~"Mary" Christmas~

~ It's hard to believe that when I took our little Mary's Christmas pictures last year she looked like this... ~Now...here's this year's Christmas pictures I took of her!  Mary brings so much DeLiGhT to our family!  I was SO HAPPY when I found her this little coat at Goodwill last year!
(She cracks us up how she squats when she stands. =)~

~Precious!~

~She makes our days "Mary" and bright =) (as do our other children =)

~We plan on having ourselves a "Mary" little Christmas! =)~

~Trying to touch lives...one life at a time.~

~On the Sunday after the Colombian wedding we had Juan Martin and 2 of his children over for a Special Christmas dinner and to give them some Christmas gifts we had for them. Our table all ready for guests.~~I served baked pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, broc./cauliflower salad, corn, and iced tea. We had a nice meal and visit together.

~Here we are eating our meal...sorry the picture turned out so dark.~

~Juan Martin had just had a birthday so we gave him a nice writing pen, and a good Holiness book, and a 2009 calendar that I had had made up with pics of his family with our family.~
~Felipe opening his gifts. A neat Holiness book on raising a godly family (so he'll know what to look for in a wife =), and to inspire him to want to raise his future family for Jesus. He is like my Phillip and LOVES good Holiness books. We also got he and his sisters a 2009 desk calendar with pics of their family and ours in it.~
~Paula didn't really have a warm coat and was always borrowing one of Kimberly's coats, so Kimberly suggested that we buy her a coat for Christmas. We found her a nice black coat with fur around the hood, and she seems to really like it. We also sent home a gift for Paula's sister Karen and their mother.~

~In Colombia this "Natilla" is very common at Christmas time. It's like a pudding. I made these for our dessert. The one on the left is coconut and the one on the right is caramel.~
~Juan Martin made me this cute little Christmas tree candle holder...that he made out of wood. I'm not for sure how he did it, but he told me that he also used a decorated paper napkin for the front somehow. I was very happy with this cute gift.~
~And here it is all lit up.~
~Juan Martin also made us this cute little "window". (It is hanging on the white decorated tile in my kitchen...so that is what is showing through the window.) He put our name at the top and even made the cute little curtain. This is to hang our keys on, and has a place to put our bills that need paid in between the wall and the window. He has a little clay pot of flowers he wants to bring and glue on too. Very cute and creative.~
As you know we Christians are in a battle. As these lines of a song says:
"It's a battlefield brother, not a recreation room...it's a fight and not a game."

This past week Phillip and I were facing a HUGE battle...and so we decided that we would bind together and PRAY HARD that God would answer prayer! One morning while Phillip was having his devotions, He felt like God gave him this promise for Colombia.
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St. John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
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Needless to say that was VERY ENCOURAGING to Phillip and I...and we can see how God is already working in the situation that we are praying about. Thank you for your prayers...the devil does NOT like us trying to touch souls for JESUS, and often tries to discourage us and our Colombian Christian friends.

~More pics from Christmas~

Here are some more pics from our nice Christmas day.
~The tree and gifts before we "tore into" opening them.~
~Sarah stuffed a pillow in her sweater, and wore Daddy's belt and acted like she was driving Santa's sleigh (with all her stuffed animals as the reindeer. =)~
~Elijah with one of his gifts.~
~Elijah opening up another one of his gifts. It was fun to watch him...for this was his first Christmas.~
~Him playing with a lot of his gifts. His brother and sisters had fun getting gifts for him too.~
~Phillip opening up his gift from one of the girls.~
~Noah opening his gift from Sarah.~
~The kids with their gifts from Gram and Gramp. Thanks Gram and Gramp. (Grandma and Grandpa D. sent us money!~

~The girls and I with some yummy peppermint candy that GG sent us. Since we cannot get candy canes here, we are HAPPY to have this!~~Phillip with his gift from Gram and Gramp. My gift was a skirt and a years subscription to Better Homes and Gardens magazine. YEA!~
~The girls watching Noah open his skates.~
~We paid our friend Juan Martin to make this little bed for our Sarah. She is very happy with it!~
~Noah and Sarah out skating Christmas afternoon.~
~Phillip bought some nice white towels as a gift for our family since ours were falling apart.~
~The next day we decided to do some Charades for our devotions. Here, Phillip, Sarah, and Noah are acting out Solomon and the 2 ladies fighting over the one baby.~
~Kimberly and I acting out our Bible story. (Nabal and King Ahab and the vineyard. I'm "picking grapes" while Kimberly as Ahab looks on WANTING my vineyard. =)~

~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.~