Christmas time in India

The jars Nick gave me for Christmas!
Merry Christmas!!
So many cookies were made.
Victoria & Esther; so sweet. Esther is a part of our church. She is a beautiful baby and cut!!
Sammy was the star of the night---he did this all night; dribbling shooting, etc. It was hilarious!
The deserts....wow. Apple cake, pumpkin pie, oreo balls, sugar cookies, peanut butter squares...we really suffered this year!
Full house. Inside this house was our team, church family, and close friends! This is our family here and it was so good to be with all of them at once!
Oh the awesome food. All of our mouths were watering. Some of the best food ever existed on this table! Probably because most people had to make their dishes from scratch due to where we live, but that made it all the more special!
Above: I think this toy was taken away shortly after this picture was taken, haha!
The little human being clan seems to keep growing! Sammy is added in, Hannah's brother.
Below: The crazies! The one on the left is our supervisor's daughter, and the right side is another teammate family. Hannah is our supervisor's daughter and she's awesome. A crazy one to say the least.
Below: We had our Christmas celebration at our supervisor's house. They are great! They live just down the road from us; this is Kari in the kitchen. One of the best cooks I know! She is one of the most wonderful people in the world and has been so great to us since we have been here!

Hello friends,

It is Christmas Eve & winter has arrived here in our part of the country. It is definitely not the kind of cold that we remember back home, but after living in such a hot place for almost 1 year, the slightest of the cooler temperatures make us freeze!! It is usually colder inside of our house than outside; our floors are concrete and they are crazy cold!!! We are so thankful we brought house shoes with us. Life here since we have been home from Nepal has been wonderful!! Our team is back together here in town, we decorated for Christmas, I am back to baking, and the Lord has deepened our hearts in ministry where we live. It has been so good. We certainly do miss home and family during this time of year, but we received really good advice from a friend who formerly lived overseas. He said, "enjoy your christmas this year. while you are there you will be missing things from home, but when you get home you will always think and miss things from overseas...so just take it all in and enjoy it for what it is." Thank you Mr. Tucker for those great words of wisdom, we are certainly taking that advice. We have been able to spend a lot of time with our great friends here who are our family. Our house church hosted an outreach and it was great!! It really brought home the reason and purpose we celebrate Christmas. Tomorrow, Christmas day, will be spent with our family here. We are all getting together at our supervisor's house and eating I think ALL of the traditional Christmas meals, haha!!!! I am making Oreo balls and chocolate filled Spritz cookies, & mashed potatoes. So, it twill be good. As we come up on this next year we have some goals and we are very excited for what is to come. I really believe that next year is going to fly by and our time here will vanish. The Lord has really grown my heart for where we live and the people we work with so I am praying that my time here will be caught captive and that He is please with our work and time here.