The last few days, we have all had plenty of opportunities to shovel snow. As we shovel, we can’t help but notice the glistening whiteness of the snow. It is quite beautiful. A day or two later after the snowplows and cars travel along the streets and roads, it isn’t nearly as pretty.

As Pastor Koschmann would say, we can make that "downright churchy". Our sins are forgiven through the merits of Jesus. We are as white as snow. The beautifulness of the newly fallen snow is a reminder of how clean we are from the sins that are forgiven. Do we mess up...yes. The dirty snow later on is a reminder of how we cannot stay sinless on our own. Thanks be to God that He continues to forgive His people, not because they merit or deserve it, but because of the payment Jesus made for those sins with His life. Dirty snow can remind us of how sinful we are, but praises go to God for it not ending there.

So as we shovel however many more times this winter season, let it remind each of us first of all of our sinfulness and then of our sinlessness through the wonderful act of redemption of our Gracious Lord. Snow shoveling can become a time to praise and thank God for all He has done for us!

*Reminder, everyone is invited to attend chapel at 8:45 am on Wednesdays with our children. The schedule for chapel leaders in the next few weeks is:

January 13 - Dan Henschen January 20 - Glen Goeres

January 27 - Lutheran High February 3 - Pastor Hennig

Anyone who may be interested, we now have the ability to do direct deposit transfers. If it would be of any help to you, we can set up your tuition payments to be directly transferred from your account to save you the time. In addition, we can now also do direct transfers for Church contributions as well. If anyone is interested call the church office. It is very easy to set up. You can stop the transfers just as easily, if it turns out that this program is not working for you. If you are interested in this or have any questions, please call the office.

School Dismissal Due to Bad Weather If it is necessary to close school due to severe weather, mechanical failure, or other emergency the announcement will be made over local radio stations WMAY (970 AM), WTAX (1240 AM) and WDBR (103.7 FM). Please do not call the teachers! Concordia will align school closing with District 186 except for early dismissals due to bad weather or other emergencies that are not affecting Concordia.

Anytime you have a question please do not hesitate to call the office. -Thank you, Sharon & Lora

Concordia Preschool will prepare you child for kindergarten in a loving Christian environment. We offer all day and part day preschool for 3,4 and 5 year olds on a daily year round basis. Concordia Preschool is open daily from 7:00-5:30pm. We have large classrooms as well as a gym and playground. Breakfast, hot lunch and an afternoon snack are served each day. Come take a tour and see what we have to offer.

Call 585-0640 for more information. We do have several openings available, if you have a friend or neighbor with a preschool age child, please pass our information along to them.

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-The coupon books are here again! The cost is $30.00.

To get one ask one of Youth group members or inquire in the office.

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The faculty and staff would like to thank all who contributed to our Christmas gift. The goodies were delicious and the money was much appreciated.

Thank you very much.

A great game reindeer play is called "Sky High". In this game reindeer have five seconds to see who can get the highest in the sky. The first place winner gets to lead Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve.

One game I think that reindeer might like to play is to have a race down an icy mountain of snow. They would go up to the top of the mountain and get on sleds and race down.

Of course the reindeer that makes it down first wins the race!

Here is one type of game that reindeer play. They play Santa Says instead of Simon Says.

On a chilly day, I saw Jack Frost hard at work making things icy. Jack Frost made a piece sign on my bedroom window because I like piece signs. Then he went down to my school and made

the entire parking lot ice so we could go outside and ice skate the next day at school

On a chilly day, I saw Jack Frost hard at work making everything icy. He put black and hot pink frost all over my bedroom window. Jack frost put purple frost on my mom’s car and orange frost on my step-dad’s car. I told him black and hot pink were my favorite colors so now he does it everyday!

On a chilly day, I saw Jack Frost hard at work making things icy. He made trees icy.

He made houses icy! He even almost froze me and made me icy!

On a chilly day, I saw Jack Frost hard at work making things icy. I always thought he was just

a legend, but I saw him that night with my very own eyes. I got up to tell my parents and they looked but he was gone. Then my mom said that I was just seeing things.

On a chilly day, I saw Jack Frost hard at work making everything icy. He was helping the kids build better snowmen by making more snow. While he was doing that he and the kids become friends.

On a chilly day, I saw Jack Frost hard at work making things icy.

I heard the radio playing "Jack Frost nipping at you nose".

So I covered my head with a blanket and hoped he wouldn’t get my toes.

What I do before my volleyball games is lunges, jumping jacks and then I stretch by reaching for my feet. I will also practice bumps with my friends Kaitlyn and Alyssa and sometimes Destiny.

I stretch out before I play sports. Stretching is good because you can get loose.

I stretch because I do not want to mess up when I am playing or hurt a muscle.

Stretching is very good to do before you start playing a sport.

Before a basketball game I run to loosen up my legs.

Then during warm ups I will try and shoot shots that I would want to make during the game.

For volleyball we put our right leg over our left and try to touch our toes.

We also do lunges. Oh man, they are hard! You put your left leg forward and your right leg back at 90 degrees. It works you out a lot!