Andrew's Christmas Party

Andrew had his preschool Christmas party today. Nanna, Jim and I were able to attend for lunch and his program


There was also a special guest, Father Christmas, who was a real hit at the party. He did a great job giving out gifts AND talking about the real meaning of Christmas. Good job Jim!

Super-Nanna takes over!

She crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a single bound. She trekked through the airport with great aplomb. She carried heavy burdens to her needy homeless children. She brought joy and cheer (and lots of chocolate and marshmellows) to desperate grandchildren. She is SUPER-NANNA!

Today, she finished Jim's dissertation in a single flourish!


"Okay, I want my grandchildren home, I AM FINISHING THIS PAPER FOR HIM!"


Here is Jim relaxing after a hard day of watching Nanna speedwrite his dissertation. The relief is wonderful!

We had an eventful day today!

What another fun day with Nanna. She slept very well, (thanks to Tylenol pm,) and she and I were out and about Cambridge to see the sights. I love my Mom, because she is very observant, and has noticed things today that I have never seen! So this was a "new" look at Cambridge for me too.

Tonight she pulled out a bag of "Holiday-mellows" and the children strung them for the tree.


Next we moved on to cranberries,


The tree in progress, (tomorrow is popcorn stringing!)


The girls school is unfortunately without heat (a problem with an oil delivery) and so these warm wool socks came just in the knick of time, (Thanks Dennison family! We love the apron too!)


A good day~

Nanna's here!

After a LONG wait, Nanna King is here! She is safe and sound--a bit tired, but she is with us! We have all missed her so much, there is nothing quite having a mother or grandmother visit after a long absence. At school today there were many tears of joy as Mom came to pick up the girls. I know that I am so happy to have my Mom with me!

We just miss not having you, Papa!

Nanna arrived with two heavy laden suitcases, a big bag and a carry-on. (3/4ths of it was stuff we asked her to bring for us!) She did say she was able to squeeze a change of clothes into one bag, whew. What a good mom~

We can't wait to show her around Cambridge and have a number of things planned to do together. Stay tuned!

Sarah's Nativity pageant

Sarah was an angel in her little school's nativity pageant yesterday. The message of Jesus' birth and our need for Him was clearly presented and the songs were wonderful. She thoroughly enjoyed her role, and we enjoyed watching her!

Claire and Julia stayed home today from school because of illness. I need to state 'illness' because if you are 'sick' here in Britain, it means the stomach flu. Since it took me quite a while to figure out there were different ways of saying 'feeling poorly' I simply told everyone we were sick when we had a cold, the sniffles, etc. All our British friends thought we spent much of this fall in the bathroom (no wonder they always seemed so concerned), oh dear, I chalk one more thing up to being a foreigner~

Claire has a bad ear infection and at the local chemist today I was pleasantly surprised that for children under 16 prescriptions are free.

The girls were secretly excited to spend time playing games today on the computer, but to their dismay, Daddy said, "No, I don't want you spending hours on the computer today." then he added, "You can play on the computer after you have read the book of Genesis." So they did!

We had an excellent discussion at dinner about many things they read--and although it didn't happen until about 3:00, they did end up on the computer!

A fun Christmas Party

This afternoon was our Tyndale House Christmas party. We are so blessed to spend Christmas with such lovely people. I am continually amazed at how much talent is present here. Our friend Jim organized a nativity pageant, and almost all of the 30 children present participated.

Claire was a shepherd and sang a little solo~Andrew was also a shepherd, replete with Daddy's t-shirt, his Superman cape (inside out) and a curtain tie-back. Sarah was an angel, and fortunately her princess dress-up worked well with a pair of wings thrown in. Watching her sing with all her heart was a joy~

Julia was also a (colorful) shepherd, and she read from Luke (2:8-20).


The teenagers of Tyndale did a dramatic reading (Andrew helped);

We invited a family from the neighborhood to come too, and they brought their infant son who played Jesus.
Almost the whole family (except mom) participated, because I roped Jim into singing in a little quartet too~where he did admirably well.

There were also crafts to do. Here the girls' are decorating paper bags with paint:


We had a surprise guest in Father Christmas, and he gave each of the children there a present;


Jim sitting by the Christmas tree. A popular tradition here is using "crackers" to decorate a tree. These paper wrapped ornaments need to be pulled to open, and when they 'crack' open they have little presents inside. The children were allowed to open them after the party.


Here in England we don't hear Merry Christmas, we hear Happy Christmas. So, Happy Christmas to you! May this Advent season prepare each of us to worship Jesus more!