~The first half of Our Christmas day pics~

We had a very good Christmas. It was just a fun, quiet, and relaxing day to be together as a little family. Elijah had me awake at 6:00 AM so I filled our stockings, then went back to bed until later. When I got up Kimberly fed me a special breakfast that she had made and then the kids gave me a goodie box. We opened our stockings, read the Christmas story out of Luke 2, then opened our gifts. We woke up to no water in the house, so that made it a tad difficult making Christmas dinner. The Lord helped me though and we enjoyed our yummy meal together and then as we were finishing eating our water came back on. We didn't know how long it would be off...just a few hours, or a few days. Praise the Lord, it was just a few hours. I hope you enjoy these pics.
~A Christmasy table~I LOVE making pretty tables...it is so fun!~
~I woke up and Kimberly had made me a special breakfast out of her cookbook. Yes...I really was as tired as I look in this pic. =)~
~The kids ready to open their stockings.~
~Mommy watching her kids. It really is more blessed (fun) to give than receive. =)~
~We got our girls these cute little toy violins.~
~A little tiny violin.~
~Sarah acting like she is playing her violin.~
~Elijah chewing on some toys that he got in his stocking.~
~I made Phillip and I a stocking too, just a few pieces of candy or candy bars. =)~
~Our kids decided that they wanted to made a little goodie box for Mommy...so that I would have some surprises on Christmas morning. (Since I was putting together my own stocking. =D) So they made this box, bought me 2 headbands, this red scarf that I'm wearing, a hair scrunchy, and they all made me a card, and Phillip made me one too. It was really sweet.~
~The Beckers gave us a neat set to do each Christmas that is little gifts that talk about the Nativity and then the last gift is a mirror and it teaches that YOU are what Jesus wants for Christmas. When I brought the "What Jesus wants for Christmas" box out, Noah said, "Oh, goodie...it's the Jesus thing...I want to give my heart to Jesus again".~

~Noah playing with the little gifts from the "What Jesus wants for Christmas" set.~
I'll post the last half of pics from our Christmas day soon.~

~Our Christmas Eve Service~

~Little Elijah being a cute little "Santa Claus". Have you ever seen Santa Claus with a pacifier? =)~
~ We have 2 churches here in Bogota, and Phillip and Juan Martin are starting another one. Jimmy invited our 3 churches to join their church for a Christmas eve service. The Colombians celebrate Christmas on the 24th. That works out nicely for us for we can be with them on the 24th, and then have our own quiet Christmas as a family on the 25th. There was a good crowd of 130 or so of us at the Christmas eve service. It was hard to get all the crowd in the pics.~
~Most of the kids sat on these stairs to make more room in the chairs for the adults.~~Here is another shot of the kids sitting on the stairs.~
~Jimmy and Farly asked me to help lead the singing. I'm OK with being upfront as long as I'm playing the piano or singing,...but I don't like to talk. =)~
~Phillip is greeting the church here...and then later he had the privilege of bringing the Christmas message for this service.~
~Each church was to have their children sing a special. There were only 10 people who could come from our 1st church. Here are the kids from that church singing their Christmas song.~
~Jimmy's church kids singing a Christmas song.~
~There were 54 in attendance from our 2nd church. Here are the kids from that church singing a Christmas carol.~
~Elijah and his little friend.~
~Kimberly playing "Silent Night" and "O Holy Night" on her violin.~
~Our family sang "Redeeming Love" in Spanish of course. =)~
~All of the kids that were present received gifts. Here, Elijah is receiving his gift. A fun set of boats for him to play with in the bathtub. After the service they served typical Christmas Colombian food called "Natilla" and "bunuelos" and Pop to drink. "Natilla" is like a Flan or pudding, and "Bunuelos" are like a little fried bread that sort of reminds me of Hush Puppies.~
~A cute little baby that Kimberly enjoyed holding.~
~Paula, Felipe and Karen rode home with us and so we decided to invite them and their Dad Juan Martin to our house on Christmas eve to play Scrabble, and to eat tamales.~
~We had yummy Colombian tamales for a Christmas eve snack.~
~Felipe in a big way telling a story...not realizing that Noah had fallen asleep in his lap. =)~
~The girls sharing their gingerbread houses with their friend Paula.We had a great evening together. We found out later that Felipe, Karen, and Paula's Mom whom they live with wasn't even home, so had we not invited them over, they would have gone home to a cold empty house on their Christmas night. =( It was of the Lord that we thought to invite them over. They seemed to really enjoy our evening together. They left at 11:00 PM, and I still had done nothing towards making Christmas dinner. So, Phillip helped me get the turkey in the oven, and then I fell into bed. It had been a long, but fun day.~We had a good Christmas day together...I'll post pics soon.~

