Christmas on the Other Side of the World

Christmas On the Other Side of the World! 

St. Nick's Day: 

From the day after Thanksgiving, the decorations started appearing all over the apartment. It was fun to celebrate Christmas for a whole month. Phil's family (and people from Wisconsin) celebrate a day durning December called St. Nick's Day. I made fun of it so much last year that Phil and I ended up renaming it St. KuJo's & St. Ed's Day after our dog and cat. 

However this year living at Linds and Josh's place here in Asia, I got to really experience it for the first time. The story goes that late in the night of December 5th St. Nick comes to pick up your Christmas List and leaves you with a full stocking of goodies in it's place. In the morning of the December 6th, you wake up with gifts of all sorts to enjoy  until Christmas. In our apartment, the night of December 5th 10 stockings hung on the banister by the steps. The order went - Phil, Me, Josh, Linds, Lily, Cade, Hadassah, Viv, Olivet, & Baby. Getting stockings at the beginning of December was a fun way to get the holiday feeling started. 

Christmas Eve:

For Christmas Eve, Phil and I jumped into Linds, Josh, and the family's tradition of gift exchange. In the beginning of December, each member of the family draws a name out of a bag or hat. The name they have is whose gift they have to get and put under the tree for the person to open Christmas Eve. Each adult was designated to help a kid. So Phil was to help Cade and I had Lily to help. Josh had Dassah and Viv and Linds helped Olivet and the Baby. 

Christmas Eve! 

Dassah helping Olivet on the couch

Lily had Olivet's name! Helping Lily, She and I painted a stool for Olivet.
Lately, Olivet's favorite thing to do is playing with stools. She's such a climber that one. 

Dassah looking for her gift.

Dassah found her's!

Lind's had the Baby's name so she got the Bopy recovered.
Lily thought it would be a fun hat! 

Lily looking at herself in the mirror with the Bopy hat! 

Guess who?

Vivers! and She's showing you her new Cash-register! 

Dassah Opening her Gift! 

A Dolly! 

Olivet finally opened her gift! 

A painted stool with a puppy! Olivet says, "Woof Woof!"

There's Obs sitting away! 

Cade opening his! He was thrilled to see more Legos!!! 

I had Lily's name!!  

One gift was a pink Charm Bracelet from the Eden Ministry Jewelry Company I work for. 

The other gift was a White Dress she has been asking for! 

Lily Wearing her White Dress and new Red Cape!

Who had my name?

Cade! He with the help of Uncle Phil got me the Earrings
 I have been eying for a while from Eden's Jewelry Ministry.  

Uncle Phil's turn! 

Viv wants to know what he got! 

Darts!!! Phil and Josh have been Dart Masters! They play just about every
night and even go to a Dart Bar and play in Tournaments.
The last Tournament Phil took second! I'm so proud of my man! 

 The country we live in's National Dart Champion lives near us and comes and plays at the Bar Phil and Josh play at. Phil got a signed poster of him and told me he wants to hang it up in his basement one day! (As long as it stays in the basement I'm okay with that! )

Josh takes pictures as well! 

Linds got extra gifts to go with her Big Surprise! 

Josh and the kids got her a table cloth, place settings, and napkins! 

Phil and I got her and the family new Chopsticks 

Phil and I also got her earrings! 

Josh's turn! 

Phil had his name!
" Josh thanks for putting up with my crap!" was on the note.

What else did he get?

A whole box of Gatorade!
Phil and Josh bet Gatorades on their dart games and on football stats. 

Linds and Lily at the Big Surprise!!
A NEW HAND-MADE TABLE!!
A deaf ministry here makes beautiful hand-made furniture
in our city.

All nine of us fits and one chair is left over!!
All the kids fit on the bench!! No more pulling up extra chairs for every meal! 

Now it was adult time! 

The kids went to their rooms to go to sleep and the couples got to exchange gifts 

Phil and I went first and pulled out our gifts for each other!

Great Minds think alike for we ended up getting each other the SAME GIFT!!!

We now own  4 New Tennis Racket!! 

Phil and I started playing a lot of tennis about last January and played every we went. We both had really old rackets that we're in our family since we were children. We both had talked about one day getting new rackets. Well now we each have 2! 

The kids got a big surprise for the morning!!

NEW BIKES FOR ALL!!! 

The boys already playing with their new darts! 

Bikes all labeled 

An American Holiday Dinner!! 

Mashed Potatoes, corn, broccoli, and Chicken!! Yumm! 

My mom sent this snowman to us!! Phil set it up, added water,
 and for the next few days we watched as snow grew on it!! 

Christmas Morning!! 

Christmas Morning we got to open all of the gifts sent to us in the mail!! 

We were all excited to open boxes of goodies!!! 

Obs carrying her stool around! 

Lily, Dass, & Viv opening a package from their
Auntie Nat, Uncle Time & Cousins, Gretta,  Sam, Sy, & Leila!

I got a card too!! 

Josh wearing his stickers and holding his coloring pages
 he got for Christmas! 

Phil wearing his stickers too! 

This might be one of my favorite pictures of the morning!!! HAHA Don't they look excited!! 

Viv!

Cade is grown up so fast! 

Obs got a soft blanket and dolly! 

Vivers got a new dolly too! 

Cade tries to wear his new sweatshirt everyday! 

Viv and Dass showing each other their new clothes from their GG! 

Viv has her new outfit on! 

Dassah has her's on too! 

Cade and his new sweatshirt! 

Look at all these new toys and clothes!!
We were blessed with so much!! Thank you!!

The adults got just as spoiled!! We drank hot chocolate, pumpkin spice, and ate chocolate and jellybeans!
We also got jewelry,  clothes, socks, devotionals and I got new Packer gear!!!
God is so good to us to have family like ours! 

Some of the things my Mom and Dad sent!
All the kids got new cups and lots of candy!! Phil and I got new clothes and candy for ourselves to last a good long time!!!  I also got We Bought a Zoo!! I've been dying to see that movie again! 

One of Phil's piles

My pile!

Phil and I got two great devotionals. We've been reading them every day together since Jan. 1st.
I can't even share how amazing it is to have such a God-loving man I have.
 I am beyond thankful that he seeks the Lord above all else then spoils me the rest of the time! haha

Durning the Holiday we also went to a few Christmas parties with our Church and with my bible study! I got to learn about Advent for the first time and how the birth of Christ and the holiday of Christmas not only reminds us of how God has saved us and gave us His son but how we are to prepare ourselves for Him and when Jesus will return again. 

The bible says no one is to know the date or time but to be prepared!

 If your a real believer of Christ, He wants you to be on fire for Him and to love Him, learn more about Him, and spend time talking to Him about everything. He knows all that you have done and all your thoughts but puts it all aside and doesn't care. He loves you and wants you know Him. He forgives, loves, and teaches. He wants us to have joy, happiness, a purpose, and hope. Life following Him is not easy or what you have planned. It is so much more than you can imagine. Just think.. no more fear about your future, no more feelings of being alone, no more living a life that feels pointless. Believing & Following God with everything you've got doesn't mean your Religious, Judgmental or that you pretend to Have it All Together! He Hates that! He called them Pharisees.

 Following & Believing means your real. You've got problems. You sin. You mess up. You've got a history. But that its all going to be okay and that your on the best adventure of your life. 

He is in control and your safe. You have given your life over to Him.
You no longer live for yourself or up to other's expectations of you. 

 Roman 8:38 says "..neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither hight nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

He will never leave you if you ask Him not too, drop it all and follow.