Christmas on the Beach?

Merry Christmas to all!! We are now in Haifa, Israel spending the holidays with some of Christy's family, her sister and brother-in-law who live here and her mother visiting from Booker, Texas. We have a beautiful view of the Haifa harbor from the balcony of the home in which we're staying. It's not the Christmas setting to which we're accustomed. In fact, just a few days ago, we were walking along the beach of the Mediterranean Sea and the kids decided to kick around in the water a bit. That "bit" turned into full-fledged swimming when Megan "fell" in, thoroughly soaking herself. It was such a lovely, warm day that it really didn't matter.

It doesn't really make a difference what the setting is for Christmas, does it? That's not the most important thing. We were just visiting some Australian friends of ours and asked them what Christmas was like in the southern hemisphere. They are accustomed to celebrating with a cookout on the beach to stay cool during the hottest part of the summer. That's normal for them. So, if the setting isn't the most important thing, what is? It's the joy of the gift of Jesus Christ to the world, of course. That's what we're celebrating today, plain and simple. Praise the Savior of the world today!

Patrick

Happy Birthday, Ethan!!!

Saturday was Ethan's 12th birthday, but we began our celebrations Friday evening. We invited Liz, Johan, our friends, Sergey and Rina, and two of Ethan's friends, Leo and Alex (Yes, Alex is the one who gave us trouble several months ago.). Unfortunately, Sergey couldn't make it because he had to work, but everyone else came to the party. We started with dinner of Ethan's choice, french bread pizza to order. Everyone jumped right in and loaded up the toppings, popped them in the oven for a few minutes and then scarfed them down. Let's just say, we had no leftovers.

The cake that followed was a big crowd-pleaser. At Ethan's request, I made a dragon cake (found on instructables.com). It was my first (and maybe last) attempt at what I call a fancy cake, as opposed to a simple double layer round cake. Making the cake and even cutting and arranging it was easy, but frosting it was a nightmare. With my lack of patience, Christy had to step in and take over, but I think she was probably pretty close to giving up a couple times. She persevered, however, and it turned out really well. For sure, it tasted great.

Prodded by Ethan's friend, Leo, we quickly moved on to opening presents. Ethan loved all of his gifts. A couple of his favorites were Age of Empires III computer game and Clue board game. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Thanks to all who came for helping make our celebration more enjoyable.

We continued our celebrating on Saturday. I took Ethan and Megan (Christy stayed home to enjoy a rare and deserved day of solitude) to Moscow so Ethan could spend some time with a couple of his Hinkson friends, Kian, the son of our Australian friends, and Tristyn, an American MK just like our kids. We started out with bowling, one of Ethan's favorite new pastimes. We followed that with Papa John's pizza (Are you seeing a pattern in Ethan's food tastes?) and then some sledding before opening presents and saying goodbye.

Though it was tiring, Ethan's birthday was a big success and very fun for everyone. This is Ethan's last year before becoming a teenager. HELP!

Patrick

Picture 1 - Ethan raring to dig into his birthday cake, his friend, Leo, at his side
Picture 2 - Ethan's dragon cake
Picture 3 - From left to right, Tristyn, Megan, Kian and Ethan

Welcome Back, Liz!

As the article's title suggests, Liz is once again with us in Russia. On Wednesday, November 28, I drove to Moscow to pick her up at the airport. Thankfully, she made it on time with all her luggage. After stopping by the one and only Starbucks in the Moscow area, we pointed our team car toward Elektrostal. Upon arrival, we moved Liz's luggage into her apartment and moved Johan and his luggage out and into his new, temporary home closer to the center of town. It's good to have Liz back, and it's even better to be a nearly complete team all together in the same place. We're just missing Judy. Unfortunately, it won't last long as we and Liz will be traveling over the holidays and Johan will be returning to the US at the end of December. However, we'll enjoy this short time together while it lasts. Here we all are together at Ethan's birthday party (more about that in another article to come).

Patrick

Thanks a bunch!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but our thankfulness has not. We are so grateful for all of you who have supported our ministry financially over the years, prayed for us regularly, visited us in our home away from home and sent us letters and/or care packages. You are truly a blessing to us, and we continually thank God for each and every one of you. Thank you!

Here is a picture from our Thanksgiving celebration. We did not gather on Thursday because it was just another work day for our Russian friends, and we wanted to include some of them on this special occasion. Instead, we celebrated on the following Sunday. We invited Johan, our friends Sergey and Rina and Natasha. The day was wonderful with wonderful friends and wonderful food.

Patrick

Picture - From left to right around the table, Ethan, Sergey, Rina, Johan, Megan, Natasha and Christy. I'm, of course, taking the picture.