Giving Thanks

We've had a moment to catch our breath, the tent and dishes have been taken away, and the house is back to "normal," so I thought we should elaborate on all the festivities that make up a Prague Thanksgiving.  We were very blessed this week to celebrate with our biggest crowd yet, and there were no major catastrophes, no kids falling down stairs, no fires, not even a broken glass or plate.  

There were friends from church, from Riverside, from squash - from Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, America, Canada, England, Scotland, Poland, and New Zealand (among others) - from 10 months to 60 years old.  And all of them came to give thanks and enjoy each other's fellowship.  

Once again this year, I read part of Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation (but only to half the crowd) - I like to mention that it was instituted in 1863 at the height of the American Civil War, and still there were things to be thankful for.  Here's a snippet:

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. 

Our family was watching some of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving video and trying to explain that a pilgrim was someone who left their home to go to a foreign land and start a new life.  Clark, who's becoming quite perceptive, said: "Like us?"  Well, in a way, yes.

So, from the Davis pilgrims, sojourning in Prague, we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We are thankful to each and every one of you who read our blog, laugh with us, pray for us, and help us give praise to God through Jesus Christ!

Thanksgiving: After

Shanna decided to start drinking alcohol (not really, but the whip cream chaser might be a winner - hmmm....)

We were very thankful that we didn't have to do any of the dishes.

Thanksgiving: During

The girls staked out their own table in the tent.

Some of the 4 turkeys and 11 boxes of stuffing...Some of the 89 guests...
Good luck finding your coat.

Thanksgiving: Before

Sounds of soccer

Ever wonder what a penalty kick sounds like in Prague?  Here you go...

Click To Play

I went last night to another game, and I now have much more admiration for Packers fans in the frozen tundra of Green Bay.  It was cold!  And my butt was probably 5 degrees colder from the seat!  It was a great game and the last home game for awhile - apparently they take a "break" during the especially colder months.  I now understand.

snowP

SNOW!!!!

We had our first light dusting of snow on Friday night and then Saturday night it really came down and today we had enough to play in. The kids made a family of snowmen and had fun just marveling in it.

marshmallows

Did you know that it is possible to make homemade marshmallows? I did not until Joanna craft guru extraordinaire told me that it was a snap to make them.... who knew. So she came over and helped me whip up a batch of them and also taught me how to make homemade hot chocolate powder. The real test came today when I made them with the kids. We had lots of fun especially when we got to lick the sticky bowl. Hot chocolate and marshmallows... cold days here we come.

teeth

Piper is getting teeth and Lucy and Clark thought it was time for her to start brushing her teeth too. So Clark is teaching Piper the basics, like how to brush, spit and how to eat toothpaste if mommy and daddy say no more gum.

Cosmo-austrians

Click To Play

(I recorded some audio to listen to and enjoy while you read...)

We were invited to a house-warming party of some new friends, Christoph and Susanne, who moved to Prague 2 1/2 months ago and seem to already know everyone. He works for the Austrian embassy, so we were surrounded by more Austrians than ever before (well, except when we went to Austria). They've lived in Syria, China, and now Prague, and their new house reflects the various cultures they've lived in.

Besides meeting some new people, a highlight was the background music - we hooked Susanne up with our own Ondra from church! It was so great having him there, and he did a fantastic job of playing for the 4+ hours... we got to brag about him to everyone there.

Art show

Last night Riverside hosted an art show featuring the works of several artists connected with the school. It was a fun time to get to see some of our friends' talents, especially our friend Vlado. His daughter Isabella is in Lucy's class (they've become fast friends), and his wife Ester works part-time at school.

Vlado is an amazing guy. We got to talk for awhile last night (2% in Russian, 98% in English) - I already knew that he is the current pastor of the Czech Baptist Church here, but I hadn't seen any of his art until last night. He moved to Prague from the Ukraine to focus on art in the mid 90s and ended up going to seminary here and meeting Ester on the day he was baptized. He had some great stories about his art too, and several of our friends here have his works hanging up in their homes.

