Christmas dinner

Spiderweb frozen in the back yard.

Good food at the Christmas dinner outreach.

Arianna enjoying a snack with her friends at church.

Things have continued to be busy for everyone.  We have not had anyone for the Bible Study for a couple of weeks now because everyone seems to have things come up at the last minute.  We know that most will be gone during the holidays and so it might just be us.  Last weeks highlight was we picked up our visas, so we are good for another year.  Another good thing is that we have finished our Christmas shopping.  That is unless Angie thinks of other stuff that she wants at the last moment.  We have been having a good time watching Arianna recently.  She is growing taller and smarter. She was sleeping in church Sunday and started to wake up, when she noticed Andrew was sleeping next to her, she would reach out and rub his cheeks every now and then.  It was cute.  Lilia had a cross country run last week with her school.  She finished 26th out of several grades going all the way up to high school age.  I was shocked that they still had the race, being that it was rainy and cold.  But they did, and Lilia did a good job, a couple of the other students passed out.  It warmed up by the weekend to a nice 65 degrees, but I should be cooling back off today. Angie has continued to have a good time in her French class. She had a lunch last week with her class and had a good time visiting. Angie is by far the youngest in her class, and everyone is real impressed when she pulls out our cell phone to look something up.  One of our friends car re-broke down, so we took her to the train station on Wednesday.  Friday night, I had a practice with a choir group.  I am playing the piano for them, they sang at the Christmas dinner outreach at the church in Carcassonne.  We have been practicing together son Saturday mornings for several weeks now.  They are a nice group, most are from Madagascar and Mauritius.  Speaking of the Christmas dinner, we had a wonderful time.  All Saturday was spent getting ready for it, preparing the food.  We invited our neighbors and another family that we have had good contact with.  We almost did not invite this other family, but Angie ran into them at the grocery store on Friday and we asked and they said they would love to come.  They are a real sweet family and real open to talking about God and the Bible.  The dinner was real good, well attended.  The boys sang a special with the children's choir, Lilia sang with the young people's choir, Angie sang with the adult choir, and I sang and played with the other choir.  We had a great time.  Even the mayor attended. Sunday we were out all day.  We left for church Sunday morning, I was leading the services and doing the kids devotional.  After services we treated the kids to McDonalds as an early Christmas gift.  We then took them for a little shopping.  A church in the states had sent our children money, and we decided to let them exchange names and buy gifts for each other. Angie took them into the store one at a time, while I stayed in the car and helped the other finish their homework. It was the only time we had available to do it.  At 4:00 we attended the English (British) Carol service that the church in Carcassonne puts on every year.  We enjoyed the service and even knew most of the songs this year.   Snacks were served afterwards and someone made brownies with peanut butter chunks.  Wow!  Caleb's birthday is today. Ten years old already.  He is so excited because he can ride in the front seat now.  His party will not be until Wednesday, but he did get some Ramen noodles for lunch, his favorite, and we bought him a Dr. Pepper.  I need to get some yard work done while the weather is a little warmer.  Angie is taking a friend to the grocery store.  She will have her French class tomorrow morning.  I need to get visit some people tomorrow afternoon.  Tomorrow night will be the Bible Study, possibly.  Wednesday, Lilia has a swimming competition, Caleb will have his party, and I have my kids basketball group, followed by my practice with the guys team.  We might have some guests arriving on Thursday, so better get some other things finished today.  Blessings, JASON