Might as well start with the big news: There's a new baby in our lives. His name is Evan James. No, it's not what you're thinking — we're babysitters! He's our small group leaders' four-month-old, and we're watching him twice a week. We're naturals.

Yes, that means we can't wear pajamas all week like we usually do working from home, but we're willing to make the big sacrifices for our friends. We've grown close to our church family at Crossroads Community, what with Amanda's tenure as a praise team leader, our involvement in the drama program (where Steve's always cast as the ornery husband, for no reason we can figure), and our small group. This fall we've been leading our group through a new study on marriage that Steve worked on for The Bible League — and using them as guinea pigs for draft two, mwahaha — which has helped us get to know and enjoy each other. You can find out about the study at WheresPhilip.com, a website Steve helped design (in his pajamas).

We've also connected with several out-of-state friends this year: We heard Kelly Whittier's amazing organ recital at Emory University in Atlanta in the spring, then swung by Amanda's brother Erik and his wife, Kim, in Columbus. We enjoyed Acadia National Park in Maine with Amanda's parents and brother Ethan. And we celebrated two weddings of Wheaton Record friends, in Wheaton and Cleveland. Having met on the Record ourselves, we have a special place in our hearts for newspaper romance. We also visited the Lansinghs and Kent Straith in Michigan several times, and saw Amanda's dad and uncle Randy here in lovely Griffith. Amanda connected with two of her high-school friends — we caught a Notre Dame game with Bryan Furze, and roamed around Chicago with Anne Hunt and her boyfriend, Ron. The gerbils, on the other hand, have mostly stayed put, though we do let them run around the bathroom occasionally for exercise and a false sense of freedom.

Lest you think we've suddenly become social animals, let us reassure you that our most-seen friends are the UPS man and postal carrier who regularly bring us groceries, puzzle books, movies, and all sorts of other goodies we've ordered over the internet at great bargains. We've had fun finding all the online deals, and even more fun relaxing together and enjoying the puzzles and DVDs. But as we look around the increasingly cluttered apartment (case in point: we've earned so many free magazine subscriptions that we can't possibly read them all), it looks remarkably like we're settling down here. That's never been what we intended, and so we've decided to leap without a net next year and move ourselves to Seattle.

The idea of a fresh start has been good for us; we're taking a closer look at what we most want. Steve's made a major decision to drop out of intense movie reviewing and focus on more diverse writing topics. (His website, TheFilmForum.com, will continue but with fewer current reviews and more full-length articles.) Amanda's launched a professional editing service at AmandaLCaldwell.com, which is getting a lot of hits and even a few paying clients (joy!). We're both contemplating more schooling — not for graphic design or writing, which we will still do freelance for The Bible League, but at a Seattle seminary that we both enjoyed when we visited last year.

We're excited and a little nervous about all the changes, and we would love your prayers. For now, though, we're celebrating Christmas — our first time all by ourselves (well, ourselves and all our stacks of magazines). We hope to put in place some rich, meaningful traditions that are uniquely our own, which will most likely involve wearing pajamas.

May God bless you this Christmas and throughout the next year!

Steve and Amanda

P.S. Explore the rest of SteveAndAmanda.com — browse photo albums of the trips we've taken, find links to many of Steve's and Amanda's writing projects, and read more news about friends and family. It's also the best placed to stay informed of our upcoming move and planned trip to Europe, since we update it throughout the year. One new feature: Help us choose a baby name!

P.P.S. If you want any outdated magazines, we'd be happy to hook you up.