Merry Christmas Eve!

Wow – time sure flies! I always have such great intentions of getting more blogs posts up. Alas, our days are pretty filled up and we don’t get onto the computer very often. Anyways, we’re having a lovely day. A few chores this morning (laundry, kitchen cleaning, bread making, food prep, etc.), a nap this afternoon and then a Jay took the kids to the beach while I enjoyed a few quiet hours at home. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner with Mike and Ruth up at ‘the big house’ (aka the real house), let the kids open up one gift and then ushered them off to bed where Jack (even as I type this) is singing out ‘jingle bells’ to his sleeping sisters. He did sleep for a few hours this afternoon… hopefully he’ll drift off soon. J
So as our day ends yours begins. We wishing you all a wonderful few days as you celebrate the love of God for us with your families and friends. John 3:16 & 17 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Love to you all,
Jay, Krista, Mya, Jack & Lena

Merry Christmas?

Hi everyone! Well, it’s certainly strange to think of Christmas and snow at home. We’ve heard about the ‘snow emergency’ – sounds intense! The weather here is nice but super hot today – 33 degrees and 70 % humidity. Both extremes, I guess. The kids are super excited to play in the snow when we get home – oh to be a kid again, hey? It must be pretty beautiful.

Jay’s been busy getting a big project underway – starting to finish the lower level of the ‘big house’ into usable housing space. When he was here in 2007 they worked on tiling the floor and framing some interior walls. Now he’s framing in the tub/shower unit (talk about luxury compared to our outdoor stall shower!) and getting ready to plumb the bathrooms. Then walls can go up, etc. Lots of other things need to get done to help to prepare the space to become a home.

It’s been so nice to have him around throughout the day. We get to have breakfast together EVERY SINGLE DAY! This really is such a treat because at home he’s usually out of the house shortly after 6am. Then he has lunch with us and the kids get to take water and snacks over to him throughout the day. We’ve all been enjoying it!

I’m learning how to cook and bake here. Everything takes longer and is more difficult – either some of the ingredients are missing so you have to substitute or the humidity doesn’t co-operate or something… I’ve made a few great meals and few messes! I’m a bit sad that cookies don’t work here very well – the butter melts right away (it’s impossible to roll out) and then the cookies just stay too soft. On the other hand, I can ‘rise’ a batch of bread in about 40 minutes!! It’s amazing.

We learned how to scrape a coconut the ‘real’ way today. So fun – now we have LOTS of fresh shredded coconut. The kids enjoyed it to and Mr. Daniel made fun coconut shell masks for them afterwards. I think we’ll be eating a lot more coconut at home.

We’re imagining all of you celebrating and enjoying all of the Christmas traditions we have in Canada – food, festivities, decorations, music, smells, building snowmen (Mya), etc. There is a strand of snowmen mini lights around one window in our cabin and we have a small Christmas tree on our kitchen table. Jay is being creative and we have a 3 foot snowman named Oatmeal (I’m not sure) on our sleeping cabin porch and a star above our kitchen cabin door. While we’re enjoying a ‘simpler’ season here we trust that you’re having a great time together. May these words penetrate our hearts as we seek to give God the glory in all of our joy and merrymaking.

Luke 2: 11 ‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David

a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’

Photos soon

And I'm hoping to have some photos ready soon. :)

It's true. It's SUPER hot here. I heard there was snow in Port Sydney?

Wow. A SUPER hot day today. We were all a bit out of sorts. I got some laundry washed this morning in the old ringer tub, rinsed in the sink and then hand wrung and out to dry on the line behind our kitchen cabin, did a bit of ‘school’ done up in the air conditioned office and then walked over to the market where we bought some cucumbers (for lunch) and some potatoes and beans. I saw what looked like an 11 or 12 month old baby girl munching on a handful of peanuts. It looked so funny because she had a fist full and was shoving them into her mouth whole and then cracking them with her teeth (?) and spitting out the shells. Seems that Jack had at least part of it right! J After lunch we had a bit of a siesta on the porch and then played in the little plastic kiddie pool that we found in a store in town. Dinner together and then to bed! Oh – and Mya and I made some banana bread today too. Yummy. There are so many different types of bananas here – kind of like our varieties of apples. I used a few different kinds in the bread – one which was an orangey colour. Those ones didn’t mash very well it looked like there were chunks of peaches in our bread. Orange bananas are so good. It will be hard to eat a ‘Canadian’ banana again!
Jay’s been finishing up a kitchen that will be flown into the jungle piece by piece. We’ll be heading in (as a family) so that Jay can install it once it’s all there – sometime in January. Should be interesting. Since we’ve been here they’ve also milled three loads of lumber for a missionaries house – about an hour drive away.
Praying for patience and love for us all tomorrow. More smiles and fewer grumpers running around.
Side note - please excuse my poor spelling and grammar – this laptop keyboard is small and I’m very sleepy. Thank you.
Krista