Preston turned 3

For Prestons birthday this year we had a big train theme. I decided to make a ginger bread train to compliment the mini train cakes I already planned to make (thank you Renee H. for sending the cake pan out). To make the ginger bread train, I cut out the pattern from cardboard, then rolled out my ginger bread dough (recipe from this book),placed my pattern cut outs on dough then cut and baked. When the ginger bread came out of the oven I put my pattern pieces back on to make sure the edges were straight so we didn't have a crooked train. When the ginger bread was completely cooled we put it together with quick butter cream icing, and decorated with candy.

I put some crackers inside the train engine to support the round cookies. Preston sorted through the M & M's to find the red and green ones. We then used little Hershey bars for the coal cart. the poles sticking out were 3 HUGE candles for singing Happy Birthday (more like flames).

We even had a lumbar cart with chocolate sticks and pretzels. We had a lot of fun making our ginger bread train. That was the day before his birthday. Pictures of his birthday are still to come.

Holiday Baking

Besides baking a turkey for the first time I also made lots of holiday cookies. After Thanksgiving I usually make a variety of cookie doughs so that I can make batches of home made goodness throughout the month. This year I put a spin on the traditional sugar cookie and went with melted snowman cookies. I put a half marshmallow for the head and white icing for the melted body. I also made mini pumpkin cheesecakes, and ginger snaps (thanks Clair). What are some of your holiday traditions?

Holiday crafting

One of my favorite things to do over the holidays was lots of crafts with Preston. We made snowmen out of cotton balls (close as I want to get to a snowman). Behind us you can see some of the presents wrapped under the tree. We took butcher paper, and sponge painted Christmas trees onto the paper. Of course there were ornaments and lots of other little fun things we made.

Looking back over our Advent season

The month of December went by quickly. After being in the states last year for Christmas I was anxious to get back to our traditions in Asia for the holidays. Since Preston was almost 3 we had a lot of fun each night lighting our Advent candles and telling a Bible story that eventually led up to the birth of Christ.

Above is the first week of our Advent branch with ornaments. We covered creation, the fall, Noah, Babel, God's promise to Abraham, Abraham and Issac, Jacob's dream. I will try to find a picture of the full branch for later. I had fun making all of the ornaments. It was a very meaningful time for us as a family.

On Christmas day we had many friends come over. I cooked my first turkey and it turned out lovely. We had a great time celebrating the birth of our savior and look forward to similar traditions during Lent.

The end of a year

Many of you know that this has been a very difficult year for us. We headed back to Asia in Feb. spent 1 month in Singapore for some meetings. Then spent months in Thailand before finishing a 14 month long journey of living out of our suitcases to finally arrive in Hanoi. Of course there has been the difficulty of starting over in a new country. However, for me the thing that makes 2010 hard is our struggle to have another child. We have spend many hours in prayer and petition. I have cried more tears this year then I think this whole decade combined. I experienced real depression for the first time in my life. I lost the baby that took 2 years to concieve at 9 weeks along. I have seen countless friends who started this journey with me get pregnant and have babies (in which I rejoice for them). All that to say Im glad 2010 is coming to an end. My prayer and HOPE for 2011 is that where I have sowed in tears I would reap with joy. So raise you glass with me for a FRESH START IN 2011

Our New Advent Tradition

Advent is a special season of the year and we are enjoying each day of expectation and waiting for Christmas. Right now this is one of Preston's highlights of the day: After we finish cleaning up from dinner we head up to our living room and together light the advent candles. In the corner of the room opposite our Christmas tree we have our advent branch. Every day we tell a different story from the Bible as we move chronologically from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. Jamie has creatively made a series of ornaments that symbolize each of these stories. We review the previous stories with Preston and listen to him retell as much as he can from the earlier stories, then add a new story and place its ornament on the branch. Besides being great fun for all three of us, it is a good way to practice our storytelling and we are seeing some of the principles we have learned about oral communicators lived out in Preston. He learns so much through repetition and other memory devices, and the symbols on the ornaments take him right into each of the stories.

Celebrating the last days in my 20's

My birthday month has been full of exciting adventures. We went Geocaching

at the war museum in Hanoi. We also got a free grill from some friends who never used the sad little thing so we have had many nights roasting marshmallows.

In Thailand October is hot so we usually found ourselves at the pool on my birthday, but in Hanoi the weather has been very cool. We have loved wearing long sleeves and jackets. Im told we won't love it so much in Feb. when it is cold and wet.

I baked my first apple pie of the season. I don't really use a recipe so you never know how they turn out. I gave this one a 7 out of 10.

We had friends staying with us for a week, so we took them to a pottery village outside of town. Preston got to paint a rooster and was happy as could be. He named him Painter (I know the creativity runs deep)

All in all it has been a good month, but we are looking forward to spending some time in Thailand while waiting for new visas to get processed for Viet Nam.