Christmas Celebrations

Our tree including the Jesse Tree Ornaments.  The poinsettia was gifted from our 4 family neighbors next door.

The weeks leading up to Christmas we use to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus are always so precious for our family.  We have our tradition of the Noel Piper Advent Calendar, nightly Christmas carol singing, and this year we also added the Jesse Tree Advent Devotional .  The first advent calendar is practically memorized by everyone come Christmas morning and it is fun to recite together.  The second advent calendar took us on a journey from Genesis to the birth of Jesus and really allowed for us all to concentrate on God's love plan for the world shown throughout the Bible.  I am sad that these days leading up to Christmas are now past, but delighted beyond measure that we have a Living Hope with whom we need to continue to share not only with our children, but with the world throughout the coming year of 2011.

This past week we enjoyed a dinner out at a pizzeria with our Caselle church family.  It may just be a yearly tradition from here on out.  We had a great time of fellowship together over some amazing pizza.  What else would you expect, this is Italy?!  That same evening (the 22nd) Luca spiked a fever while at the restaurant and then Samuel threw up most of that night.  Both were perky come the morning.  Oh, and that was the day too that I threw out my back until 24 hours later my husband got it to pop back in place with a deep massage.  Then Emma spiked a fever on Christmas Eve.  All three kids are currently battling some nasty coughs that we pray will soon pass.

Christmas day was spent here at home.  Samuel was so excited about Christmas morning he still was struggling to fall asleep at 10:30pm.  Emma was so excited she woke up at 3am and had trouble getting back to sleep.  With the disrupted sleep patterns the kids did not wake up until 7:15am, which was way better than I expected for a Christmas morning rise.  We allowed the kids to open up their stockings, then ate some cinnamon rolls for breakfast before opening presents.

Stocking Stuffer Time

Gramma Kleis' Famous Cinnamon Rolls

Must every smile include raised eyebrows?  He's too funny.

Lucky for our kids, the package from Munga and Gramma arrived on time.  There are  5 outstanding packages still somewhere in transit.  More Christmases to come...

Zhu-Zhu Pets

Thanks for the scooters, Munga and Gramma!

Thank you Great Grandpa and Great Grandma!

Noella's gifts always lean towards house upgrades, like this nightstand and lamp.

For Samuel from our neighbors

For Luca from our neighbors

For Emma from our neighbors

After opening gifts it was time to get the turkey in the oven.  Catherine came over for a Christmas lunch and we had a relaxing afternoon watching the kids playing with their new things.  For lunch we basically did a belated Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings.  Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, jello, Nano's famous yeast rolls and of course pumpkin pie made from scratch.  Yum-yum-yumminess is all we can say!!

Come late afternoon we began our Skype calls with family around the world. We enjoyed seeing and talking with our family in Iraq, Michigan and California before calling it a day.

And one funny to share real quick:  One day Luca was singing a Christmas song and this is what he sung:  "Ohhh Well, Ohhh Well, Ohh-hh Well..."  I almost didn't want to correct him with "Noel" because it was just too cute.

Out on the bike path with their new scooters

Tis the Season

Cookies Sheets.  Mixers.  Favorite Holiday Recipes.  Cinnamon.  Pumpkin.  Chocolate.  Oven Heat.  Delectable Aromas.  Sneak Test Tasting.  Giving.

I love the holidays and returning to a long list of family holiday traditional favorites.  Then combine two diverse family lists of traditional favorites and you are left wondering when you are going to have time to indulge in each classic, heart warming and must have item.  For the past week, my oven has been working overtime in anticipation of gift giving.  [And as a side note, I must say, that last year's Christmas gift of a deep freezer has never been so appreciated!  Now I can bake in advance and freeze everything without all the stress of having a marathon baking day.  Love that!]

Each year I have said, I want to put together a gift basket for our neighbors.  Our first year in this home we were struck with one illness and flu after the other, then we were in the states for a Christmas, and I guess last year I just never got my ducks in a row to make it happen.  With much determination to not let this year slip by me, we have so far successfully make and distributed gift baskets to 6 neighborhood families.  Now that I have made more room in the freezer I need to get baking again to finish off 4 more by the week's end.

Pumpkin Bread, Zucchini Bread, Brownie Crackle Top Cookies, Candle & Calendar.

My little elves.

We were all excited about the giving and pray that this simple act of love will be used to open the doors wider in to our neighbors' lives and hearts.  We also gave each family a Scripture calendar.  Well, the oven is calling my name so I better get going.  It's one way to heat up the house in these cold temps!

