Guest blogger: Future Grandma Robin

One Determined Santa

I will never forget the year Ellen and Josh came to spend the Christmas holiday with us. I was amazed when one relatively small suitcase produced a wide variety of packages, including a rather large and rather heavy rectangular box. Nevertheless, all were placed dutifully under the tree by Josh. Ellen has long since been banished for touching, rattling or sniffing Christmas packages. Why? It is practically impossible to surprise her!! She has some second sight about what is inside a wrapped package. However, this year was to be the year. Josh, her special Santa, had decided that there was going to be at least one gift that would be a total surprise.

Christmas morning brought with it that general sense of chaos. Among all the ohh's and ahh's, there was an occasional shriek of an unexpected surprise. Ellen enjoyed it all, but pretty much knew what was coming before the ribbons were cut and the paper shredded. Josh watched her with a sly smile on his face. He had retrieved the rather large, rather heavy rectangular box and hid it close to his side. As things began to wind down he pulled it from it's place and set it before Ellen. She startled a little. She certainly hadn't forgotten about the box, but he seemed so sure of his surprise it made her wonder. They decided to play. "What is this, Josh?" she demanded. "I guess you'll have to open it, in order to find out. Don't you know what it is?" he replied. Ellen fell into a little pout. Josh loved it. "Go ahead," he said, "pick it up, squeeze it, shake it, give it the sniff test." Ellen's eyes narrowed as she gave his face the once over. "Oh, you think you are so sneaky, don't you?" Josh gave his familiar chuckle. "Maybe so, but you haven't got a clue what's inside there and you're never going to know until you open it up." Ellen scrunched up her nose and puckered her lips. She thought about it for a minute and then said, "Fine. I'll open it."

The ribbon and bow was detached. The paper ripped to shreds. The box opened and it revealed----a telephone book. Unimpressed, Ellen pushed her eyebrows together. Josh pretended not to notice. "Telephone book----always a helpful item around the house. You can find all kinds of things in the yellow pages." Ellen laughed. She started to flip through the pages--a little in the front, a little in the back. "What?" she demanded. "Keep looking." Ellen began to turn the pages again, this time more carefully. It wasn't until she made a complete, determined search that she found a small cube that had been carved into one section of the yellow pages. And in the cube was a small box and in the box was a velvet box and in the velvet box was a lovely ring.

At last! A shriek of unexpected surprise. He had done it! Santa Josh had totally surprised his Ellen.

Guest blogger: Future Aunt Stacie

My name is Stacie. I am Ellen's sister. I am married to Dustin and we have two children Tate, age 8 and Jill age 5. (Well almost 5.)

My favorite thing about Josh and Ellen is all the time they take to be a TERRIFIC aunt and uncle. My children adore them and it is easy to see why. Let me tell you some of our favorite things!

Josh and Ellen have a steady income and try to be generous. Keeping that in mind, they choose to use their time and money enjoying their family! Every time we are together, Josh and Ellen see to it that we do plenty of fun things for the kids. We go to the zoo, aquarium and children's museum. They seek out places where they can have FUN with their nieces and nephews. And it's not good enough to just go to the "kids places" they are in there making the magic happen. There is not a display at the children's museum that Josh and Ellen have not explored with the kids! They figure, what is the fun of pretending to be a newscaster if you aren't doing it with your nephew?
They believe you are wasting your time at a park if you are not pushing a swing, catching someone at the end of the slide or taking your turn being "it" for the game.

My son Tate was once cast as a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz. I was really struggling with finding a costume for him. Aunt Ellen to the rescue! Ellen is a talented seamstress and she made the best munchkin outfit you have ever seen. Pants, vest and matching tie! Tate looked so good, that Jill even had to take a turn trying it on. We also had a year were we struggled financially. We weren't sure what we were going to do about the upcoming Easter holiday. Uncle Josh and Aunt Ellen sent us brand new Easter Sunday church outfits for both Tate and Jill! Jill spent the day asking people if they wanted to see her "twirl" and then spinning around in her cute dress.Personally, I think that Josh's greatest attribute is his caring nature. The guy would literally give you the shirt off his back if you asked. Say you need help and Josh will be the first one there. My sister Ellen is very loyal. She has got your back. When it feels like the whole world thinks you are crazy, Ellen says, "You want this? Then let's go get it!"

My family has been truly blessed by having Josh and Ellen in it!