Making Christmas a bit brighter for another Family - Our Extended Family Tradition

The Holidays are a time when traditions are both formed, and played out.  Going to grandma’s house, baking cookies, cutting down the family tree, etc....and our family is no different.  For as long as I can remember we packed up and headed to my Grandparents house on Christmas Eve for a BIG extended family get together. We shared food, fun, games, and of course gifts.  As we got older, some people moved away and the crowd got smaller some yeara, but we still had our tradition of getting together and sharing the Holidays with each other.  

After a number of years of just exchanging gift cards with each other, and following the passing of my Grandfather the summer before, we started a new tradition, a tradition of adopting a family in need and spending our time and money on making their Christmas a little brighter.  We worked with our Church that helps hundreds of families each year, and picked from a handful of families that they felt would be the best fit for us.  Over the years we have helped single parent families, families going through medical issues, and families that are homeless.  Each has their own story and circumstances that we embrace and do the best we can make things a littler better.

Usually right after Thanksgiving we contact the Church to let them know we are “in” for another year and they give us a few options to pick from.  This year, they started with one, knowing that our family would be the best fit to try and help.  It was a family of 8; Mom, Dad and 6 kids - ranging from 2-16.  They have landed on tough times, and have been living in a homeless camp.  Their needs were minimal; some clothes, blankets, gloves and maybe a bag to put their belonging in.  

So, let’s just stop here for a second.  Can you imagine this?  A family of 8 with no home...a bag for their belongings would be great?

When we heard this, we knew we wanted to help, but a family of 8 was big commitment.  Even for our extended family, we were concerned if we could make an impact.  Sure, all they wanted was a bag for their thing, but we knew we wanted to do more than that.  We reached out to the family and everyone agreed that we COULD do this, so we made it happen.  Over the course of the next few weeks, we accumulated clothes, toys, blankets, etc.  We also went to a local custom print shop that was able to help us order duffel bags at cost.  They also dipped into all their “seconds” and was able to provide even more clothes for the bags.

The above picture are the 8 bags filled to the brim with all their goodies the day before we delivered to the church to then get to the family.  Seeing the product of our hearts coming together for another family was pretty cool.  I can honestly say, that this is one of the best traditions we have started.  It is something we will continue to do...and I would encourage anyone reading this to start this up as well. If you think it might be too much to take on, think through it again....you can make it happen!  

A Long Overdue Update..."S"ummer Edition

Well, this is kinds of embarrassing...just noticed that we have not posted a blog update since April.  Yikes.  To be honest, we really havent been doing much of anything..just a lot of sitting around, watching TV, etc.  Pretty boring.  Yeah right!

Where to even start....

Softball - Maddie played her 4th season of Softball.  She has improved a ton year to year.  This was the last year in the "development" league so she needs to decide if she wants to move up to 12U and play the real deal.  We will see.

Soccer - We were finally able to get Kenzie out on the soccer field this spring.  In her first game, what does she do...she scores 3 goals!  She went on to score a bunch more over the season, and above all - she had fun!  She is excited to keep it rolling in the Fall.

School - The girls wrapped up their school year at Hope.  Maddie is now on to 5th grade (wow) and Kenzie moves up to 1st Grade (double wow).  They love their school, their friends, the teachers, etc.

Summer - Well, the story here is that it is just now showing up.  Where as a lot of the country has suffered from heat waves, the good ole Northwest has been basking in 60 degrees and cloudy.  The joke is that summer usually starts on the 5th of July..this year it wasn't until nearly August.  The good news is that the  forecast is for a stretch of nearly 10 days above 70.

San Lucas - Technically it is Cabo San Lucas but I'm trying to stick with the S theme.  Our big summer vacation was with the extended family for 9 days in Cabo.  Other than a jaunt across the border to Tijuana back in 1994, this was the first time to Mexico.  We stayed at Villa Del Palmar, just a few minutes from Cabo.  Bottom line, we had an awesome time.  Lots of sun, sand and sillies (wow, the S's are rolling).  We look forward to making a return visit sometime.

Seattle Visitors - OK, I'm struggling to keep the S thing going now.  We have been lucky to have a number of visitors come on through Seattle as well.  Our good friends the Landskovs (minus Jeff) were out in June...and are back again (plus Jeff) now.  We miss them since the left to Colorado last summer.  Steph's Grandma and Aunt and Uncle just wrapped up a quick trip out for Steph's cousin's wedding.  It was a great few days with them.  Finally, as we speak, the Lakewood Dynamic Duo of Ben and Lauren are on their Northwest Tour.  They are giving Mom and Dad a little break before their new little brother arrives at the end of the month.  We always love having visitors, so come on out and visit!

Well, I think that will do it.  It's funny how the summers seem to fly by.  When we were kids, it felt like they went on and on.  As always, we will try our best to stay a bit more current.  You can always find us on Facebook or Twitter (http://twitter.com/mjtwit) for "real time" updates.

Adios!

March Madness - Jensen Style

Seem like every month goes by faster and faster, but there is no doubt that this March was one of the craziest of all time.  Yes, it marks the end of College Basketball season, dubbed March Madness, and for the Jensen house it was just that.  Things started off with business trips for both of us, Mike to Baltimore for his 1st company meeting with r2i and Steph to California with Another Source.  Our trips actually overlapped a bit and we were lucky to have the grandparents available to get the kids to/from school.  Next on tap was Steph’s birthday weekend with lots of friends and family, including a surprise visit from our good friend Leighellen.  The next couple weekends were packed full of School fundraisers, Friends Birthday parties, and basketball tournaments.  Oh, actually the month started with a basketball tournament too...and Oh, it was non-stop basketball nearly every day!!  Maddie had the amazing opportunity as a 4th grader to represent her school (Hope Lutheran) on the 5/6th grade team.  With that came daily practices and/or games and a new kind of busy.  Mixed in with all of that was also a practice for Spring Soccer, and getting Girls Softball kicked off.  We knew heading into it, that it was going to be packed, but as it is all past us now, looking back we realize it was nutty!  But in the end...it was totally worth it!  

Maddie was coming off another great season with the local YMCA and we could tell that she really enjoyed playing basketball, so we she asked if she could play on the school team we wanted to encourage her to keep going.  She, along with 3 other 4th graders joined the 5/6th grade team and did an awesome job.  They contributed, were great teammates, and most of all had a great time.  At the end of year tournament we were so proud when Maddie was recognized most for her attitude and her smile.  She is one happy kid, and does everything with a smile...win or lose, basket or no basket, she just loves playing the game.  We are looking forward to many more years in the bleachers, cheering her and her friends on...and next year we will be a little more prepared for the Madness that comes in March.

Another Successful Basketball Season

It seemed like we just got started, but today marked the end to another successful basketball season for Maddie.  Along with her buddy, Mikayla, they were the M&M's.  Here is a picture of them after their big Win today.

It was great to see how much the girls improved this year...at the same time, they had no problem scoring baskets.  One game we counted nearly 40 baskets made!  Kinda crazy for 9-10 year olds.  Maddie got off to a slow start in December when she wasnt feeling too great, but that barely held her back.  She hustled all the time, was aggressive, learned to pass more (she likes to shoot), and most of all had a smile on her face.  Something that even her coach pointed out today when handing out trophies.  Speaking of aggressive, she even got a little experience going up against some girls that like to "mix it up" - and she hung tough!

We are super proud of her and her commitment to the game.  We love her spirit and desire to get better.  Tough to teach that kind of stuff.