Christmas Pageant

We had our annual BFS Christmas Pageant the last week of school before break. Our new Music teacher, Lucas, did a fabulous job of coordinating it all and teaching our kids their songs.

All of Early Childhood

Justin's class

 

 

Run, Run, as Fast as You Can

This week we have been reading the story of the Gingerbread boy. To make it more fun (and because it's the last week before break) we made gingerbread cookies in class. The mother of my student Tiana has been coming in to do some nutrition classes and cooking lessons with the kids, so it was perfect for her to come help us bake our cookies. The next day, we "hid" our gingerbread cookies and went on a hunt for them around the school. We started with a clue in our room where we found some "crumbs" and then followed all of the clues until we finally found the cookies in our classroom. We have some wonderful Moms who help us out whenever we need anything, and they came and brought the cookies back to our rooms once we had taken off on our search. The kids LOVED it and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

Our first stop was the library. The gingerbread man had just taken off for the gym!

After the gym he went to the cafeteria, but Chef Oscar told us that he was gone.

The secretaries didn't have the gingerbread man either

We found them back in our room

Amber and Tiana decorating their cookies

Brianna

Timothy started out saying his cookie was "stinky" but somehow 

managed to eat the whole thing faster than anyone else

I think Lydia likes frosting....

Tihami

Tiana (her Mom helped us make the cookies)

Amber

Korean Family Christmas

We often refer to our friends Laura and Nikki as our family here. Nikki is a relatively new Christian (almost 2 years!) and didn't grow up with a lot of the Christmas traditions that we have. So this year we decided to have a "family Christmas" where we combined some family traditions from each of us. Nikki and Laura came over, spent the night, and we had Christmas Eve and Christmas morning together. We made Christmas cookies, Christmas dinner and dessert, did Advent, wrote letters to Jesus, sang, watched White Christmas, read Luke 2, prayed, and exchanged Secret Santa gifts. It was an incredibly joyous weekend - one that I will never forget. We really have found a family here, one that will forever be part of us.

The manger that Justin built, our stockings, and the tree

We even had a fire going!

making Christmas cookies

The manger

Complete with presents!

with our cookies

Ready for dinner

Nikki writing her letter to Jesus

Dessert - fondu!

after opening our gifts

Christmas morning breakfast

Gobble Gobble

This year we had 3 Thanksgiving meals - one at school, one with our friends Erik and Breckan, and one at church. I don't know if I have ever eaten so much pumpkin pie, but I'm definitely not complaining about that! Costco makes pretty fantastic pumpkin pie.

Some days it seems like our lives here are so "normal" that we lose sight of what a great opportunity this continues to be. We lose sight of the fact that we are incredibly blessed. But then other days we sit back and think about how our short time here (16 months so far!) has and will continue to shape our lives forever. For that, we are incredibly grateful.

Justin's bulletin board full of things his students are thankful for

My plate for Thanksgiving with the Holsts

A few things we are especially thankful for this year:
* feeling more established in our jobs and enjoying our work experience
* deep, Christ-centered friendships where our conversations nearly always come back to the Cross
* the opportunities we have to travel around Asia as well as back to the States during breaks
* getting financially prepared (as much as possible) for our future
* growing in our relationships with our Savior through various avenues - church, relationships, Porterbrook, community group
* family and friends who have blessed us by making a huge effort to stay in good contact

The list could go on and on, without a doubt. We can sum it all up in just saying that God is good and we are eternally grateful.

Random Pictures

We found some random pictures of various things from the last several week, so I'm combining them all in one post.

The best donkas we have found

Crepes with Gosha, Nikki, and Laura

Johnny Rockets! Expensive but SO worth it!

Marble brownies

Justin's Halloween door that won him a class party!

This is how you make s'mores in Korea

First Christmas cookies of the year

 

Ilia and Tihami learning about how much sugar is in what we eat

Tiana, Lydia, and Marco with their sugar and food

Jade, Maria, and Amber

Timothy and Ethan

Christmas lights in Nampo

A Quarter of a Century

Justin's 25th birthday was in November and we went bowling with a group of friends for the evening.

Lydia - one of our co-workers

    

Strike?

 

Nikki was......well....fun to bowl with. One time her ball came flying backwards.

Nice form?

 

I'm not a pro, but I don't think the ball is still supposed to be up that high.

They make life so much fun.

Happy Birthday, my bald husband!

 

Justin's turkey - 3 strikes in a row!

My 2nd turkey!