More Sledding

This is Naynay's version of sledding.  He is definitely a lot more adventurous than Jojo and has absolutely no fear whatsover! 

Sledding

Jojo has gotten a little more adventurous this year with his sledding.  The boys have these real small tablets and by the end of the run they end up losing them sometimes.  I need to buy them new big saucers!

Small Group Christmas Party

 

Last Thursday we celebrated Christmas.  We had some yummy appetizers.

 

Then we did a candle craft............I stole the idea from a Fall craft 

that we did in our Wives' group.  

 

Then we had a gift exchange game and everyone was real nice about 

it.........no one stole a gift!!!

 

And here we are minus 2 "Excellent Wives" who could not come.  

Ghostees.

Last week we had the opportunity to be "ghostees" (guests) at the home of one of the men who is in the training program here in Samara.  It's always fun eating in someone's home and not knowing what to expect.  The family is actually Korean and he immigrated to Russia years ago.  He even prepared the meal called "plov"............he said it was a man's job to make plov.  The Klassens also joined us which was great fun for the kids of course.

 

What a precious family they are!!!

 

I think she is trying to be a little bunny here.

 

Jojo does not give me any problems eating at all!  Since he was a little

baby he has had an incredible appetite.  Plus he is pretty adventurous 

and will try just about anything.  He is my little food connoisseur.

 

It was snowing real bad this day.............here's Jon removing all the

ice and snow from the front windshield.

Staff Christmas Party

Merry belated Christmas!  It has been so crazy in my home the last few days that I have not had an opportunity to post anything.  One of my favorite parts about the Holiday Season are all the parties and get togethers.  Last week we had our annual staff party which was hosted by the Moorheads.  This is a great opportunity to get together with all the national co-workers and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  It's always a fun evening with a lot of yummy things to eat.

 

Appetizers galore.

 

Singing some Christmas carols.

 

Our IT guy and his beautiful wife.

 

One of the local pastors and his sweet wife.

Days 350-356

 

Day 356  Getting the craft supplies ready for the small group Christmas party.

 

Day 355  So just ignore our brick wallpaper but those are our balloon decorations.

 

Day 354  My hubby and I at the staff Christmas party.

 

Day 353  Do not try this art project with kids!  YIKES!!!

 

Day 352  Catching up on the blog.

  

Day 351  Cake decorating with the family.

    

Day 350  This is what my husband did for two weeks. 

Decorating a Cake

Our Christmas countdown activity this past Saturday was to decorate a Christmas tree cake.  I'm running out of ideas!!!  Thankfully Christmas is only a few days away now!

 

 Daddy wasn't watching and Nathan piled on a little too many sprinkles!

One of those moments!

This morning I had one of those movie moments where the actress is tearing through her purse in a frantic search for something, she can't find it and then moves on to a closet and throws everything on the floor.  Well, that was me this morning.  I thought I lost my passport.  For one who lives overseas their passport is their life.  This past Tuesday I went shopping and put my passport in my brown purse but forgot to take it out when I returned home.  Today, I took my brown purse to church and couldn't find my passport.  I thought for sure it was stolen or that I lost it at the mall.  I was totally hysterical, nauseous, and crying.  Jon on the other hand was as cool as a cucumber.  For a brief second I thought he took it to teach me a lesson but that wasn't the case.  As I was searching through my stack of purses a light bulb went on...................I remembered that I switched my brown purse to a more secure black purse at the last moment on Tuesday.  And lo and behold my passport was safely tucked inside the secure pocket of my black purse.  Praise God and we only arrived to church a few minutes late after the fiasco. 

Days 343-349

 

Day 349  Enjoying a visit with our friend Frank who is here ministering in Samara.

 

  

Day 348  Getting ready for our team Christmas party.  

 

 

Day 347  I love our nativity scene (from Israel).

 

 

  

Day 346  Christmas craft with the boys.

 

Day 345  Trying once again to get a decent picture of the two boys together.

  

Day 344  Trying to get a picture of my two boys.

  

Day 343 Our wives' group Christmas craft time.

Nathanism

The following is a conversation that took place in our kitchen after lunch.

Nathan: "Mom, where did my hot dog go?"
Me: "You ate it already."
Nathan: "Is it in my tummy?"
Me: "Yep, it's in your tummy!"
Nathan: "So now I have a baby in my tummy?"

Let's just pray we don't have to have that  "how does a baby get into a woman's tummy" conversation  for a long time.

Christmas Craft

For another countdown day we did a special craft.  I found this great kid's art lesson website and thought the craft was easy enough for the boys to enjoy.  I think the end results were really pretty!!

 

We started off by putting yellow circles for the center of the 

pointsettia flowers.

  

My masterpiece.

 

Jojo's masterpiece.

 

For Naynay's end result I added the leaves myself.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

As part of our Christmas countdown we decorated sugar cookies with the family one evening.  It's always a fun time but it can get a bit messy plus not to mention the "sugar high" from eating all the frosting that doesn't always end up on the cookies.

 

Naynay's creations.

 

Mommy's creations.

 

Daddy's creations.

 

Jojo likes to go easy on the frosting.

Nathan and I ate our cookies within one day but Jojo and daddy

saved their cookies and the cookies were still around on the third

day!  Pretty amazing self-control!

Days 336-342

 

Day 342  Getting ready for our cookie exchange.

 

Day 341  Getting ready for craft time.

   

Day 340 Finally found some pecans in Samara.

    

Day 339  It's "sankee" time.

   

Day 338  It's Christmas sugar cookie decorating time.

 

Day 337 - Sheets of ice.  Our sidewalks are like ice skating rinks right.  I took this picture as I was waiting for transport to go to the local market.  When I returned home I noticed a little old man with a cane just standing by a similar sidewalk.  I felt horrible for him because I knew he didn't know what to do.  So, I asked him if I could help him home.  As we walked home he proceeded to show me his prosthetic leg, he talked to me about things I couldn't understand, and I was able to smell the alcohol on his breath.  He lived a little further than I thought but I was just relieved to get him home safely in one piece.

 Day 336  Loving the reflection of the lights on the window.