A Special Day

I think this will be the first ever post about my own birthday.  As the author of this blog, I have conveniently omitted all references to the day in the past for the fear of sounding narcissistic.  But this post is more to brag on my family and for family far away to feel a part of the celebrations.  So not so self-centered intensions after all.  :-)

Some years for me are filled with mostly tears (like last year) and others with complete joy and delight (this year!)  For any of you who have a December birthday, particularly the week before Christmas, know that we often get gipped...by Christmas programs, parties or other wise frenetic schedules.  However, I always had (still do) have great sympathizers in my life in, my grandma who has a birthday on the 14th and my parents whose anniversary is on the 15th.  My birthday follows on the 16th.  Often, growing up we would pick one of those 3 days to celebrate all three events.  Each year that I am away from home, I still have this whole in my heart that longs to be near my family of sympathizers and wish that we could celebrate together in person.

Happy 37th Anniversary Dad and Mom!!!  

So thankful for you and your godly example of marriage, commitment, love and selflessness that you demonstrate!  I love you and miss you both so very much!

Happy 85th Birthday Nana!!!

Always full of love, joy, generosity and a kitchen of delectable dishes...even if it was just a quesadilla, it was still the best ever!  Wishing we could be knitting together.  I love you with all my heart too!

As alluded to, last year's birthday was a teary one.  And believe me, my husband made every effort to help make this one more joyous for me.  He did a fantastic job and we had a lot of fun celebrating my 33 years of life yesterday.

After taking the kids to school, we stopped at the bar to have a cappuccino together before he had to leave for a meeting.  I spent my morning baking Christmas cookies and enjoyed the quiet of the house, apart from blaring Christmas music.  Jonathan came home with Luca around noon with a gorgeous bouquet of roses in hand.  Nice that one of his ESL students is a florist.  I think we should include flowers on our monthly ministry expenses.  hehe

A friend and neighbor of mine, Patrizia, sent home with Samuel a teddy bear filled with chocolates.  Emma quickly determined that since I was not going to sleep with the bear, that she would take care of it for me.  You will see the bear in upcoming pictures.

After lunch, Jonathan and the kids went to work making me a cake.  A pumpkin cream cheese roll!  Samuel read directions, and Luca and Emma helped some before then running off to play.  I just enjoyed taking pictures of them and seeing them work together to make a special cake for me.  The end result was super yummy!

After naps, including one for me, we ate cake and opened presents before heading out to a pizzeria for dinner.  Not having to cook would have been present enough for me.

Loved all the extra hugs, kisses and drawings from the kids too!

Thank you Munga and Gramma for all my beautiful gifts!  I am as soft as that new teddy bear in my new pj's.

The kids gave me a Josh Groban CD

And Jonathan gave me a new clock/CD player for our bedroom.

3 decine + 3 unità = 33

Thanks babe, for all you did to make my day special!

Principessa Emma.  Even the cook recognizes one and made this special heart pizza for her.

It was a fantastic day!  Not maybe the most exciting in your books, but believe me it was good!   I so appreciate all the calls, emails and messages on facebook from everyone.  I am truly blessed by all of you!

Budding Artist

These are the latest free-hand drawings by Miss Emma.  I love that she is writing on her own in Italian without any help.  For her, she learned to read and write in Italian before English, and I think it comes more naturally to her to do both in Italian.  She is getting more and more confident with her reading each week and it is very exciting to see.

These drawings over the past couple of days, however, have really taken the cake.  But we are not biased parents or anything, right?!  We all agree though that she is now a better drawer than her dad.  Samuel might be jealous that Emma's pictures have been posted, so be looking for his with his radioactive warning signs that he knows you all want to see.  More to come...

Cicada, by Emma - December 10, 2010
Translation: Cicada sings him a happy little song

Fox, by Emma - December 13, 2010

English Class Party

This past Sunday we opened up our home to our three adult ESL classes for a Christmas party.  Twelve students came and some brought their spouses or other family member to join them.  It was a joy for me to meet many for the first time and to extend a warm hand of hospitality to them.  No matter how exhausting preparing for a party can be for me, each time is SO worth it!  This time also served as a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know the students better on a personal level outside of the classroom setting.  And of course for them to relax and communicate in their mother tongue always makes for more lively conversations.

This week Jonathan and Catherine will be giving each of their students a Scripture calendar and we pray that they will take the time to read them and that the doors for spiritual conversations will open up with many.  All of these students intend to continue their English studies at Reset until June.

Nearly half of the students were able to come with many who were disappointed that they had other obligations that evening.

I am finding that Italians rarely sit down at a party.  Conversing while standing is the norm no matter how convenient a chair might be to them.

Now THAT IS a gift basket!!  Jonathan's 7:30 class all chipped in to present him with this gift.  They are so sweet!

Christmas Street Fair

I love Italy!  And one reason is because of their unique celebrations of the seasons.  Each town celebrates in their own way whether that be an annual or bi-annual "Festa".  In Caselle, there is a spring "Fiera" (Street Fair) and a Christmas one.  The streets are lined with vendors selling regional specialty foods, merchandise, hand crafted items and much more.  Last year we walked the city streets, and enjoyed the cultural experience as observers.  This year we were actually participants with our own booth.

