Christmas At Home 2011

This year definitely gets the vote for "most unusual" Christmas in our family! For one, we did not want to put up all of the Christmas decorations including the tree in the small house. We had to move furniture out of the that house in order to put up the tree and we all agreed there was no point in doing all that just before moving. The last few weeks before Christmas we had been working diligently on the new house so we could move in before the 25th. Well, we made it, barely! At approximately 2 am on the 25th I was decorating the tree in the NEW HOUSE! After that, I was up another hour wrapping all the presents!

Even though we got to bed late...well, early Christmas morning, we wouldn't have slept well anyway since we were in the new house for the first night. It felt so strange to be in a new place that we didn't sleep much!

So, while we slept in a bit the kids got up around 8 am to see the tree decorated with presents underneath. They also opened their stockings. 

Christmas 2011

Below is an overview of the gift opening! Sorry that some of the photos are blurry. I didn't post several of them because of this. My camera doesn't do well if it is shaken or if there is movement and with all the excitement of Christmas morning it was difficult to catch the kids sitting still!

The kids got me a statue to hang necklaces on.

Rebekah received a movie from her brothers.

Headphones for Ryan's Didj from his sister.

A movie for Timothy from his sister.

Ninjago sets from Grandma and Grandpa.

3D picture and puzzle from Great Grandma.

A Nerf sword and shield to match with his brother.

Beads and more beads to make jewelry!

Transformers!

Rebekah and her new bath robe.

We didn't do a huge Christmas this year for a special reason which I will explain in the next post. 

It's a surprise!

2011 Missionary Christmas Party

We sure do a lot of celebrating in December with our family's birthdays and Christmas. One of our traditions is the missionary Christmas party. We celebrated a bit earlier than usual this year.

This year we had several families less since one family is on furlough, one family is back in the US awaiting the birth of their second child, one family in the US for other reasons, and one single lady was also home on furlough. We are only all together with these families at Thanksgiving and Christmas parties, otherwise most everyone is involved in separate ministries. Still, with several families missing we had seven adults and sixteen children.

We planned the menu to be easy and simple with sub sandwiches, chips, a veggie tray, and desserts.

Refreshment table.

Food table (with our daughter caught eating again!)

Dessert table.

As always these missionary parties are a chance to relax and enjoy Christian fellowship.

While the children were busy watching Christmas videos and cartoons,

the adults enjoyed a game of Headbanz. My kids received this game from a friend of mine who sends us packages after I recently asked her to send us a new game for them to play at home. The kids love it and it was a big hit at our Christmas party.

James and Cassie Dean

Bonnie Hearron

As a last event for the day, the children and adults enjoyed opening gifts. We exchange names each year. For the last several years we have exchanged family names for the children. This means we give a board game as a gift to all of the children in the family whose name we drew instead of individual gifts for each child. They seem to enjoy this and it saves the parents a bit of money since there are lots of children around here!

Monopoly!

A Russian dictionary game!

A Hello Kitty game!

Our kids received Twister!

New gloves!

My hubby received a new heater (we use these everywhere!)

New bowls!

I received a flour sifter and glass tea cups!

Everyone enjoyed the day!

Our children were excited to be able to take their Twister game home and soon play it in the new house!

12/25/11

Celebrating Rebekah's 14th Birthday

Our celebrations continued in December with the 14th birthday of our daughter, Rebekah. It is so hard for us to believe that our little girl is already fourteen!

Rebekah - at our apartment in Krasnoyarsk, 2002

We are so thankful for Rebekah and her sweet spirit. She is such a blessing to our family and has such a great testimony with the Russian people. Everyone loves our Beka. We are so proud of how she reaches out to help others and is so burdened for more Russians to be saved!

For her birthday meal, Beka chose hamburgers! She LOVES meat! 

Hamburgers with onion ring chips.

Now, I have to appreciate Beka's cake choice this year. She loves anything with caramel and chocolate. (My  kind of girl!) Beka began talking about a caramel cheesecake. I found this recipe online and it had a graham cracker crust (which she also wanted) with caramel. We were excited because we recently found toffee candies similar to Skor candy bars which we could use as a topping. 

Our caramel cheesecake.

Okay ladies, I am not bragging on my baking but I have to say, this was YUMMY! I know that combining cream cheese, caramel, graham crackers, and chocolate covered toffee can't really be "yucky" but this recipe is definitely worth trying! It is a bit time consuming because everything is weighed to the gram. However, it does not require a spring form pan which was another bonus for me since I don't own one!

She was ready to try it and not pose for more pictures!

Gift opening time was fun as Beka received two things she really wanted.

One gift was a new purse from her brothers (who were excited to give her a gift which they purchased with their own money). 

Her second gift was a hair dryer/curling brush from David and me .

She was very happy about her gifts and really enjoyed her special day!!!

Celebrating Ryan's 10th Birthday

December is a busy month for our family and the excitement begins with our oldest son, Ryan's, birthday on the 6th. This year he turned 10 years old and was happy to hit the double digits! Any of you who know Ryan can attest that his energy levels are a bit above normal on an average day! Add to that the excitement of his birthday and he could hardly fall asleep in anticipation!

This year, Ryan chose Chicken and Spinach Alfredo pizza for his birthday meal since as he put it, "it tasted so good when we had it for Timothy's birthday." So, we all enjoyed the pizza and they almost devoured it before I even took the picture!

Yum!

The cake!

I had these hockey player figures from a missionary friend which I used on the cake. They were actually field hockey players but once you stuck them in icing it wasn't that noticeable.

Crazy faces from Ryan!

He thought it was great and as you can see from his face, he was totally impressed!

Blowing out the candles.

One of the many things I love about our daughter, Rebekah, is the time and thought she puts in to making birthday cards for others. She takes the time to find out what they love and then creates a special card just for them. This year she made Ryan a sword card and it turned out very nice!

Ryan reading his birthday message from Beka.

Now for presents!

This year Ryan received some Spy Gear binoculars from his brother and sister.

Timothy explaining how they work.

He received a battery operated driver set from Mom and Dad. 

He had been wanting one of his own and this inexpensive set was small enough for his hands and came with lots of bits! He was a happy boy!

We love our Ryan and thank God for the ten years of life He has given us with him. He adds so much life, love, and laughs to our family. It's no wonder to me as his Momma why he was so difficult to bring into this world - too much personality in one small package! We are confident the Lord has a special plan for this guy!

Daddy and Ryan messing around at home.

We love you, Ryan!