Merry Christmas!

Joy to the world, the Lord has come!  Our prayer is that each of you will find joy in the Lord this Christmas and throughout the year.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Jet Lag

From a few days ago.....

Thankfully, we are now on a normal schedule!

Really Really Big Christmas Show!

We were excited that our time in Houston corresponded to the Really Really Big Christmas Show at Second Baptist. It is indeed a really big show and we all loved it!

Texas Time!

We have had a busy week! We wrapped up our Hungary Christmas festivities last week with Chelsea's winter concert and class party. 

The next day, we flew to Texas. Well, that was the plan anyway. After arriving in Frankfurt, we learned the plane to TX had broken bathrooms and therefore the FAA limits the amount of people that it can carry. Never heard that one before!! So, we spent some extra hours in Frankfurt.

                                    This was supposed to happen on the plane, not in the airport.

There were some tears of frustration by me as we learned we would be going to Washington then TX. Chelsea then begin crying, "I don't want to go to Washington, I just want to go to America!" A geography lesson ensued. After a few hours, we got on the plane to Washington and then sat on the runway for over an hour.  The flight was fine, but we arrived in Washington late and missed our connection to Houston. By this point, it was midnight and we had been travelling for over 24 hours. We went to a hotel for 5 hours and then returned to the airport to finish our trip to Houston.

We are thankful to be in Texas and are hoping we never have a trip that long again!

Christmas Playgroup

A brave mom hosted our Christmas playgroup last week. She assembled gingerbread houses for 12 kids and arranged for Santa to come with a gift for each child! Cade quickly discovered that the fun in the gingerbread house was in the eating, not the decorating.  Chelsea enjoyed decorating it later.

Santa was great and Cade wasn't afraid at all. My favorite part was when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he answered, "A present." He is easy to please!

He got his wish!

A Visit from Mikulas

In Hungary, children have an extended Christmas celebration. Traditionally, Szent Mikulas visits on December 6th. Children polish their boots and leave them in the windowsill the evening before. Good children receive fruit, candy and small toys. Bad children receive a virgacs, or wooden switches.

Mikulas and his angel 

Larry's office hosted a Mikulas party last Saturday. We learned Mikulas is accompanied by an angel and a devil to decide who was good or bad. Yikes. Mikulas was a little thinner than Santa...no cookies for him, I guess. He was bilingual, so that was a plus. My kids started blankly at him as he spoke to them in Hungarian.  Chelsea spoke up and said, "Nem beszelek magyarul." He then switched to English.

Chelsea wanted a hug. Cade just wanted the candy.

Mikulas also visited Chelsea's class at school. There, they each got candy and a virgacs. Chelsea was excited about the virgacs.

Chelsea and her virgacs                                              

On Christmas Eve, there is no Santa visit. Instead, it is said that baby Jesus delivers the presents.  Interesting, huh? I guess no crazier than saying Santa delivers them... and at least keeps the focus on Christ.  When our kids realize that we're providing the gifts, it will be easier to tell them that Santa isn't real versus explaining that Jesus is real, but baby Jesus bringing gifts isn't...to each their own.  While we're here, we'll enjoy the celebrations of both our American and Hungarian cultures.

A Belated Thanksgiving

Though we already had our Christmas decor up, we did celebrate Thanksgiving. It is just a little different here. Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Cade and I enjoyed attending Chelsea's Thanksgiving program and eating a Thanksgiving Feast with her at school. In her program, she got to read the menu for the feast to everyone. She did so great getting up on the big stage with the microphone! She was not happy that her fellow readers flubbed their lines...she likes everyone to do exactly what they are supposed to do. A girl after my own heart.

Lunch with our pilgrim

 On Thanksgiving Day, Larry was working, Cade was at preschool, and Chelsea and I ate lunch with friends at McDonalds. Pretty exciting.  But, we did celebrate on Saturday night. Contrary to last year, we actually cooked rather than have it delivered by the Marriott. We had a few other families over, and we had a great time with everyone.

I forgot to take any pictures until we were done. This is the only evidence that we actually had Thanksgiving dinner.

Thankfully, Thanksgiving is not limited to a day on the calendar. We have much to be thankful for!