Christmas 2019

The Miller's Christmas Letter

2019

Our family letter contains news and some of the highlights of this past year. 

George and Jeanne

A lot of changes have come to the Miller house during this past year.  

The main change is this new special lady that is part of my life.  What began as an innocent Christmas card last December, was followed up by a text and a few phone calls.  The romance blossomed quickly with a first date December 7th, 2018, and the wedding on April 7, 2019.  

I asked Jeanne an important question.  I meant to ask her, "Can you cook?" but instead I asked "Do you cook?" and she answered "NO".  By the time I asked that important question it was too late as I was already madly in love.  Anyway she can cook and does cook.  But we eat out more now than previously.  The serving sizes are so large that we share.

This is a photo of our newest grandchild, Brooklyn, who married our grandson Zach in March.  

This is Brooklyn with her parents who George has known for a long time.  I first met them when they served as Nazarene Hostel Parents at the boarding school in Papua New Guinea.  So in the PNG tok Pisin and Solomon Pijin languages we are now "tumbu".   Zach picked a good one for sure.

This is the photo of Zach with his new wife, parents, and Grandpa with Jeanne [recently engaged].

Jeanne and I had planned a September wedding but after Zach and Brookelyn repeated their vows Jeanne leaned over and whispered in George's ear, "I wonder if the pastor is busy after this."  She was speaking in jest but in a couple of days and before we arrived home we had moved our wedding to April 7.  

We exchanged our wedding vows after our morning worship service.  The wedding was well attended.  We were surprised to see everyone.  Due to the earlier date we did not know who would be able to come.  The church was comfortably full. 

The photo at right is the "ring of flower" ceremony, commonly used in Papua New Guinea.  

We had a wonderful reception with a fajita meal, decoration and plans made by our Conexion [Hispanic] congregation. Look at the lovely fruit dish they set up.  When I arrived at the fellowship hall, the pastor told me, we will need a feeding of the 5000 type miracle.

These cupcakes were made and decorated with love by Raina, a granddaughter.  

The cake was provided by another friend. 

We enjoyed seeing many of our family and friends.   We didn't have attendants as it was a "low budget" wedding but very beautiful.  A friend made Jeanne's flowers (not pictured).

Now we have quite a blended family.  When we combine George's four children - Gloria/Scott Nelson, Greg/Wendy, Geoffrey/Churie, and Gary/Beth Miller - with Jeanne's four Children - Tiffany/Josh Stout, Eric/Nicole Templeton, Mark, and Aaron/Jenni Martin - our quiver is quite full. That makes our children count stand at 8 and 7 sons and daughters-in-law.   We also have 29 grandchildren.

Our grandkids have kept us busy.  We attended lots of Bible quizzing events.  In Rogers Arkansas we were recognized and given an award for the Grandparents with the most grandchildren in attendance. We had 9 competing.

Sample of Bible Quizzing Photos

The Miller Quiz team with all Miller siblings and one cousin

Richardson TX Bible Quiz teams with a grandson on each team.

In the Olathe KS quiz meet we had 9 grandkids on 5 differents teams and 3 of those teams came in first in their divisions.






Granddaughter Justus graduated from highschool this year and is attending OBU in Shawnee, OK where she is majoring in art.

Justus was homeschool and planned her graduation and it was pretty unique.









We had some wonderful times visiting grandkids in Longview, TX.
Here is a trip to the "Mud House".






Of couse we love to eat.













We attended the Speir (Jeanne's mom's) family reunion in Okemah, OK.  Pictured here is Jeanne with her mom and cousins.










Four of our Woodward, OK grandchildren performed in a drama "The Emperor's Clothing."

The photo at left is of our family and some friends at Woodward where our son Geoffrey is youth pastor.

The photo on right is of our daugter-in-law Churie, the children's pastor in Woodward OK.  This is the Sunday she baptized her two daughters.

We are at LeTourneau University awaiting our granddaughter Anna's performance of the Russian Ballet of the Nutcracker.

Special girls and their t-shirts.  Ah! Best - Friends.











Family Time














We went to Roger's for a Bible quiz and had 10 days before starting the ARMM retreat in Branson, MO, so we decided to take a leisurely trip to Eric and Nicole's home in Largo, Florida.

As these photos reveal we had a wonderful visit with our Florida grandkids.  In the 5-days we were there we set aside 1 day with each of the grandchildren to just spend the day doing what they wanted.  

The youngest Janee wanted to go to the beach.









Paul, on his day, wanted to go to the science museum and to a place where he could play a VR [virtual reality] game.  I (George) had never heard of such before so it was I new experience for me.

You can see Grandma and I are relaxing as we are enjoying the VR game.

The eldest Samara wanted to go to the pet store and play with the puppies and ferrets and see other animals, as well as go to other stores and hang out with Grandma and Grandpa George.  

We visited with Jeanne's brother Paul Whitehead and wife Jessica and Son Eammon and his girlfriend Nila.

On this trip we stayed off the  took another scenic route back to Branson, Missouri, our destination was the ARMM (Association of Retired Minister's and Missionary) retreat.  On Sunday we visited two different churches, and stopped at Lookout Mountain and challenged my new hip with the cave hike to see Ruby Falls, the tallest underground waterfall.  

The ARMM retreat was great.  We went to sight and Sound Theater and saw Samson.  (Photo on Left)  

I just put this photo (on right) in for extra.  While we were in Olathe, KS we went to the "Money Museum" and this is a photo from there





We took the scenic route home through Longview Texas to visit Aaron Martin and family. We watched Davin play football.

This year we enjoy our Thursday evenings at Mom's house.  Jeanne's mom lives nearby and most Thursdays she cooks the evening meal for us along with Tiffany's family.  Then the OKC - Miller clan meet nearly every week at Greg and Wendy's home.  Those family times are so special.  We also enjoy spending time with Tiffany's kids after school until their parents arrive home. 

We are looking forward with anticipation to Christmas and time with family.   We had 8 Grandchildren at our house the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We had air mattresses etc.  It worked, and here are some photos





We enjoyed time with missionary friends this year too.






We pray that God's blessing will be with you throughout the New Year.  We do not know what will happen, but we are assured that God is in control.

 We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a most Happy New Year. 

May God bless and keep you until we meet again.

With Love and Prayer,
George & Jeanne Miller