it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

We cleaned up all the Thanksgiving hoopla and pulled out all of the Christmas goods, turned on some Christmas music and started the decorations. We got our tree on Friday and decorated it today. Piper was in all her glory and kept shrieking every time she got a new ornament. Lucy and Clark were so excited to see all of the ornaments and they wanted to put ALL of the ornaments on the tree - I restrained them but not before they put about 90% of them on. Our tree is quite sparkly and homemade all at the same time, especially the bottom half where certain someones could reach. Bring on the holiday cheer....

some new ponies in town

The school was having a second-hand toy sale and I got these ponies at a steal of a price 75 kc (about 4 dollars) and let me tell you I think it might be the best money I have spent in a long time. Lucy and Clark ride them each day (to care for them) including jumps, tying them up at night and have started their very own riding school - Piper is their first student.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

After we had a day to recover from our big party, we had a nice (and smaller) Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at the Syvertsens. More turkey, stuffing, potatoes. First Christmas movie of the year. And the family picture that we didn't get to take on Thursday.

Clark read the menu for us before dinner...

Thanksgiving, Part 1

It's hard to believe this was our Fifth Annual Thanksgiving feast in Prague! In many ways we have got the preparations down to a science - contact our friend Mirek for the tent, delegate lots of cooking responsibilities, pull up the rugs and move the furniture, and pray! People started to arrive around 4:30 and I gave the Thanksgiving blessing (yes, once again invoking Abraham Lincoln) before the massive buffet began.

Final tally: 102 people who consumed 5 turkeys, 10 pies, 8 sweet potato casseroles, several vats of mashed potatoes, and an unspecified number of bottles of wine.

We are so grateful that we get to do this each year and celebrate all the things that we're thankful for!

Some highlights:

Miss Heather was back for a quick Prague visit, sporting her Texas tan:

The tent in all its glory:

Some of the kids - "feed us!"

Good times:

The after-dinner, American-football-watching crowd:

coloring

We spend a lot of our day like this with each other.... face to face coloring

Turkeys

Our friend Cindy Hilton taught us last year how to make "Turkey Sweeties" as my kids call them. They consist of oreos, malt balls, red hots, candy corn and a little chocolate frosting to glue it all together. Since we can't get many of those items here, Phil's mom graciously sent them to us. Monday I went to teach cooking in Clark's class and we called it edible art...they loved making them and were so proud. It was fun to watch them. Today I went to Lucy's class in honor of Thanksgiving and we all made our turkeys and then sat together and shared things we were thankful for. I love having the opportunity to pop in and help at school - it is fun to be in their world and to see bits of their day.

sweet sisters

Lucy lost yet another tooth and the tooth fairy forgot to stop by and pick it up... but lucy exclaimed the next morning that she wasn't worried because this happened to someone else at school and they got double money the next night! Lucy and Piper are my very girly girls... they both love all things sparkly and lipstick. Piper also has a great LOVE of shoes and so enjoys having people over where it is custom to take your shoes off at the door, and as each person does she promptly puts them on and looks at herself in the mirror with the biggest grin you have ever seen. They are sweet friends and I hope that they always have a close friendship.

glamorous

Before...After...

20 years of freedom

(Prague's Wenceslas Square in November, 1989)

20 years ago the world in Easter Europe was undergoing massive changes. A sense of hope and political freedom started to sweep through this area, and the Czech Republic was caught up in this fervor. Last week was the anniversary of this peaceful "Velvet Revolution," as it's called here. While Shanna was with the kids on their day off from school, I had all-day meetings in Brno (about 2 1/2 hours away) with a Czech church. That evening I got to hear some pretty cool first-hand accounts of what that week was like and how information got from Prague to Brno (before mobile phones and the Internet, you know!).

It's amazing to think of all the things that have been able to happen as a result of the events 20 years ago - Shanna and I met in Russia almost 12 years ago, and here we are in Prague planting a church! We're proud to be living in this place, where they're still learning what it means to be free.

Owen's Birthday

Happy Birthday Owen! He just turned 5. We were invited to his family dinner and we had so much fun celebrating Owen. He is sure growing up and it is really fun to think that we have been at all of his birthdays. Living overseas we don't often have friends that we can say that about, since overseas life can be quite transient but it is fun to have life-long friends who are more like family here. We love the Syvertsens and are so excited to see how God continues to mold, encourage and transform Owen in the years to come.

This is how Piper chose to run around at the party....

Bread Making

Clark gets out at 2:50 and normally Lucy gets out at 3:15 but on Tuesdays she has an after-school cooking club provided by the school so she doesn't get out til 4:15. Clark and I have been taking those afternoons to have some special play dates with some of his friends. The last two weeks Clark has requested to play with Julie, she is in the nursery class at school. One week she and her mom came to our house and yesterday we went to her house. They love playing together. While the kids played Pernille taught me how to bake Danish bread. It was so fun and and I love how she wore her diamonds and fur - who says baking bread isn't glamorous?

Fireworks Night

Fireworks night is a yearly event that the British celebrate and remember Guy Fawkes who was stopped when attempting to blow up Parliament. 4 years ago Phil was out of town and Laura and I took the kids - it was a disaster. The fireworks are loud and we were really up close to them and at the time all 3 of our kids screamed at the top of their lungs for the whole show. So it has taken us 3 years to regain the strength and try again. And we are so glad we did - it was so fun! We had dinner and a puppet show before the main event. We only took Lucy and Clark and they LOVED it.

sick days

Miss P was sick one day this week and all she wanted to was read and read and read... so we did and I loved every moment of it.
We read every one of these books and then some...

New School Building

Riverside School opened a new building this week for the Nursery and Reception classes. It is a beautiful building that has a great outdoor area and lots of space for them. One of the perks for us is that is literally a block from our house so we now get to walk or "ride" to school. Clark is SO excited that the wagon is going to be one of his modes of transport to school. Lucy is also very excited because the new building is offering a shuttle bus to the main campus. She has been riding the school bus to school and that has been a fun change for her too.
Lucy's bus... when we first mentioned that she could take a bus to school if she wanted to she was thrilled and then asked "how will I know what stop to get off at?" ... and then it hit us that she thought she would be riding public transportation by herself to school (which she seemed fine with). It wasn't until she actually saw the "school bus" that she realized it was just a bus for her school and only went to her school and back. City kids.....

Trick or Treat

Every year we have a little pizza and picture time before we go trick or treating. We invited a few friends over and to get excited about the night. It was a very cold night so we bundled up
here is Clark checking out all of his loot!

Happy Halloween!

Our house was full of laughter and screams and lots and lots and lots of dancing! They have been dressed all day...
Our little clown...
Arrgh...
Glamorous Sharpay (from high school musical)