Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Our Christmas Advent

We have had a wonderful season of Christmas preparations this year! 
It's so much fun to see the children anticipating and excitement growing. 
And not even just our children. As I type this, my living room is bustling with neighborhood children who are enjoying the New Year's Day off from school. They love playing around our Christmas tree making decorations for it (my tree is filled with paper tree frogs and papers with drawings and Christmas messages hung on it signed by the children. They love sampling our Christmas baking and my kids love playing with them. We have enjoyed a very blessed Christmas advent season indeed! 

The day of our Christmas Tree decorating party started out with pancakes shaped as Christmas trees (or something like that!) decorated with sprinkles. Wes has been into snow for Christmas (poor kid lives in the wrong country for that!) so we also sprinkles powdered sugar on our pancakes to cover the trees with "snow"


The kids were SO excited! Wesley especially, and Bria joined in on the fun, too!









Now, everything we do is done by twinkle light!

My little elf helpers. :)


Like last year, we had to have a popcorn party, make red paper chains, and play around the tree. I'm really enjoying watching these boys grow up! For many of them, their English is improving (much faster than my Khmer!) and I'm able to talk with them a little more. They are so gentle with Wes & Bria. We love having them in our home.




To get in the Christmas Spirit, I eagerly marked Christmas bizarres on my calendar.
One Saturday Joe looked after the kids while my friend, Shirley, and I escaped to a fancy hotel, all decorated for Christmas, and filled with dozens of vendors from all over the city selling their crafts and goodies. It's a one-stop-shop for Christmas shopping! Most of the vendors support needy people in Cambodia or the crafts are made by people being trained in life skills to provide alternative occupations. I was giddy with a chance to get out, enjoy some Christmas spirit, and find a few treasures along the way!

There were Christmas choirs from various groups or schools around the city, and even Santa made an appearance! Shirley and I had a lot of fun!








We also braved a trip to a Christmas fair as a family! I say braved, since our kids are not at a good age to have lots of available stuff to grab, stay close to us in crowds, or skip naps. However, we had a really fun time! I chased after Bria while Wes made painted and made bells at the craft table, and then we all attempted a photo shoot at the photo booth. Joe even found a way to buy some gifts for me! The live Christmas music and the yummy Christmas baking booth made the whole experience very festive. We were glad we made the effort to go! In Cambodia, if you don't make an effort to experience it, you'll end up missing Christmas entirely! 

Here is Bria, all dolled up in her new Christmas dress that I found from a Christmas bizarre, at the photo both.







Wes & Bria chilling by the Christmas trees. Bria sucking ice cubes. (Just what every child loves to eat at a Christmas party! haha)

My pretty baby

Our best family photo attempt


So many treasures to be found!

We also paid a visit to Santa! Here we are, waiting with his helper.

Bria was terrified of him!!


This is Wes' expression while waiting for his turn with Santa.
The things my parents have me do...

He also wasn't impressed with the experience.


The cookie decorating, however, he was thrilled!



Bria also helped to make some crafts


The kids disappeared, but at least I was pleased with our finished product!
We later used this tree to make a Christmas card for Daddy.

We received a Christmas package delivered all the way from Canada!!!
Wow, all that popcorn seasoning, ant poison, a Christmas candle, books, music, my favorite (rather expensive!) face cleansers, and I didn't even take a photo of the gifts sent for the kids or all those packages of Twizzlers. Amazing!! :D

Look at all that popcorn seasoning!!!!!
happy sigh. LOVE!!

We.love.FedEx.
To get a FedEx box delivered to our home creates small havoc in our home. We drop what we're doing and the FedEx box captivates all of our attention. It is a box filled with love. So many people contribute and we are left feeling a deep sense of homesickness and gratitude. Thank you SO much to our Martin family for blessing us in this way! Most of the gifts here were unwrapped on our "Christmas Day" so I had no idea how many goodies I was taking a photo of!
baking supplies, homemade chocolates (which didn't even melt all the way this year!), candy, our favorite pretzels, Christmas cards and a family calendar, and SO many gifts for all of us!

We had SO many gifts to open for our Christmas morning. (pics of that to come)
Thank you so much for you boxes filled with love! We sure do love and miss you!


We hosted a PPBS faculty Christmas party at our place!
Our home was bursting with fantastic people, great food, hilarious games, and decorating cookies!




since I didn't have time to frost the cookies, we had a cookie decorating party! 


If they rolled doubles they had to put on a hat, scarf, and mitts and then try to unwrap the gift. Everyone really got into it. It was hilarious! And hot. haha

 


 



Our group all together, with our honorary members: Peeka and Boo (to show that we were thinking of Dave & Sonya who couldn't be there with us!)


The next day Bria had to dress up in the winter clothes, too!


The moment the Christmas tree was up, Wes needed to set up his train under the tree. And there it has stayed for many hours of play.





I had ordered a toy Nativity Scene to be sent with one of our care packages. It has been wonderful both for our children and also the neighborhood kids to play and learn with.







Every day from December 1-25, starting from Genesis, we learned more from Scripture about how and why God prepared the way for Jesus' birth. We read from their children's Bible, colored and hung a Christmas tree ornament, and lit a tea light each day so the kids could see when Christmas was. Although it was "for the kids" it was a special time of reflection for Joe and I as well!











To carry on special  traditions from childhood, and re-create them for our own children, all month we've been baking special goodies, finding special gifts and hiding them throughout the house, and preparing for Christmas! Actually, since we will be gone over Christmas on our own little family holiday, we had our family Christmas Day early. 

I am always giddy with excitement during the Christmas preparations. I love this time of year. I make it feel like Christmas, even though there is no change of season. I love creating these special memories with my own little family and especially reflecting on the amazing gift that the Lord has given us through Jesus.


Merry Christmas!