This season went by in a whirlwind of pain and joy. The loss of our friend definitely changed our perspective this holiday season. Despite the grief we felt, we put our hope in the writings of Paul to the Corinthians:
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to G*d, who gives us the victory through our L*rd Gsus Chr!st. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, alwaysabounding in the work of the L*rd, knowing that in the L*rd your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15-54-58)
Despite the difficulties we were also able to celebrate with all of the usual Christmas festivities. In fact I did about two weeks straight of baking!
Here are a couple new recipes I tried out this month:
By far my new favorite Christmas cookie: Chocolate Chip Peppermint Crunch Cookies
Another good one: Candy Cane Blossoms
I also tried out an idea that I have seen before, but never done myself, for Christmas Gifts this year:
My Russian Teacher loved hers!!
Curtis said that I am not allowed to Bake or entertain again till Valentine’s Day! I agree that I will probably not bake on a large scale till about Valentine’s Day, maybe just here and there for pure joy and nothing more!
So, what did I do all this baking for anyway? You wouldn’t believe the amount of gatherings that we had this season!
First we had a gathering with all of the expats in town to sing Christmas Carols and just be together corporately for Christmas.
Then we had our annual Student’s Christmas Party. I will tell you, it might have been the last time we do it here. It felt like a little too much this year and since we have so many friends now, and we have the café in the English Center, we might just have our friends over next year and do a small party for our students in the Café.
Despite the difficulty, the party was fun, we did a gift exchange, ate lots of sweets and even got to share the story of the very first Christmas 
That was the Sunday before Christmas, and the week before Christmas was filled with many more festivities with friends, co-workers and teammates.
On Thursday we had a work party, we ate good food and our “Secret Angels” were revealed. It is basically the same thing as Secret Santa. It was a lot of fun.
That afternoon we made sugar cookies with our students. I prepared the dough and frosting ahead of time and they rolled them out and decorated them. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work!
On Friday we fed the homeless as a part of our monthly service program that we call “Prosto Tak.” It is basically something that we do each month to serve the community “Prosto Tak” – which translated directly means “simply so,” or because we can.
On Friday we fed the homeless as a part of our monthly service program that we call “Prosto Tak.” It is basically something that we do each month to serve the community “Prosto Tak” – which translated directly means “simply so,” or because we can.
On Saturday (Christmas Eve) we had another gathering with our team. We all brought something to give to Gsus for his Birthday. It is a really special tradition that we have been a part of since we came here. I brought my earbuds (headphones) because I want to spend more time in silence before Gsus, listening to Him. Curtis brought his Calendar because he wants to give him his plans and his days. He has been extremely busy and knows that it will continue as he continues to work on the curriculum for his new class, but he wants direction from our Father in how to spend his days, busy or not.
Saturday night, Christmas Eve, we had some of our closest local friends over. It was another opportunity to share the Christmas story and just relax with friends. It was a real blessing and far from stressful. It was probably the most relaxing gathering of all besides the one on Christmas Day
We had lots of gifts to open because we received two packages before Christmas, one for Chris (Curtis’ Mom) and one from my sister Tara.
Curtis and I also exchanged gifts, we both got a little creative this year. He made me an ornament and I made him some nifty coupons.
We had to wait a couple more days for my sister Angela and my mom’s package to come, but when it did, we had a second Christmas!
We also hosted Christmas dinner for the very first time, which wasn’t as stressful as I thought it might be. It was a simple chicken pesto pasta dinner since we had turkey and pork the day before. I also made Guthrie salad, carrots and garlic bread and for dessert we had pumpkin pie with real homemade whipped cream!
We didn’t have a white Christmas, the snow came late, but boy did it come! We got a dumping of snow last night! It looks like New Year’s will be white, which is special for the people here since New Year’s is their special holiday
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!
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