December Happenings

We had two weeks of school before Christmas break.  We returned to teaching our classes and tutoring.  It was fun to see all the cute kids we work with again!

Coloring the letter U.  Romanians do not teach the alphabet in order like we do, so that is always interesting!

Mark reading to the kids.  They loved the pop-out book.

The next week we went to some of the school's Christmas celebrations.

The Alexandria girls.  The program was real short this year, less than half an hour!

After the program we handed out Christmas gifts.  The kids are always happy with whatever they receive.

With the four sisters and Vali.  It is always fun to have a picture with them and see how much they have grown.

The youngest kids at the boys school.  So adorable!

Christmas Carols

A skit

This is the first grade class.  They are a very sweet group of kids and we really enjoy working with them!

Viorel with the bag of gifts he received for Christmas.

It was fun to see our kids preform and give out some gifts.  Christmas can be a real hard time of year emotionally for some of our kids.  Keep them in your prayers!

Our Time at Home in Michigan: Family

Since our last post we have returned to Romania already from our furlough at home in Michigan.  Our month there went really fast because we were so busy, it is true that time flies when you are having fun.  Thanksgiving week we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families since we didn't stay until Christmas time.

Hand blown glass ornaments have always been a big hit as gifts, we enjoy going to the factory to get them and also seeing where people put them in their houses to decorate.  

We always enjoy spending time with family when we come home.

We spent a few days with each of our families to make sure that we had plenty of time during our short stay home to see them.

For Thanksgiving with Rebecca's family we decided to try some new recipes, so we made garlic rosemary roasted chicken, sweet potatoes with candied walnuts and goat cheese, and roasted broccoli with parmesan and pine nuts.  They were all first time recipes and turned out great. 

I got adventurous on the pie and made bruleed maple cream pumpkin pie.  It turned out amazing and it was fun to brulee the sugar with a torch.  

Mom showed off her new table runner from Romania.

We never took a family picture and our candid shots were less than favorable, so this will have to do this year.  I will let you decide who is who :)

We had such a wonderful time home and it was great to see everyone.  We are glad to be back in Romania and to see our kids again.  With Christmas coming up we will be going to lots of programs and having lots of Christmas parties.  We'll look forward to sharing about those too.