We thought it would be an ideal opportunity for us as a church to participate and let our community know who we are and that we desire to be a blessing to them.  We had 200 calendars with a daily Scripture verse and meditation to pass out for free.  We really had no idea how this would be received but, by 12 noon we were out of calendars!  Since this was an all day event ending at dusk, we quickly adapted a plan B.  We had 200 Bibles in our center, so decided to start handing out those.  By 3pm we were out and Jonathan ran home to grab another box of 100 Bibles we had here.  We were thrilled to pass out that supply as well!  We had balloons for the children, flyers for a Christmas program being held at our mother church in Torino, simple evangelistic cards and we gave everything away apart from the shirts off our backs.

We were greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic participation of nearly everyone in our church.  We had willing hands to set up the tent and table at 7:30 am and to fill three shifts of 3 hours.  It was about 35 degrees for the high of the day, but the forecasted rain held off as we had prayed.  Jonathan was there the entire day, leaving only twice to run home and pick up supplies (which included a thermos of hot coffee to keep warm).

Our group is already talking about what we can do to improve for the spring Fiera in May.  We made a couple new contacts who said they would like to come to our service this Sunday.  One family actually lives in a palazzo on the corner of our street here in Leini and profess to be believers.  In fact they were first time visitors on Sunday to our church in Torino and heard about us there.  The other couple is friends with Antonietta and although unbelievers said they would like to come on Sunday.  Please pray they all come!

Many received these gifts with some hesitancy.  Some of our national believers were joking about wondering if the people they were talking to even spoke Italian, because when they said "Gift" the people would look at you with an expression of really, and it's free?  By definition, that is what a gift is, right?  How telling to what they must think of the God's free gift of salvation.  Nothing is "free" and everything must be earned and received through works, according to the catholicism.  Others would almost baulk and probably thought we were crazy trying to hand them a Bible.  Some refused with the excuse that they didn't know how to read or that we needed to talk to their wife as she made all those decisions regarding religious things.  Some said they already had a Bible, but when asked if they read it, they either said "sometimes" or "I have one [a Bible]".
  

Sign Reads: Free 2011 Calendar. "Freely you have received, freely give. -Jesus"  Merry Christmas from Reset.

Please be in prayer that the 500 people who took a calendar or Bible would read them.  That God's word would penetrate their hearts.  That we might continue to be a shining light in this community.  That we might see some saved through this effort.

P.S. Sorry there are no more pictures.  I was hoping to go myself with the kids but Jonathan was pretty tied up and unable to then make another trip to and from home to bring us.  I'll have to get some better pics at the spring event.

Portugal 2010

Every three years, ABWE holds an All Western European Conference with the purpose of encouragement, refreshment, training and fellowship for the missionaries.  We have been blessed to have just attended our second conference, which was held in Tavira, Portugal.  We left our house on Sunday afternoon, November 21st, to drive to Milan to then catch our flight out.  We made a connection in Lisbon and ran to catch our next flight to Faro.  With three extremely excited but exhausted children we arrived at the hotel and finally got them in to bed around 1am.

The conference did not officially begin until Monday night, so we had the day to explore Tavira and then enjoy some fine Portuguese cuisine for lunch.  Steak on a stone...let's just say, awe-some!  Monday and Thursday were our only rain-free days, so those were our sight-seeing days.  Each morning and evening we had some worship time led by the David Loftis family.  That is always such a highlight for us to worship together in English and tears inevitably came each time.  The mornings were used for training in the essential mission components of church planting, led by staff from the ABWE home office.  The afternoons were always free and usually I tried to get the two little ones to nap while Jonathan either had individual meetings with people or we would go out as a family.  In the evenings we were blessed by Jacob Reynolds, President of the Irish Bible Institute, who gave us "A Fresh Look at Jesus for our Life and Work."

The children were ministered to by a church from California that came to run a program for the kids.  Our kids had a blast singing songs, doing crafts, learning about countries around the world and searching God's word for treasures.  There were "diggin' diggin' for nuggets of gold..."

It was truly a week of great blessing for our family.  Just what we needed in a busy season of ministry.  Some other exciting things came about too that will impact and add to our future ministry and involvement, but I'll save that for another time.

We arrived home last Sunday, November 28.  We were exhausted from having had to get up at 3am to catch our flight home.  And it has taken basically the entire week to catch up on things that awaited our arrival home.

On Thanksgiving Day we had the whole afternoon and evening free.  Therefore, we drove to Huelva, Spain to see the port and the life size replicas of the three ships that Christopher Columbus sailed with when he discovered the new world.  The kids definitely enjoyed climbing and exploring the ships.

I have to leave you with a slideshow because I can't narrow pictures down.  So enjoy our week in pictures.  The captions are not coming up with the slideshow presentation so you might have to click on the slideshow to then view some of the captions I added.