Holidays

We had a great holiday season! First of all, we celebrated Emily's 7th birthday at Gayla's house. I made a grain-free cherry chocolate cake. She was so beamed up for getting her favorite shopkin toys.

Then we went to the Herd Museum for a day of exploration. The weather was beautiful. We all enjoyed it.

Andy took over Daddy's phone to take pictures. He loved experimenting with all different settings and editing functions of the phone.

Then we had the Thanksgiving dinner for FriendSpeak. We fell in love with these persimmons. So when I found out they were on sale, I bought a bunch from the Asian market and even used them in the dinner decoration.

Emily and Andy were so fascinated by the Magic tricks Bill performed each year. So we got them a set of Magic tricks for Christmas. It was the best gift. They had learned and performed the tricks to many groups friends thereafter.

I made two big turkeys this year. It was so juicy and tasty ...

Andy and Emily and our neighbor Sunny helped to set up the dinner and decorate the area. They were great helpers.

Here are the thanksgiving leaves that Emily wrote (she was thankful for a shelter and safe house; for our church and Christmas; for our family and friends).

We've been helping with the KidsZone at church. Emily started doing the puppet show this month by being the popular puppy called "Cookie". She did a wonderful job in reading and acting. We were so proud of her. This is a picture of all the helpers getting ready for the kids to come. I wish I had a picture of Emily in action. Maybe next time ...

We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving with Grandpa and Grandma. It was always a treat with great food and lots of fun.

After Thanksgiving, our missionary friend from Ukraine Eileen came to visit us. We had a wonderful dinner and conversation.

Eileen is teaching the kids the Russian alphabet and how to spell their names in Russian.

Then we slide into the Christmas season. As usual, we set up our Christmas tree with the advent ornaments. We read LOTs of Christmas books. One thing we never did before were (1) we went to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for two different Christmas performances; (2) we went to the nursing homes to sing Christmas Carols and play Christmas music three times!

Before the DSO Christmas concert, there was an instrument zoo for the kids to try out all kinds of instruments that were used in the concert. We had a lots of fun with that!

I worried the kids might not be able to see the backstage on the ground level. So I bought the upper level tickets. It was a great experience and the kids got to knock off a bingo item from their Piano teacher's bingo sheet!

We made some cards to hand out to the nursing home residents.

Here are the pictures of Emily and Andy playing Christmas music for the nursing home residents.

This is the picture of Emily with her AHG troop at the nursing home.

Emily and Andy handed out cards, ornaments, and hugs ...

This was the Christmas caroling with our church group.

 

 This is the Caroling with Traillife.

Emily and Andy were Mary and Joseph at our Church Christmas program "Camel lot". They did great! Emily was also drawn to be Mary at City of McKinney's lights of parade. But it was canceled because of the bad weather.

 
Here are Andy and Emily autographing for people :-)

We also popped in to the Angel Tree program and took some pictures before the Christmas program.

Andy's class had a fairy tale ball before the holiday break. He put on his "Armor of God".

Emily's class had a holiday party. She had fun playing games and swapping books with her classmates.

This was the first year for Emily and Andy to have a party style Christmas recital at their piano teacher's house. They each played 10 pieces of music while the guests were eating and visiting with each other.

We also had a dinner with Gayla's family before Christmas.

For Christmas Dad and Linda came over to Dallas. We had a wonderful family time together for two days. Unfortunately half of the family got sick in the end. But the weather was pretty and we really enjoyed each other during those two days.

For the New Year, we did the New Year's Interview with the kids (our 5-year tradition). Then we had a Chinese hotpot dinner with some of our FriendSpeak readers at our house (another 3-year tradition). Of course, we never missed having dinner with Leslie at Houston's to ring in the New Year (a 15-year tradition).

Emily has such a tender loving heart that she hands out her love notes all the time. Here is one I found under my bed sheet one day.

Here is another one she put on my keyboard after she cleaned up the office desk.

Both kids enjoy reading to each other. Here is a picture of Emily reading to Andy on the sofa.

The horses continued making their appearances. They love drinking water and nibbling the grass along the fence.

 

Here is a picture of Andy tipped over from his rocking chair. Luckily the windowsill caught him. He looked horrified at first, then started laughing.

Here is a quick dinner roll that I made when we have guests.

Here is a grain free graham crackers that I made for kids' snacks.

 "New Year, new You". I wish this year I could be new me. Our preacher had an excellent sermon on changing the bad habits (
http://www.hp.church/resources/index.php?option=com_preachit&tmpl=component&id=320:changing-habits-in-order-to-change-paths&view=studypopup). It was very good. This year, my biggest challenge is to control my anger and my tongue, and to make our home a life-giving place of belonging and becoming. To be able to do that, I know I need to have daily Bible reading, daily prayers, adequate sleep at night, and cultivate a thankful heart in any circumstance. I know I will have other big challenges as well: kids, health, ... But no matter what happens, I know I never enter a new year alone.

I was really encouraged by Jen Thorn's article:
God is before me. He is around me and behind me. He is there to guide me and protect me. He is our strength and wisdom.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Psalm 139:5

In weakness — the Lord strengthens them;
in poverty — the Lord supplies their needs;
in sickness — the Lord sustains them; and
in death — the Lord gives them the final victory!
James Smith (1802—1862)

"Go into this new year with joy because, no matter what, if your faith is in Christ, you have something that can never be taken from you.  The God who made you will be with you at all times because God surrounds His people and you are one of them."

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”  Psalm 20:4