Happy Birthday to Him!

It was a very nice Christmas Day and the whole Christmas season has been very good. This year was one of those rare times when we got snow on Christmas Day! We got a couple inches on top of the 3-4 inches we had already.


On Christmas Day Jason, Sara and Heather came over for a day long celebration. We started off with a delicious egg/sausage casserole and fresh baked pumpkin bread for brunch! Yum. Then we spent time lighting the Advent wreath and shared some appropriate readings. After that we opened gifts from back home. (Thanks to all who sent things ahead of time so we could have then on the 25th!) After gifts we watched "The Nativity", a very good movie. Then we started cooking our ham and potato dinner. Very tasty! After dinner we watched our new DVD "Santa Clause 3". Then we had a special time to sing Happy Birthday with lighted cake for the reason for the season!

The gang hung around long enough for a partial game of canasta and there were some phone calls home. All in all, it was a very pleasant Christmas Day celebration for the American team here.

Ember just returned home in hopes of returning full time. She gave us these pictures for Christmas before she left. They are all very nice. Ember is very talented with all kinds of art and photography.
All for now. I trust you and yours had a Very Merry Christmas!

Tis The Season

I hope you all are looking as forward to this Christmas season as I am. We have already begun to celebrate as the American staff here helped me host the seasons 1st Christmas party. A great time was had by all and 10 of my regular folks came. We decorated this tree, decorated and baked Christmas cookies, Had home made pizza and watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".


Later the American staff also had another picture taken by our tree. In Kazakhstan they don't celebrate Christmas, New Years is the BIG holiday here. So we are gearing up for that by spending time at the local orphanages and helping to purchase gifts for all the children with the help of folks back home. We have also purchased a new sound system for the Savva Orphanage in Merke. Music is a big part of Kazakh life as every party heavily features dancing. We were also invited to a dance and talent competition at the Saramoldaeva orphanage.

I trust you and yours will enjoy celebrating Christmas this year. Spend quality family time and join some activity to support the Christmas spirit in your community! God bless each and every one of you and thanks for remembering me while away this year.

Thanksgiving X2

One advantage of living in Kazakhstan is that we can celebrate things/events a number of times! This year, for Thanksgiving, the American staff took off and spent the entire day preparing for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. From turkey, to stuffing, to mashed potatoes and corn, to pie(s) Pumpkin. pecan and apple. You may wonder why it took all day to prepare dinner for 4 people, well the truth is we prepared for more than a dozen people! We first had a traditional dinner on the 27th and then prepared enough for the same meal(for a luncheon) for the entire Interlink staff on the 28th!

We also had a time for everyone to give thanks for the things they are grateful for in their lives this past year. We also have a white table cloth where everyone can write a Thanksgiving quote for a keepsake. It's nice to read what folks have given thanks for in previous years.

So we celebrated Thanksgiving twice! The most interesting part was pickling out live Turkeys at the local bazaar and taking them to a house where a lady, for a very reasonable sum, killed, plucked and gutted the three turkeys. The purchasing and cleaning of all three was about $75.

So what are you most thankful for this past year? I hope and trust you are thankful for a great deal. Thanks for taking time to view my blog. Feel free to leave a comment and drop me a line and let me know what is new in your part of the world.