Days 6, 7, 8

Happy Birthday to our baby girl, Abby! She turned 11 on Thursday, and we gave her the whole day off of school. Technically, the entire school is off, but we led her to believe that it was our idea. Not like she believes us or anything, though. The morning began with her gifts; the boxes were 5 green or pink frames with photos of her cousins and friends and her in them. This was a special request, and since it seems our kids don't ask for much (except Cheezies and to watch videos every minute of the day) it was a delight to give them to her.

The evening of her birthday we went out for dinner with the grandparents and the Comries. Of course, the kids all had to ham up the photo, which we love to see. As an aside, the Comries are in Canada right now, probably arriving as I write this. They've gone from 30 degree weather to -8 and snow!

Last night we had another little party at home complete with cake this time...our oven was broken on Abby's birthday and so we were a day late on the cake. Mom and dad had brought an Angel Food mix and skor bars, so we had one of our favourite cakes (thanks to Tanya).

For the last day of school we went out to dinner with a bunch of Canadians as well as our Aussie neighbours Johnny and Mel. It was a great way to say goodbye to everyone (each of us is heading away somewhere for the hols) and to introduce mom and dad to some of our favourite people. What's weird for the kids is that both Abby and Matt had one of their teachers there. This is a photo of Mel and I, and no, I'm not on drugs. She is our neighbour 2 doors down and is 1/2 of the Aussie couple I mentioned.

Mom was pretty proud of herself because she has been trying to use chopsticks since she arrived, and this was the first meal she ate entirely with chopsticks...rice and all.

After dinner half of us went to the movies and the other half (us and the Carpenters) went out for coffee. It gets dark here so early that is seems late, but really, I think that we were finished dinner about 6:30 and had so much time left in the evening. The women all decided that my dad finally found his talking match...

both Jonathon (Abby's teacher) and my dad each had story after story to tell, and both would listen to each others intently. It was very amusing for everyone and it was nice to see the guys get along so well. I think Mel and Johnny have a place to stay if they ever venture to Canada (and we're not there yet)!

Last week we decided to do Christmas morning early so today (Saturday) we woke up and opened presents up.
It was great...and we get to celebrate the real Christmas morning with stockings on the island of Lombok.

Tris bought me a lens that takes awesome close-ups and so you'll be sure to see some in the next few weeks. Not sure if we can blog over the next week but we'll try if we have the proper hook-ups.

Just want to say, again, thanks for reading our blog and having an interest in our lives. Amazingly, we've received an incredible amount of letters and cards and even some parcels! Thank you so much. For those of you who sent gifts and goodies with my parents, it is appreciated and we have felt very, very loved and spoilt. It's our hope to be able to connect with each of you personally. If we don't in the next while, please forgive us, but we intend on reaching each one.

Merry Christmas. Our prayer is that each of you experiences what the true reason for Christmas is: Jesus and the love he has for you.

Thanks for reading.