~The Lord gave us a good Christmas...part 2~

~Our Silly Elijah.~

~We now have a "Fireman" who lives with us.  (And that's his "Tennis shoe firetruck." =)~

~Gram got this "It's Always Christmas at Grandma's house" shirt for Elijah a couple Christmases ago...so it was fun that Mary got to wear it this year! =)~

~Our Christmas tablescape.~

~Each place setting looked like this.
(I had found these cloth napkins on sale years ago but this is the first time I got to use them.)
Grammy got us the fun place cards.  I LOVE to use lots of plates...but since I couldn't bring my Christmas chargers with me (that we got on sale back in the US!!!!) and don't have any other plates here,  I just used a green plastic plate for another layer.~

~For our centerpiece I decorated with the extra 2 cloth napkins, elevated candles, my little gold Christmas tree, pictures of our family (since Christmas is all about Jesus, family, friends and love!), and I threw in a gold key to represent us giving the keys of our hearts to Jesus for Christmas. =)~

 ~And since we had had turkey for Thanksgiving, and the hams that Phillip found in the grocery store were $200.00!!!! I just made a new, simple, fun menu I found called "Chicken a la King!"   You make "crowns" out of bread...(I got this basket for Christmas too =)~

~And fill them with this yummy Chicken gravy.  We also served a big salad, sparkling juices, and my homemade apple pie and ice cream.~

 ~Mary says that with 2 brothers that got handcuffs for Christmas...she is needing SpEcIaL prayer.  =D
Elijah put these on Mary...but she had fun playing with them.  When Daddy took them off, she put her hands back in the holes. =)~

 ~Kimberly got a Mate cup and 2 straws for Christmas (along with some money towards her camera she is saving up for.)  You see in Argentina "Mate" (an herb drink similar to a STRONG tea) is a VERY cultural thing.  You see it everywhere.  And you know you are "in" with a group if you walk up to them and they share their Mate with you...using THEIR straw! =)~

 ~The blue thing is a straw...but on the end it is a filter so that you don't drink the dried herbs up in your straw.~

~Noah got a fun car ramp.  Noah's dear CNC SS class got him one like this back in the US...but he didn't get to bring it with him.~

~I made a fun recipe for Eggnog Punch to drink Christmas night.  We have never been able to find eggnog in Colombia nor did we find it here, so we really enjoyed having eggnog again! =)
(Pardon the "punch bowl"...it's the only thing I could find to use in our rented Apt. here.)~

~Everyone is enjoying Noah's 240 piece puzzle that he got.  The only thing is...we need a BIGGER puzzle, for the kids put it together so fast it's unreal! =) (We thought Grandpa would enjoy seeing the fun details on Noah's car puzzle. =)~

~Sarah got lots of nice presents too.  These 3 pieces of wooden doll furniture were among them.~

Thank you for each of your thoughts, gifts, and prayers for our family this Christmas! Even though we were SO FAR from familiar surroundings and family, the Lord helped us to not be too lonely.  We poured ourselves into doing lots of fun baking and making Christmas special for our children.  This Christmas made the LONG TRIP that Jesus made from HEAVEN to earth...and the "culture shock" he must have faced...even more real!  Wow! What a Savior!