Our 2nd Christmas

Have I blogged our 1st Christmas?
The suitcase finally arrived, and we were able to celebrate a "2nd Christmas" with the gifts that were in the suitcase.
We are all so thankful the suitcase arrived. The "big" gifts were Dad's Kindle from mom, the duvet cover and pillows for Mom and Dad from me, and Tim's anniversary book from Tim.
There were also things for the kids and other little goodies to boot!
God is good! What fun!

Papi et Mimi and the "French" Grandkids

Can't say we didn't try....

Happy 3rd Birthday, Stefan!

Three years ago we were sitting around wondering when you would ever come into the world to meet us.
Now it seems impossible to believe that you are already 3 years old.
You have given us so much fun and joy, and we are excited to see how you are going to continue to grow.
You make a great big brother, son, nephew, cousin, and grand-son!
WE LOVE YOU!!!

Micaiah's Gift to His Dad

Proof that it is more blessed to give than to receive! Micaiah heard his Dad say a few weeks ago that he wished he had some gloves and he told his Mom that day that he knew what he wanted to get his Dad for Christmas. He kept his secret but was soooo excited to give his gift this morning. Definitely a moment to remember!

Papi and Stefan Chatting!

Micaiah and the Case of Meat Fondue

This was just too cute! Notice the smug smile on the last picture. I LOVE IT! (I put in the two plate one's b/c I needed 15 pictures!)

Christmas Eve in Bordeaux

I assume these will all be self-explanatory, but we just wanted to give you a taste of our Christmas Eve.

I will explain Zacharie's black eye. He took a bad spill last night, and we are thankful that it didn't end up in the emergency room. He's fine, but it did leave a nasty mark. Micaiah's pj's are still in my suitcase which we hope is on a truck being brought down to Bordeaux through the night tonight...we hope.....

We had a wonderful evening, complete with guests from Hungary, and the story of "Bobby".

The only thing missing was YOU. Hope you all had (well, I guess that is "have") a wonderful evening.

Loads of love and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Fun!

Monday night we all took the tram to downtown Pessac to have some Christmas fun! First we went to the Christmas tree maze which unfortunately closed before the kids went through it. It wasn't too bad, however, since Grandma noticed that you could go through it alone and so we did our own run through! Then the kids (with Papi and Zacharie) rode the Merry-go-round. About then it was time for the concert in the church. It was a choir from Pessac putting on a Christmas concert. They were real personable (let the kids come on stage to sing O Beau Sapin! if they wanted-- our kids didn't :-). We all enjoyed the concert. Then it was home for some of Aunt Jennie's White Chicken Chili which was a big hit with the older ones but not so much with the youngsters. It was a great memorable evening! Wish more of you could have been here with us.

Happy Anniversary!

Four years ago today....
So exciting to see what God has done in your lives during the past 4 years.
We are so glad Brian chose to join our crazy family!
We love you both--enjoy celebrating with 2 church programs today!!
(Dan warned you about Christmas weddings!!)
Have a GREAT day!

Happy Anniversay, Dan and Brenda!!

We love you and hope that you are having a wonderful, marvelous day. We are sure that the kids are spoiling you rotten :-) We are so happy that the "what a gal" came into the family 17 years ago!

Celebrating Zacharie's 1st birthday

Thank you all for the birthday wishes for Zacharie. We had a great evening celebrating together as a family. While Zacharie didn't exactly start talking on the very day he turned 1, he sure did start becoming more active! I'm not sure whether it was turning 1, or his new "BabyHaler" (see us administering his medicine in the small picture in the collage where he is crying :( ), but he has definitely all of a sudden become more interested in all the little things in the world around him! Tonight, we even caught him picking clementines out of the tiered fruit basket and tossing them one by one into the nearby trash can! And this afternoon he removed Papi's hearing aid for the first time ever from his regular perch. He is fast becoming Mr. Busy-Body! It's a good thing. :) Just keeps us on our toes. And for the record, he did like his marble birthday cake with chocolate frosting. (Did anyone really doubt?) We love our little Zacharie, and sure are glad he's a part of our family.

"I'm ONE!!"

---and ready to meet all the challenges ahead. According to his big sister, he can't wait to eat chocolate! :-) Maybe we will find out tonight at the big birthday bash!
Happy Birthday, Zacharie. We love you and so enjoy having you around. You bring lots of joy to lots of people and I am sure you will in the years to come, too.

"QSB"

Just for your info, everybody. I finally got my Christmas present from last year. Well, at least, we ordered a mattress but it won't be in for 4 weeks. So now I guess this year's present will have to be a bed to put it on. Probably will take us a year to find that, too :-(

Decorating the Tree!

We had a fun and noisy time tonight decorating the tree!!! Along with Tim's family, we invited the Lee children over. We had waffles and hot chocolate. Dad put the tree together and Tim (with Ruth's expertise) did the lights. As to the rest, well, you can see the "finished" project :-) Had quite the "hand bell choir", too-- after almost 40 years, those bells have found another activity. We really enjoyed the "live" Christmas music, too.

Snow has arrived in Rockford!!

SNOW!!! -- in Bordeaux :-)

Don't laugh too hard all you Northeners, but we were all excited to have a snowfall this morning. Especially when it meant we could have coffee/hot chocolate and cookies together. France is not like SC, so Micaiah had to go to school!

Thanksgiving in Iowa

Here are some pictures from our wonderful Thanksgiving in Iowa. The Sperlings hosted us in the most warm and inviting way as you can see from the above collage. And then Christopher took us all out for family pictures in the afternoon.