A first Christmas

In some ways this has felt to me like the first Christmas with our little family. Partly it's because this is the first year "at home," close to family (at least on one side). Partly it's the first time in years that it's been cold and snowy as it "should" be! And partly it's because our kids are now both old enough to get excited about things.

Here you can see that it doesn't take much for Anna. Jonathan, too, gets excited every time he hears the name "baby Jesus." We've been singing carols for bedtime songs, and when he hears them on the radio, he happily says, "do you recognize that song, mommy?" The little chocolates behind the windows on the Advent calendar was a major highlight of each day for the last month. We cheerfully went to church services three days in a row ("you played organ so nicely, mommy!"). And then there were the presents. All of a sudden his tractor inventory has gotten about nine times bigger! And the books! And Anna's toys! (especially Anna's toys)

After the Christmas eve service in church, my folks came to our house to eat, read the Christmas story (in LG), and open gifts.

The appeal of tractor toys is truly multi-generational in our family.

The battery slowly winds down for the evening...

One last inventory check of the "machine shed" before bed.

And this is what Anna did while the rest of us opened gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of you a joyful Christmas and a happy new year!

[This one is just for fun; our kids are smarter than this photo would suggest.]

And that's about all from our wildly (un)successful in-house photo shoot this morning.

Crazy faith

Jonathan is hitting the age of inquiry. "What does [insert word] mean?" is asked at least 19 times an hour. The other frequent thing he says is "please read/sing it in [Low] German." We used to be able to read books or sing songs in any language we pleased, but now he wants - needs - to know what all the words mean. That's ok, I think, and marvel at what a smart boy he is.

But then we get to the prayers. A few nights ago I said the usual High German one and, per request, translated it into Low German. In English it would be, roughly: I am small, my heart is clean, never should anyone enter but Jesus alone.

Sidenote: where do these crazy poems and ideas come from? And why do we say them??

Last night, after he made sure he knew what heart meant, he asked what it meant that Jesus lived in his heart. Seminary did not prepare me to answer this question. Seriously, stop and think about it from a 2-year old's perspective.

So I mumbled something not very meaningful. And after a moment's pause he said, "Jesus wants to get out."


Ramont and I are now a bit daunted (again) by this whole task of passing on the faith.

Newbies!

I can't hold it back any more (though it's probably not cool to post this before Rachel does)...Two beautiful little - actually, quite robust - twinkies were born yesterday to my brother David and his wife Rachel in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Here is Andrew William,

and this is Annalise Marie.

What joy, just in time for Christmas!

Winter and friends

We experienced our first snow storm this past week. It was quite lovely, especially from the comfort of our warm and cozy home. Our kids had seen a few snowflakes a few weeks earlier, but this was the first "real" snow. Hard to tell if it was what they expected (sometimes I'm pretty sure Jonathan learns everything from books, and so isn't too shook up by real life events).

The snow pants were Exciting! (check out that waistline). Bundling up the first time was, as a whole, pretty exciting. The next many times, not so much.

Anna tested the new walking surface...












and found it to her liking.

Thinking about (pining for) Bolivia?

Anna, the red-nosed munchkin.

Going for the mail.

Looking a little bleak.

Cabin fever this week led to a rare treat at about 5pm one long afternoon: a 10-minute Tractor Tom video in Hungarian. The seats were their idea.

Two of our favorite people from MCC Bolivia came up from Oklahoma to spend some days with us this week. Andy and Cassie Herringshaw also worked on rural water projects during our time there, though in a very different context than ours (read more about it on their blog from those days). They also traveled back home on the same flights as us, we went to re-entry retreat together, and they are pretty awesome with our kids (and loom quite large in Jonathan's good memories of Bolivia). We count ourselves lucky to have friends like these.



Our first family Christmas tree.

Crawling is so passé

 I mentioned before that Anna has begun to walk (at 13 months, almost on the dot). This means no more crawling. Just lots and lots of steps all over the place, often carrying things, funny stand-up positions, and even an hilarious "old man walk." Her horizons have really expanded, as we've always thought (hoped) they would.

 Ramont bought some sweet toys for a few dollars at an auction this week. One is the coasting bike shown above, another was a scooter, and by far the biggest hit: the plastic mower modeled by Jonathan here. He could hardly sleep the first night, asked for it first thing the next morning, and still logs miles onto it each day (mostly inside). What gets him up in the morning now, though, is the Advent calendar. Not so much the spiritual significance as the chocolate inside each little window. Now he wakes up exclaiming "5!", or whatever day it happens to be.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have some friends visit us from Freeman/North Carolina/Goshen/Ohio/Brazil/Bolivia...Lisa Kauffman and "baby Eli" spent a few hours here, catching up on life since we got to know each other in Santa Cruz at the beginning of this year. What an extraordinary year they've had, which you can read more about on their blog.

I didn't get any nice photos of all of us, but then this photo nicely shows the chaos that three little kiddies under 3 might tend towards.