Merry 2nd Day of Christmas!!!!

Today is officially the 2nd Day of Christmas here in Poland. Today has been fun as well. We spent the morning sleeping in and then headed over to our friends' Jason & Anna to spend an evening with them. It was great! We had a WONDERFUL Italian dinner and homemade Tiramisu for dessert. :) Then we sat around, played with Emi, the baby and played Cranium for a while. Lots of good fun. I dread the day we'll have to say bye to our friends...they've become like family to us. But we at least have a few more months before we have to think about that. Now, we'll just enjoy the candy canes & hershey kisses that Jason sent home with us!!! :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

It's been a good one so far! :) Granted, not being at home with the fam is always tough...even more so at Christmas, but we've been very blessed despite the tough stuff. Yesterday we spent a WONDERFUL day/evening with Wojtek, Aga, Dawidek, Wojtek's dad - Bogoslaw (Bogo-suave), and Aga's mom & sister - Bozena & Basia. It was wonderful. Though she doesn't speak a word of English Bozena & I cooked in the kitchen, Basia helped me ice cookies, while Aga took care of the baby, Bogoslaw watched TV and Scott and Wojtek did...I'm not sure what they did. ;) Dinner started at 5pm with prayer, sharing Christmas "wafers" and giving Christmas wishes to one another. A beautiful tradition that we'll be adopting. We started the meal with hot beet root soup with mushroom-filled pasta. Then tore into the 11 other dishes that were prepared. :) Scott tried traditional Christmas carp and herring. After dinner we opened gifts from one another and had dessert. :)

Scott and I came home around 11pm and then had Christmas with my family! It was SO MUCH FUN! They gathered around the tree in their traditional circle and sat us (the computer) between two of them so we could both have a turn in opening gifts. :) It wasn't EXACTLY like being home...but pretty darn close! What a blessing! :) Thanks guys...you made Christmas away from home much easier for us. :) NEXT YEAR.....PARTY!!!!!!

We finally went to bed around 2:30 this morning and slept in until 11:00am. :) Then we opened gifts from one another. :) After gifts I made a nice Christmas breakfast: Scrambled eggs, fried ham, and biscuits. YUUUUMMM!!!

I suspect that any moment now, we'll be opening gifts with Scott's family. Hopefully again in the circle! That was so much fun! :)

Today our plans are to stay home, play with our new toys, and watch movies! :) A good day. Tomorrow we'll be spending the 2nd day of Christmas with Jason & his family. :)

It's been a good one...but I'm definitely ready to spend the next one at home. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!! Please take today to remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas! "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

May you be blessed with the closeness of family and may you feel the love of Jesus Christ and cling to the hope that we have in Him. Glory to God in the Highest!!

Frosty Wroclaw

Saturday, we went out shopping for each other's Christmas gifts. I left earlier than Scott that morning and when I went outside I immediately called Scott to tell him to bring the camera when he came out. It was BEAUTIFUL! The night before we were over at a friends' house and left around 10:30pm. It was very cold, but REALLY foggy that night. She began to tell us about a weather condition that Wroclaw experiences in the winter...freezing fog. As soon as she told us about it, I felt a very very cold mist hitting my face. I looked up toward a street light and there were tiny tiny ice crystals everywhere. It looked like the air was full of glitter! The next morning when I went out, there was absolutely no snow, but all of the trees were covered white with frost! It was beautiful! I'll let Scott's pictures speak for themselves.

Dinner with Family :)

The other night we went over to the house of one of our youth's parents. Gosia & Artur. Michał is their son. :) We LOVE this family. We loved getting to know them last year, and this year...they have officially become family to us. "Rodzinki" is the word. Actually, while we were there Gosia made a traditional Polish Christmas dessert for us and she was having us guess the ingredients. I was trying to say them in Polish and one of the ingredients were raisins. The word for raisin is "rodzynki"...one letter difference. So, I said the word for family instead of raisin. They got a kick out of it and asked me to repeat it over and over before they told me what I was really saying, but they liked hearing it. :) And they are...they are definitely family. Anyway, we always LOVE when Gosia & Artur invite us over...Gosia makes some GOOOOD pierogi! That night she made traditional Christmas pierogi for us. Dumplings filled with sour cabbage & mushrooms. Very Polish. We also had hot barszcz (beet root soup) to drink and a nice salad to go along with it. :) Plus, poppy seed & raisin dessert. :) We stayed there for about 4 hours...they practiced their English, we practiced our Polish. :) It was a pretty great evening. :)

Ears

Yesterday I was walking down the street and I thought my ears were going to fall off. It's cold here.

