Sunday school Christmas

Next after Christmas at Capernaum, we had Christmas in our Sunday school. Unfortunately, most of the little ones weren't there, but the bigger kids had a great time. They made sure to decorate cookies for the younger kids to have later. We had a short devotional about the Christmas story, then decorated gingerbread men that I had baked, played games, had cake for Jesus' birthday, and gave out presents. It was a great time to be together and celebrate that Christ is born.

After that, our Christmas plans were pretty much done. Asya and my other Sunday school helper had prepared a song with the younger class to sing in the church service, but since most of the kids weren't there, they didn't get to do it (yet?).

Next we just had to pack for Krakow and get on the bus Christmas morning.

Capernaum Christmas

Now that Christmas is winding down,* I'm going back to celebrations in December. A few of these photos are mine, the rest are from the day's photographer. (I don't know how long she'll keep all the photos available there. Here are more on Instagram.) At our first Capernaum club in December we practiced for a Christmas program. That program was the second club meeting of the month. All the parents and other friends were invited, and we acted out the Christmas story. 

After the program a local business gave the kids Christmas presents, very generously buying up lists of their individual needs and wants. Then we all ate together. 

(*A big pet peeve of mine is when people try to end Christmas on December 26. No! We're still singing Christmas carols and greeting people with "Christ is born!" Christmas is a season, not just a day.)

Happy New Year!

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Poland to meet up with Will's family. His parents and sisters and one sister's family came over, and we had a little reunion. If you follow Will or any of them on Facebook, you've probably seen photos and read about it all. I hardly took any pictures myself. It was amazing to see everyone and fun to be in Krakow. The photo below is a compilation of us in the same spot there in 2012, 2020, and on this trip: 

Now Raia is here with us until she heads to Lithuania. There's lots of sniffling and coughing going on from whatever everyone picked up while traveling, and we're pretty exhausted. But we're thankful and headed into the New Year now, glad to be together.

A wonderful New Year present was a phone call from Kherson first thing this morning, saying that Asya's residency card is ready. I thought maybe she dreamed it, because I can't believe that Migration is working today, but apparently it was real. So, now we have another trip to plan, to go get that picked up and register her.