More Christmas

Marie uploaded her pictures and there were a couple that were just too cute to not post.

$13.50

The day after Christmas our Dollar Tree store marks down all their Christmas merchandise by 50%. I stopped by and loaded up for next year. Take a look at what I snagged for just $13.50!

Merry Christmas

In keeping with our Christmas Eve tradition, everyone opened one gift, which was pajamas. This year the girls got slippers too.




Our Christmas morning began at 5:00 sharp, much to the dismay of the exchange students. We opened gifts and enjoyed our traditional Christmas breakfast of Sausage & Egg Casserole, sausage biscuits, cream cheese braids and fruit.


We had lots of fun opening gifts and watching others open the gifts we'd given them. It was such a special, fun day.

Getting ready for Christmas

We had a fun time getting ready for Christmas. Yola enjoyed using my cookie press to make Spritz cookies, and she also whipped up a batch of Chocolate Crinkle cookies--which she loved so much she took the recipe home.

Nemanja is a chocolate lover, so he helped me make fudge, which he'd never tasted before. He wasn't disappointed! After last year's horribly grainy batch (that went straight to the trash) I found a super-easy, absolutely delicious recipe for no-fail fudge. Mmmmm.

I planned to make three pies this year: apple sour cream, pumpkin, and raspberry. I taught Marie and Yola how to make a pie crust by walking them through the process step-by-step as I made mine. Both of theirs turned out great and they were very proud.


Before bed on Christmas Eve, everyone took their turn stuffing the stockings. Julianne, Caleb, and Elisa really enjoyed shopping for everyone this year, and it was a blessing to Brad and me to see them as excited about giving as they were about getting.

Gingerbread House

Today the mailman brought us a package from Melanie and her family, and we opened it to find a gingerbread house kit. It was a boring, rainy day--the perfect time to build a house.


Marie and Yola worked on putting the house together, and then all the kids decorated it and added the finishing touches. It was a lot of fun and turned out great!

Shop til you drop

Today I loaded up 11 of our exchange students (plus Julianne) in the church van and we headed to Eugene to do some Christmas shopping. We hit two malls plus a strip mall shopping center and did our part to help the Eugene economy. The kids really enjoyed spending some unstructured time together and I was once again impressed by the friendliness and maturity of these students.

Julianne stayed with me at the first mall and we got to enjoy a nice mother-daughter lunch out, but she really enjoyed shopping with the exchange students for the rest of the day. We were all very tired by the time we returned home, but it was a fun, memorable day.

Another chess tournament

Julianne and Caleb both participated in a chess tournament at the middle school today. It was only for students from Coquille, but since it allowed kids to miss class, they had a good turnout. They both did well, and Caleb walked away with 1st place in the 4th grade division, while Julianne took 2nd among the 6th graders. The only bad part of the whole thing was that we gave Betsy free reign of the house while we were gone, and returned to find she'd chewed the Christmas lights around the window into pieces.

Happy Birthday to Brad! And Mom! And Auntie!

Just one year away from the Big 40! Brad's birthday wasn't terribly exciting this year, but he did get to go out to dinner at the Broiler (just him and me while the kids were at church!) and we replenished his OSU Beaver wardrobe by adding new Beaver slippers and a t-shirt he's been wanting. Marie got him a box of Chocolate Lover's Poppycock--our newest addictively yummy discovery--that he doesn't have to share with anyone else (although he did share just a bit with me).

We called Mom and Auntie to sing to them, and Marie even sang in Korean, which is quite special and oh-so-cool.

AYUSA Christmas party

Our south coast AYUSA Christmas party was last night. All 15 of our students were able to come and we had a great time with them! We went to Su-Min's, an oriental restaurant that is owned by Koreans. They set up a delicious buffet for us in the banquet room, and we got to eat to our hearts' content, with loads of food leftover. (Kristen and I each took home five large to-go containers of leftovers!)
Not only was there plenty of it, but the food was absolutely delicious! The menu included teriyaki chicken & beef, fried rice, sushi, kimchi, egg rolls, sweet & sour chicken, pot stickers, and several other items I don't know the name of.

Pedro (left) served himself two plates full of food and enjoyed every bite, despite the expression on his face in this picture.

The kids got to experience a crazy American gift exchange, and I managed to come home with a gift certifciate to Dutch Bros. coffee. Yum!

We've got such a great group of kids, and I enjoy working with them and getting to know them. I look forward to the second half of the year!

Back: Simon, Michael, Nam-Kwon (all from Korea)
Middle Row: Felipe (Colombia), Essie (Korea), Pedro (Brazil), Nemanja (Serbia)
Front Standing: Naoko (Japan), Betty (Korea), Marie (Korea), Jung-Hwa (Korea), Suzy (Hong Kong)
Front Kneeling: Sunny (Korea), Yola (Hong Kong), Irene (Hong Kong)

When in Rome. . .

Ok, so we haven't actually been in Rome--except in our imaginations as Elisa and I started learning about the Romans today.
We talked about lots of different aspects of Roman life, including how they took their togas to a fuller to be cleaned by stomping on them in a tub of water. She thought it sounded like a fun way to do laundry, so I let her give it a shot.

She also learned that Roman women liked to wear red, blue, and yellow, but the men usually wore white. If a man's clothes had purple on them, it meant they were really important and rich. People wore dark colors when someone had died.

And of course we talked about the fact that present-day Rome is in Italy, which is shaped like a boot.

Deck the Halls

Ah, my favorite time of year is here! We've pulled out all the Christmas boxes and are in the middle of decorating the house. The tree is up, but the outside lights will have to wait for better weather.

I'm very excited about this Christmas. We had a houseful last year, and I LOVED it, and we'll have a crowd again this year. Mom & Dad, Hap & Laurie, Valerie, and the six of us will all be here. Plus Yola and Nemanja are coming since their host families will be out of the country for the holidays. I can't wait!