Christmas Cafe

A week ago tomorrow, we had a "Christmas Cafe." I've not written about it yet because I've been waiting on pictures and a video. Well, I got the video today! Thanks Ivy! :) That Thursday started out to be quite a day! On Thursdays we have classes with our dear American friend & professor. He has an 8am class every Thursday and this class wears us out every week! There are only 7 or 8 students in the class but each (minus one sweet, quiet gal) is VERY opinionated...even at 8am in the morning! Well, this week the student's presentation was on the topic of "Fate & Destiny." With this class inparticular, the student who is presenting usually starts off by going around the room and asking each individual person their opinion about something. This week the question to start was "What is your opinion about destiny & fate...do you believe in it....etc etc." So we went around the classroom and each gave his or her opinion. This gave Scott and myself a great opportunity to openly tell the classroom that we both believed in a very very personal and loving God who is very much still working in our lives but who gives us the free will to make our own decisions...etc etc. :) Later on during the class we were split up into groups and given topics such as "horoscopes, I Ching, tarrot cards." I was in a group with two great ladies...our topic was "terrot cards." Again, I had the chance to give my opinion, they gave theirs, and then one of the girls returned to the opening question on fate & destiny and asked me a few questions about my answer to that question. For example..."You say that God is active in your life, but you also say that He gives you free will...how is that possible?" GRAND question at 8:00 in the morning...but thankfully as it tells us in the book of Matthew when Jesus is speaking to his disciples, He says "...do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Matt 10:19-20) Now, I understand that in this passage Jesus is speaking about being thrown in jail & whatnot...BUT I've known this promise to be true in many situations...and this 8am class happened to be one of them. I went on sharing specific examples of how the Lord works in my life from a day to day basis and she asked more difficult questions and somehow I ended up sharing a bit of testimony about my brother and that one of the differences in being a Christian is that when terrible situations, unpredictable situations, unstoppable situations befall us...I still have a joy that overpowers all of my sorrow. Though it doesn't take away our pain...I can still find joy in my Father...I have, I do, and I will. When the presenter cut us off, my student had tears in her eyes. I had nothing to do with it, praise the Lord. :) It's like they soaked up every word I said...at 8am! I KNOW I had nothing to do with that. I'm suprised that I was even able to say their names at 8 in the morning. haha

So....that was a good class. I even noticed that Scott was chatting with his partner (another VERY opinionated, proclaimed athiest) about Protestants, what we're doing here, and how he "admired" the joy that Protestants seem to have. Makes me mad at myself for sometimes "not feeling like" going to that class because it's so early.

Now! The concert that night....SO FUN! Here's a pic of our friend Jason at the concert. Really, this guy is one of our closest friends here and he and his family are very very dear to us. It was such a blessing to have so much fun with him. Here he is with a Christmas gift that my parents sent him in the mail...he was very very very thankful.

Jason LOVES Oreos. :) (That's Scott trying to steal them from him!) This concert also allowed several students to come to our church who had never been there before. They all LOVED the atmosphere and some even chatted with Wojtek (pastor) and Bev (our friend & Sunday morning translator) about the church services. We're hoping to see some of them in church soon! :) (This is me & one of my favorite students, "Matt"...he is ALWAYS smiling and so happy to talk to Scott & me. We were very suprised to see him show up at the church to attend our coffeehouse. :) Not real sure what he's doing in this picture though. haha

So....here are a couple of AWESOME videos from the concert. The first one is of me & Jason and Scott singing "The Peace Carol." Jason wanted to sing this song...he remembered it from the Muppet Christmas with John Denver so we practiced for a couple weeks and here's the result! The second one is an "encore" for two late students fcoming in who missed the first go at it....I like the second one. :) Enjoy!

Christmas Concert

Christmas Concert...My favorite

IFA Christmas Party

On Saturday, December 8th our institute had its
annual Christmas party for the English students (well...Jason & Elaine started this tradition last year). Anyway, we've looked forward to this both years and the students had a great time! We had about 30 attend this year!

Students sat around, mingled with one another and sang Christmas carols.





They sampled Elaine's British Puddings and tried lots of different types of cookies (An American Cookie Exchange).

All in all it was a pretty fun night. :)

Two Years!

Thank you so so much for your warm anniversary wishes! :) Yesterday was a good day...a day of classes, carol singing, & good food. However, this time instead of ME writing about it...let me lead you to another link. I think Scott said it all this time. ;) I am a pretty blessed gal. http://thoughtsfromscott.blogspot.com

A Night at the Opera

So this has been a REALLY busy week for us...but right in the middle of it we had the chance to take a night "off" and spend it in the city center. Our 2nd Year Anniversary is this Monday (YAY!) so as an early Anniversary gift we went to see "The Nutcracker" at the Wroclaw Opera. VERY CUTE! I'd never seen it before...Scott had seen it when he was little, but could only remember the mice and a giant swing. :) I think the best part for me was actually getting to go inside the opera building. The ballet was really cute, but there wasn't a live orchestra. However, it was still loads of fun!

