I trust everyone received our newsletter in the mail last month. If you did not, please send us an email and let us know and we can make sure you are on our mailing list. Sorry this is a bit late, but I Just thought I would let everyone know how we spent the holidays. We really had a nice Christmas and New Years. It was nice having Tim's parents here and celebrating with family. Even though the weather is hot this time of year, we try to keep as many traditions as possible that we would normally do in the States. Our tree is fake, but we light pine sented candles to make it smell real. We make fake snow and play lots of Christmas music. This year we read an Advent book, called, Jotham's Journey. You start reading it 4 weeks before Christmas and everyday there is a chapter for you to read. The kids loved it and the story is so interesting all of us adults couldn't wait for the next night to hear what happened next. It was a good way for us to keep our family focused on the meaning of Christmas. New Years we spent down at the lake. So we spend Christmas, trying to ignore the hot weather and pretend it is cold, praying for storms to make it feel cooler. Then on New Years we embrace the warm weather and take full advantage of it. This has been our new tradition, going down to the lake and spending a couple days swimming. We love this tradition. This year, the hippo was back, so we were able to enjoy watching him cross right in front of the beach on his way back to the river and we went crocodile hunting(not shooting, just sighting) at night and Traeger and Karis went tubing for the first time and loved it! Here are some pictures of our holidays.
Baking Christmas cookies and frosting them.
Singing Christmas carols with grandma.
Sleeping under the tree on Christmas Eve.
Jurnee's first Christmas.
The girls all wearing their new jeggings Grandma got them.
New Years at the lake. Our friends, the Cranes, have a boat and took the kids tubing. Karis and Kallen getting a boat ride.
Traeger and Tim on the big tube.
Each of the kids made a Christmas scene with the fake snow we made. This one is Traeger's.
Karis did a nativity scene.
And Kallen did snow men and colored her snow green for the fun of it.
1 comment:
YAY! an update with pics. i live for these things. :)
so, a few things:
1. your family could NOT be any cuter!!
2. so happy that you had family visiting to help and encourage you.
3. i wish i had $5,000 laying around so that my family could hop on the next plane out and come visit you. trust me though, it's in our plans for the next couple of years. :)
4. you're incredible for doing all you can to maintain traditions from here in the States. it's extra work, i'm sure, but it's so important for family-togetherness.
5. lots of prayers for ALL you guys are doing. serving Jesus gets tiring and you begin to feel spread too thin at times, but I know you are being used in incredible ways. and, the simple fact that you are choosing to live in ways that aren't always convenient but you do it out of obedience... well, that speaks MORE than anything you'll ever do or say. thank you for loving Jesus above all else!
miss you,
sarah
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