Holiday Memories!

Hi!  Wow--how is it possible that the holidays are now just a nice memory?!  We hope you had a very happy holiday season!  We were blessed to have had my mom here with us this year for two months, and it was nice having her around to "mother" us with her good cooking and good company! 

Here we are in Dhulikhil, Nepal where we ate Christmas dinner with this view!

She also helped out at the school and played the organ for our two programs.  She enjoyed interacting with the children and I'm not sure if she had more fun or if they did!

The first program was at the hospital for the patients, workers, and anyone who happened by.  The older students sang and put on a Christmas play.  They did their own translating into Nepali, which made all of us very proud.  They did such a good job.

 

 

What's a program without food? :)

When Sabbath came, the youth presented a Christmas pageant and Pastor Chuck presented a Christmas sermon.  Then we had the annual Christmas potluck dinner.  The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day!

Tracy and Sarah were able to find some of their favorite foods!

 

Baby Hannah didn't eat any Nepali food, but she smiled for everyone and looked pretty cute in her hat!

Our school program for the parents was on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

As parents arrived, Mom did a sound check with the sound guys.

You can't see it, but she looked really nice in a pretty kurta.

I went over the hand motions of a song with some of the kids before the program.

Anjan did most of the work orchestrating the program (both programs actually).

Good job Anjan!  You deserve a day (or three) off!

This program had singing,

(I was leading and Mom playing for the "English" part of the program, I don't have any pictures of that--sorry!)

 dancing,

(Tried to upload a video--but had no luck!)

(Some of the little ones got in practice for next year's program:)

 

a Nepali play the kids wrote (good job kids!) about a boy who learned his lesson
the hard way about proper eating and sleeping habits and he had to see the doctor,
(Our young doctor did such a good job he may be recruited by the hospital!)

prizes,

 

and last but not least--the cultural show--which I love!

 

 Great job kids! 

This is the view we had on Christmas morning.

 This is Mom taking a picture of the view we had at the restaurant we went to in Dhulikhil (about five miles away) where the first picture in this post was taken.

As you can see, it was a beautiful place for Christmas dinner!

 It was really relaxing to eat out on Christmas--no cooking and no cleaning up--just enjoying good company, good food,

and good views!
 

We plan on eating out on Christmas day more often!

Here's a pretty cool picture Ramon took of someone else enjoying Nepal's views!

  Christmas and New Year's Day are not big deals here.  (Remember that the Nepali New Year is celebrated in mid-April.)  Life was pretty much "Business as Usual"
although we did see this Christmas tree at the grocery store

and this cutie shopping with her "mommy!" :)


We also saw people selling festive balloons

which looked slightly easier to carry than these boxes!


Pretty sure this sign says, "Men at Work" or something similar.

Glad to see this fellow wearing gloves--not all have that option.

Somehow this young man sews with his gloves on!

This young lady found time to relax

and so did this "family"

We were able to relax and have fun because we were together too!
 We hope you had a fun holiday with your loved ones too
and we wish everyone a safe, happy, and healthy 2013!

Coming up--our visit here: