Christmas photo recap & looking to the new year

We had such a wonderful Christmas. So wonderful that I didn't have time to blog. Andy's brother, Dave, his wife Amree and our adorable nephew joined us for Christmas. This is our 4th Christmas in China and it has gotten easier being away from family. Meaning that I don't spend half the day in tears. But saying that it gets easier does not mean easy. I love my family and love spending time with them. But Andy gets no time off for Christmas. And let's not talk about how expensive it is for all 5 of us to fly back to the US. So having family come to us is such a blessing. Dave and Amree live in Japan and also were not planning to make the long trip back to the US. You can tell from the pictures, we had a great time.

The 6 days they were here went by way too fast!

John is enjoying a bowl of our ayi's noodles.

The first bowl she cut them up.

But then we realized that he enjoyed eating them long. Can he be any cuter?

Christmas morning. Or maybe afternoon. Hard to tell since we have the tradition of staying in our pajamas all day long.

[Technically, this was Christmas eve day. We celebrated a day earlier and invited people to join us on Christmas day after church].

While I love having people in our house, Christmas (or when we celebrate it) is a time for just our family. We stayed in pj's, snacked the day away, and opened presents.

Our kids were the first grandchildren on each side so cousins are a relatively new thing for them. But one that they greatly enjoy.

This pretty much sums up Christmas morning. Our kids opening presents with John in the background reeking a little havoc. Here is he is taking the batteries out of the remote.

But he is just so cute.

And we loved every minute with him.

 Josh is a reader. A voracious reader. And books are so hard to find here. Well, at least ones in English.

So after much debate, we got him a Kindle touch. At first he didn't know what it was. This is when realization dawned.

(pardon my scarf that does not quite match. Becca made this for me for Christmas in my fave of all colours. . . BROWN)

This has become a common sight.

On Christmas Day (the actual one) we invited friends and I made soup. Andy referred to me as the soup diva.

Soup, games and friends. A great combo.

Holiday B. She is growing up and looking more mature with each picture we take.

Josh was thrilled to have a BOY around the house. In his words: there are too many girls in this house.

And I sit here writing on New Year's eve. The kids are playing (mostly) happily upstairs. And in a few hours, yet again friends will arrive to usher the new year in with us.

Does the new year make you contemplative? 

I was on the elliptical. Because I generally do a lot of thinking when I exercise -- maybe because it is the one time of my day when I am alone? And I was thinking of all that change that is looming on the horizon for our family. We will go from a family of 5 to 6. Our kids will have some big changes in their school situations. Friends are moving away. New friends will arrive. But in the midst of this some things will be constant. We will still be here in China. Living each day to honour and glorify God. And life will be good.

I wish each of you a joyous new year! Though we get to start it first. ;-)