I know this next week is going to very busy for us, so I wanted to get our Christmas greetings out to you before the hectic times start. I'm sending along some pictures. Just to give you a quick idea of our Christmas this year. But a few explanations are in order here. To start with, I decided this year to let Abbie "help" decorate. And you can see the results. As we set up the tree, SHE wanted to hand me the branches to put in the tree. Consequently, some of smaller ones (for the top) are on the bottom and bottom on top. It is definitely a "uniquely" shaped tree. But Abbie was SO thrilled with it. Then she wanted to put every ornament on it. Well, I did stop there since a lot were breakable, but she told me WHERE to put them.
This next one is a village our oldest son gave us. I haven't set it up for the last few years because of Abbie. I didn't want to break any of it. She did help me with this, too, but only sparingly. Her job every morning is to turn the lights on, on both the tree and the village. She just sits and stares at both of them. Oh, the gifts under the tree I mentioned before I think. Several of them are boxes that hold the ornaments and looked like wrapped gifts. She still insists those are our presents to Jesus. Like I said before, our hearts should be in those boxes as a gift to Him. 
This picture is of a manger scene I made in ceramics class way back in 1978. You can't see the little imperfections in it now, like where a rat bit the butt of Jesus when it was in storage, or where Mary's cloak is cracked and broken. But it holds a lot of memories for me. But this is up high where Abbie can't get to it. She has her other ones she can look at.
This one is just some of the decorations around the house. The beautiful red and white doilies are some the girls here made for me over the years. 
This coming week we will really be busy. We were only supposed to have one MFI flight day this week. Well, we were to have two planes that day. One of them has engine problems, so, we will have 2 days. One with passengers and one with cargo. Then I will have Christmas Eve day to prepare for the party we are having here at the dorm on Christmas Day. We were just having any missionaries who wanted to come, bring cookies and we'd share cookies and drinks and sing and have a great time of fellowship. Well, I decided it's Christmas, so I am going to decorate the dorm, too. Once I get it done, I'll try to put some pictures on here of it. Quite a few missionaries have already let me know they are thrilled and will be here. We don't have "family" with us, so we share each others families and enjoy the time together. Then on Saturday, several of our Haitian "kids" have said they want to come and visit. So, the week will be full. Then next week is New Year's. That is the BIG holiday here, celebrating Christmas, New Year's and Haitian Independence Day. That is the day most Haitians celebrate with pumpkin soup all day long. And they keep it as a family affair. We've been blessed through the years to be included in many of these "families". Many of the families that Don has been taking food buckets to have been so thankful that they will have something with which to celebrate on their combined holiday. But on Christmas Eve, almost all of the churches have special services and they last for HOURS, with singing, preaching, skits and more singing and praying. They truly Celebrate Jesus!!
We pray that your CHRISTmas is Christ centered and happy. Again, we are baking a Birthday Cake for Jesus. Give it some thought...it brings Jesus closer to hearts and the kids have a deeper understanding of what we are celebrating.
May the Lord bless you this year at this special time. And may you walk with Him and serve Him this coming year!!!
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