The last time I wrote was before thanksgiving. We've done quite a bit in the last couple weeks!
We've also successfully decorated our house for Christmas! I had to get the fan in the room and get the sweat off my brow as I was putting up the fake Christmas tree. It was pretty funny. I decided it was very similar to putting up the tree with too much wood in the fire place. Anyway, we are enjoying all the festivities that the season has to offer. It seems like we've already had plenty of Christmas celebrations, but there are several more yet to come :)
Jon had a very fun Thanksgiving feast at school with both 1st and 2nd grade together. They all dressed up as either Indians or pilgrims. The kids all put on a brief skit (1st grade) and Jon's class recited a poem. Then, Jon got the privilege of reading scripture to all of us. Then each child had prepared previously, something they were thankful for, and one by one, each child went up to the microphone and told us what they were thankful for. Jon said, "I am thankful that we came to Manila because I have such great friends."
We celebrated Thanksgiving with several other families associated with Faith Academy on Thanksgiving Day. We had a really nice time...turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, pumpkin pie, apple pie... :) We missed the Green Bean Casserole though :) Then on Saturday afternoon, we celebrated with all the Nazarene Missionaries. It was a wonderful time! More of all that wonderful food...including Green Bean Casserole :) We met at one of our homes and it was decorated so nice...twinkle lights, lots of harvest vegetables for decoration...great fellowship and such a pleasant night, gathering together in thanksgiving.
Saturday morning, we took Andy to his first rugby tournament. The weather was a little "iffy." We were being teased by a typhoon that was just sitting off the shore, twirling away, gaining strength. However, it sat there long enough to change it's course, and it headed north and didn't interrupt the rugby! The boys were all quite happy. Andy's team played four games that morning. They were nice and dirty, and a bit on the tired side when it was finished. They did well, and learned a lot!
Luke was involved in the middle school Band and Choir Concert. Luke is not in either of those, but he is in beginning guitar, and the guitar classes also performed in this special occasion. They all did really wonderful!
We took an afternoon and headed down town to get fingerprinted for part of our visa process. This was a rather long event, mostly because of traffic. We left our house at 11:30 in order to get downtown for our 2:30 appointment. We grabbed some lunch on the way, and got there just before 3:00. They took us in and we were completed by 4:30. Fortunately we went through the process with someone directing us because it would have been completely overwhelming without her! We came home a different direction because the we were going to get caught in rush-hour traffic. We did not escape it, but we did go via several areas we had never been before. We finally made it home by 9:00 pm. It was a really long, slow drive home.
One of the areas we went by was the "Smokey Mountain Project" Area. These people used to live in the area of Manila's largest dump site, rummaging, and doing what ever necessary to live, day to day. The government, along with Asian Development Bank came in and built places for these people to live, rather than the squatter homes they build on their own. We drove by both the dump and the housing project. The people have been living there for several years now, and they have added on and made their "apartments" even larger by building on to the sides. Take a look. If you are interested in more info on this, just put in "Smokey Mountain Remediation Project" into your search engine. It is an amazing thing. Jon's class is collecting items to give to (just a fraction) of these kids for Christmas. There are an estimated 50,000 people currently living in this area.
Jon's class put on a "Christmas Chapel" and we got to go to that. It is so fun how many opportunities our kids have here at this school.
This weekend we went to another set of games for Andy. It is really amazing the schools we have gone to so far. They are way beyond any high school I have ever set foot on. The only two schools we have been at so far have been international schools. They will also play a military school down south. There are a couple other schools, but I don't know much about them...yet :) This particular field is an AstroTurf field. Andy's cleats actually came home clean instead of muddy!
We've also successfully decorated our house for Christmas! I had to get the fan in the room and get the sweat off my brow as I was putting up the fake Christmas tree. It was pretty funny. I decided it was very similar to putting up the tree with too much wood in the fire place. Anyway, we are enjoying all the festivities that the season has to offer. It seems like we've already had plenty of Christmas celebrations, but there are several more yet to come :)
We love you!!! Thanks for visiting our site!!
3 comments:
I love the descriptions puncuated by pictures! I think I can even pick Andy out in the pictures. Luke looks so "cool" playing the guitar. I've often heard it's the best instrument for boys to play because girls think they look "cool" and boys can carry it with them (thus more opportunity to look "cool"). :) John looks like he's having an amazing time in all his school functions. I'm so glad you have had so many fun things to do, see, and be involved with. Sounds like Christmas is busy no matter if you're in the states or in the mission field. :) Stop by my blog to see pictures of Tanner and Trevor in their new glasses. Tanner starts basketball Thursday (today is Monday). He's extremely excited. I'll post pictures.
It looked like you tried to see my site and couldn't. I've "added you as a friend" so you can see if you were not able. Love ya!
Hi guys - it is fun to read the stuff you put up. Can we add pictures from this end. Linda- the Latin term is really Linda, Eric etal which means you Eric and others. The others in this case are my grandchildren so I would tend to say each name instead. Just another "crankshaft" comment. He is a crotchety old guy in the funny paper here in case you don't remember. I am afraid i am toooo much like him!!!!
The apartments look amazingly familiar to me from my time in your country. I remember many bamboo scaffolds in Hong Kong but do not recall if there were any in use in Mania in 1970.
Love Dad
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