe's that show the Easter story in a more hands on way. I'm not sure which we will do this year, but here are the links for you to try out, yourself.
http://homeparents.about.com/cs/eastercrafts/a/eastertradition.htm
http://homeparents.about.com/cs/eastercrafts/a/eastertradition_2.htm
If you want to get a box of Resurrection Eggs go to www.christianbook.com and type in resurrection eggs in the search. They are around $10, I believe.