Obviously this has been a big year for us, or we wouldn't be writing this letter together. A month after Amanda graduated from Wheaton College, we were married June 6 in Massachusetts, at Amanda's home church, Mayflower Congregational. It went beautifully, so no fun wedding-disaster stories, and it's been wedded bliss ever since.

Nothing much exciting has happened since the big day. We had a very relaxing honeymoon in Maine at Steve's great-aunt's cottage on the shore. We read eight or nine books each, prompting worried concern about our marital passion from at least one or two family members. (But we'll leave protesting accounts of passion out of the Christmas letter.) After Maine, we drove back to Amanda's parents' house to load the car to sagging and then drove through Niagara (how honeymoon!) and a stretch of Canada (where we had no problems with the customs guards, despite our fears that they might make us unpack all our belongings, in the rain, at 2 a.m.) to Steve's parents' house in Michigan. Then we drove on to Indiana and our new home on the border of Illinois.

We haven't quite settled into our apartment, but we're working on it. Boxes fill the dining room (what's in them anyway?), so we haven't had to comb the thrift shops for a dining-room table yet. We eat off trays in the living room. So bohemian. We did buy gerbils, a staple of every good apartment.

We are settling into life here. We're both still working at The Bible League, though Amanda's thinking of scuttling off to a job that remembers to pay her. (Lucky Steve has direct deposit.) Steve's been working like a madman on a series of devotional planners and hopes in the new year to snag some new projects. Amanda's editing a training program for church planters and looking on the side for more freelance editorial and writing work. We've finally found a church, Crossroads Community, and we're in a small-group Bible study that we really like. And, most importantly in our process of learning the layout of our new community, we have found a Taco Bell just down the street and made friends with it. We might even make friends with people sometime. There is one boy in our complex who enjoys how slowly it's taking us to move in: He comes around every couple weeks and asks for empty boxes to play with. We call him Box Boy, but probably he doesn't qualify as a friend.

Other than that, nothing much has been happening here, probably because we keep leaving. In August, Steve's parents threw us another reception for their friends who couldn't make Boston for the wedding. We visited Kelly, our maid of honor, while she was at St. John's University in Minnesota this summer and tried out being monklike for a few days (it was very relaxing!). Juliane, one of Amanda's German friends from her Berlin days, was on her honeymoon in New York City, so we flew out to see her and her new husband, which was a lot of fun (and they didn't make us speak German!). And we went on a "business" trip to Denver, Colorado, for a graphic-design conference for Steve. We loved the area and are thinking of relocating if we can find an excuse. We ate with Beth, one of Amanda's college roommates, there and took a detour to Crestone to visit Amanda's grandparents. We ate a lot. We won't describe the food to keep you from getting jealous and mauling us if you ever visit. We stopped on the way there and the way back at Amanda's uncle Paul and aunt Kathy's house in St. Louis--cousins Matthew and Anna were a flower girl and ring bearer, not in that order.

If you're near Chicago anytime, feel free to stop by our place. It's not big, but we have a fold-out sofa that's very squishy and fun, and an extra down comforter (ritzy!!!). We probably won't have a dining room table yet, so we'll let you tag along to Taco Bell.