Catch up from Christmas

It has been a while since I posted. I actually had a computer go out and am now typing from my new computer...still do not have email up if you have sent one lately. Hopefully, by tomorrow it will be running again.

We had a very blessed and peaceful Christmas!
This year we had a live nativity in our yard for one night of Christmas week. I have wanted to do this for several years and this year I mentioned it to a friend who loved the idea and also loves power tools, so she whipped up a little nativity set and I made a sign and then we dressed all our kids up and brought out the Kareoke machine for them to read Luke 2 and sing Christmas songs. They were all so cute and had a blast! We had an outside heater, hot chocolate, and cookies set out for people who stopped by. I expected people to drive by in cars, but had not thought of how many people might walk from around the neighborhood to come watch. Many elderly from around the neighborhood walked over and they made a point to come up to us and say "Thank you so much for doing this" and they would share how much it meant to them...some even with tears in their eyes. One neighbor actually stood on the sidewalk the entire time and just watched the kids and sang with them...it was so sweet. It really made me realize how hungry people really are to see Christ publicly celebrated during Christmas. Grant and Inna asked if it can be a tradition for us and I hope so too! Vitali was a shepherd for about 5 minutes and then just wanted to hang out by the snacks the rest of the time.



I am working on the video of our adoption pictures (the one I had hoped to have by the time the kids were home for a year). Hopefully, I will have it done by next post.