~Twas the night before Christmas...~

~Here are the kids with "Frosty the Snowman". =)~
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were filled by Daddy and Mommy 'cause
In our family they are the real "Santa Claus". =D

The gifts had been bought, wrapped and put under the tree,
And there was one very excited Noah, Sarah, and Kimberly.
But before we open gifts on the 25th, we'll read Luke 2
All about Mary, Joseph, baby JESUS, the shepherds, and wise men too.

And we'll try to put ourselves in Joseph and Mary's place.
Wow! Can you imagine the ridicule that they faced?
"Yea Right, that baby that Mary has is from Heaven above!"
And other such gossip from those whom they loved.

Then imagine Mary's LONG HARD donkey ride
Being GREAT with child...Joseph at her side.
No comfortable bed, warm sheets or pain med.
Just a stinky stable and a manger where animals fed!

Jesus left the splendor of Heaven to come down
To earth to save us that we might someday wear a crown.
Such love and sacrifice deserves ALL OF ME
Here I am, Lord, to go, be, do...to live for THEE!

From Bogota, Colombia to your street and home...
We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS with this poem.
May this year we all be for Jesus a true light!
And with that I'll bid y'all...a very good night! =)

~Heather Dickinson 12/2008

~Jimmy told us about a new mall near us and told us that they have a little train that rides around inside the mall.
~The kids and I inside the train.~

MERRY CHRISTMAS and may you have the best year ever in 2009!!!

~Random pics and some Christmas goodies!~

~Elijah cracked us up when he would put his teeth together and start grinding them. Now his teeth are bigger and he doesn't do it anymore. We loved his mouth in a straight line and his chipmunk cheeks. =)~
~I made little "ornaments" with our kids' pictures on them to hang on our tree.~
~I love this picture, of a picture, of a picture. =) I took this picture of an old picture of my Daddy's family, put it in a frame, and then took this pic to put it on my blog. =) My Daddy is the baby in this pic. Isn't he cute? =D~
~Elijah looking cute in an outfit and hat that was a gift from the Shirks.~
~Elijah has learned how to pull off his hats. =)~
~Baking is one of my favorite things to do in life...so you can imagine that it is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas too. Baking also helps our hearts not to be too lonely for our family, friends and USA at this time.
We normally cannot find Hershey's Choc. kisses here, but the other day we saw some in a store. I bought some, wanting to make cookies with them, but didn't want to make the normal Peanut butter kisses cookies. I happened to see that day that one of my friends was planning on making some "Cherry Choc. kisses cookies". I had never heard of those before, so I looked on the internet and found the recipe. I made them, and our family LOVED them!~
~I saw this recipe on Nate's Mom's blog, and my family was GLAD that I tried it. Choc. chip cookie dough Truffles. DELICIOUS!~
~I made a table full of fun munchies for our family to enjoy. I made spiced nuts and included a bowl of fresh grapes along with the tin of my cookies, and tin of my fudge.~
~Choc. cut-out cookies. Good flavor, fun shapes.~
~Mocha nut fudge...easy and delicious!!~
~A Christmas tree shaped jello.~
~Our kids wanted to make Gingerbread houses out of Graham crackers. We have never done this before, but the Lord helped us, and the kids were happy with how their houses turned out. We didn't have access to store-boughten icing, nor candy canes, but God helped my homemade icing to be thick enough, and we found fun marshmallows in the shapes of snowmen, Christmas trees, and candy canes.~
~Elijah played in his walker under the table while we made the houses.~
~Noah's house.~
~Noah and I with his house.~
~Sarah with her house.~
~The back of Sarah's house.~
~Kimberly's house.~
~Kimberly with her house.~
~The little "village" of yummy houses.~ This will be our 3rd Christmas that we have spent outside of the USA. (1 we spent in Costa Rica, and 2 here in Colombia.) It is not easy, and sometimes we get a lump in our throats when we hear the song, "I'll be Home for Christmas"...however, we are doing our best to tell others about the TRUE reason for the season. Why JESUS came as a little baby...to become one of us, to live, suffer and die to save us from our sins. If we touch even one Colombian for Jesus...it will be worth it all.