You can see more of his work at his website http://www.vvovkanic.com/

Miss Cindy

Cindy Hilton is here to teach at a Czech woman retreat but we get to host her for two days and she has brought lots of fun with her. Besides hauling all kinds of goodies for us and bringing magazines, and playing numerous rounds of Uno (yes we are still playing). She brought all kinds of imported goodies to make turkeys. The body is made out of Oreos, covered with chocolate frosting, a malt ball for the body, and a red hot for the gobbler. Lucy thought this was the best art project ever because it was edible.

Mail fun!

Yaya sent us a great package with lots of fun things, we LOVE getting package. One of Lucy and Clark's favorite thing is this amazing felt book. Each page has a different theme like fishes or alien's. On one side is a picture and on the other is a little felt board that you can build your own designs with the felt pieces included. I heart this cute little book!

fun sunday

We spent the morning at the park. It was a great morning of being out all bundled up. Lucy and Clark rode their bikes. Lucy took her stabilizers (training wheels) off her bike and has started to learn to ride with out them. Phil told her about how he learned to ride his bike without his stabilizers and how he went to Trinity Church parking lot across the street from his house everyday with Papa to practice. So as you can imagine there are plans to practice everyday this week till she can do it all by herself. We also rode on a fun family swing and then climbed trees. I went for a short run and Phil sat on a bench while he recovered from helping Lucy ride her bike. Piper of course was bundled up like a little marshmallow and loved watching all of the action.

cuties

Lucy 5

Piper 9 months

Clark 3

sweet

Through the wardrobe

We took advantage yesterday of a free Saturday and decent weather and went to Český ráj, a beautiful area of the Czech Republic (it literally means "Czech Paradise").  It's best known for its sandstone rock formations that were captured when "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" movie was filmed here, as the kids walked around Narnia.  Lucy and Clark were so excited when we told them we were going to see the Narnia rocks, and Clark kept his eyes peeled for Mr. Tumnus and Aslan.

No talking wildlife for us, but we did see lots of moss, leaves, clover, sticks, streams, and rocks - all of which were stop-in-your-tracks exciting for us.  We hiked for about one hour and turned around when we made it to the big rocks.  I think these steps did us in...

There are several castles in this region as well, so after we made it back to the car, we drove around a bit more and found a couple of them - quite beautiful how they just appear in the rock cliffs. (alas, no pictures of these) 

Overall we had a great time as a family on our first real family hike.

Cooking

This week I had the pleasure of cooking in Clark's class. We decided on Cinnamon Rolls. The kids were divided into two groups and Clark got to pick who he wanted in his group. These are his friends he picked to the left Niels, Max, Sienna, and Ali. They loved "painting" the butter on the dough and tasting the brown sugar, smelling the Cinnamon and rolling the dough. They were very cute and so excited. I loved being with Clark in his class, I even got to read a book to the class and hang out during lunch. The buns turned out fabulously and Clark and I had a great morning together! 

Crazy group

We're one good-looking bunch...

what do you think

I am trying out some new fashion accessories... what do you think?

"Obama Promised a Revolution..."

... read the headline of this morning's paper. I think it was printed before the outcome was official, but I'm sure they were going with what seemed to be inevitable results last night. We had a fun election party at our house, watching the news (until the first results came in at about 1:00am our time) and some of the great Saturday Night Live skits from this fall. It was exciting, even to be so far away. (pictures to come later)

I've already had Czech friends tell me today "Congratulations for the election" - not knowing (or caring) whom I had voted for. An American Presidential election is truly world-changing and world-affecting, and this one really seemed to grab everyone's attention. This has been another one of those things that I've cared a lot more about since leaving America (along with college football and 4th of July).

And in a providential twist, I'm preaching on 1 Peter 2:13-25 on Sunday - submission to authority. I'll probably quote Luther on Sunday: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”