For Miriam on Her First

Christmas Celebrations

We have a wonderful past few days! On Christmas Eve, we joined Brad and Heather Klassen and their 4 children at the Volga for some freezing fun time (-8 degrees!). Then we all headed to their house to have Taco Night and let the children open some presents. We spent Christmas at home and had Turkey and Cornbread Dressing and other Yummies after watching the boys open numerous Star Wars toys and movies. Jonathan gave me my first Russian Egg and Miriam got her first doll. The day after Christmas we hosted the Christmas Party for the staff of Samara Preacher's Institute and Theological Seminary. We enjoyed a great evening with new friends and we all worshiped our Savior together by singing Russian and American Christmas carols.
For some reason, the pictures ended up in the opposite order from which I added them, so you will have to start from the bottom. Enjoy!

Preparing for Christmas

These are our latest pictures. The boys and Miriam had a wonderful time decorating the Christmas tree with Christmas music playing in the background. The next few pictures are from our walk to the Market or "Reenuk". It was zero degrees, but we were all warm in our winter attire.

Update

Wow, I am so far behind in posting, so I'll just quickly give an update and post a few recent pictures.

This has been a couple of very busy weeks. Language classes are going well, though Russian is still very difficult to learn. Jonathan is spending more time at the Seminary, so that means I have to get the boys and Miriam out by myself, which is always a challenge, but very important, just the same. We got our van last week and have enjoyed being able to go places without having to take the Tram or a "MaShruteKa," or walk many miles in one day. Nahum and Isaac are doing great with Homeschooling. I have really noticed a difference in both of them from just last month. Nahum's writing and reading is so improved with just a little practice and some much-needed one-on-one attention. Isaac is learning to sit still and only talk when he is allowed to do so. He loves writing all of his letters and numbers and has finished all the Curriculum that I had for him already. Jesse and Jonas are their usual active, vibrant, often rambunctious little selves and Miriam is pulling up on everything and has said her first word outside of "Mama" and "Dada": "WOW".

And that is about it. We are so looking forward to a visit from our Pastors back home this week and can't wait to catch up.

The pictures are of Jesse drinking hot chocolate, all of our team's children coloring after our Thanksgiving meal, Miriam and Nathan Rehurek getting into the tea drawer, and Jesse with one of his favorite BabySitters (Roma).