After the show was over we headed into the city center for some dessert. I had a glass of hot apple cider and some sort of chocolate cake (never a bad choice!). :) Then we walked around bit more and took a couple of pictures before heading home for the night. Really it was a perfect night out! :) And a very much needed break!

It's Been a While

So, we have LOADS of updates for you guys! A lot of really great things have been happening here! :) This week has been a really crazy & busy week for us...thus the lack o' blog the past couple weeks. Rest assuredly though...we have nothing but good news to report! :)

First, I'll post a couple pics from the past English Club...

This first one is a pic of 2nd year student-Dorothy (who speaks with an American English Accent!), our ever faithful attendee - Peter, and Peter's friend-Damian. We've spent a lot of time with Damian the past couple weeks. He is a very sweet guy, a very faithful believer. Damian attends one of the Catholic churches here in the city that is actually very active in reaching students! Scott and I have even been to a mass in this church geared towards students and we were very impressed with the atmosphere. :) Anyway, Damian was very curious about our church so he attended the service with us last week and loved it. :) However, of course in no way would we expect him to leave his church and I'm pretty sure he's very happy where he's at. Anyway, that's not really why we're here is it? Obviously we're not here to pull faithful Catholic believers away from a church in which they're already perfectly suited. Praise the Lord for Catholic churches where great things are happening! ;)

This next photo is of the girls who attended that night also...a typical English Club night:

Some pretty sweet gals, I'd say! The one on the left is Marta. She and I have become quite keen on one another lately. She and I have a common love...the piano. She is studying two faculties (or majors): English at our university and she studies piano at the Musical Academy here in Wroclaw. (She also studies Kung Fu...and she's quite good at it!) She's a first year student there...but she's brilliant, I'm sure. I invited her to attend an American music concert one night a couple weeks ago. So we went and one of her friends and her professor ended up playing in the concert. :) She invited me to another piano concert the other night...unfortunately I didn't read her invite until it was too late. :( Anyway, she knows how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the piano. There are two material things that I just really really really want. My own dog and a piano. Aaahhh...if I only had one. I would sit and play it for hours I think. When I attended these American music concerts last month I specifically remember one night Scott and I went. One of the American composers we met, we had the opportunity to hear him play. This guy was my favorite. I can't remember his name at the moment...but I remember watching him play and enjoying every second. As ridiculous as it sounds it brought tears to my eyes watching him. I could just tell that he loved it. Not tears because he was so great at it.... but because I want to be able to do that SO badly. Really. It's my dream to be able to just sit down at a piano and play and sing whatever I want. Compose my own spin on songs. Play like Harry Connick (HA! Fat chance, but wouldn't it be great?). Really sometimes my heart just hurts whenver I watch someone play really well. Every week I have the opportunity to watch, Peter, our jazz pianist in our church, play the piano (brilliantly) during the service. Sometimes after the service I'll race to the piano just for a chance to get my fingers on the keys and figure out a little something. Oh well...someday maybe. :)

So, last Monday I had my Ladies' Gift Exchange Party. Loads of fun! Here are a couple pics from it...

The first pic is of students Tuba & Malvina. Again, sweet sweet gals. Tuba is not Polish...she is one of our exchange students from Turkey. Granted, she doesn't celebrate Christmas I think she still had a great time. :) Tuba is a good friend and is very precious to us!

In the second: (L-R) Maggie, Magda, Karolina, & her roommate Marta. Karolina & I became good friends last year through our love of cooking. She's is one heck of a cook! Last year she taught me how to make "Pierogi Ruskie" (Pierogi w/ Potatoes & Cheese). I'm actually planning on heading over to her place on Sunday for a cooking date. Cook some dinner, watch some girlie movies over there. :)

Did I ever mention our night at the "Pride & Predjudice Ball?" Probably not. Anyway, another one of our students & close friends: Konrad is a dancer and his dance group has 2-3 "Balls" a year where they teach different types of dances. They're always held at our church because it's a great venue for it. So here a couple pics from it:

This picture is of Elaine & me. Elaine is probably one of our best friends here. For you who may not know her, she is the reason we are in the University here. She is one of the English professors and she originally invited us in to her classes as "Native Speakers" to give her students some extra help. We absolutely adore Elaine. My parents had the pleasure of meeting her when they were here. It will be a sad sad day when we have to leave her in July. :( She's become a very big part of our lives. Anyway....this ball was also lots & lots of fun. :) We're always dog tired when we leave, however. We definitely get our exercise from it!

So, that's probably enough for now! It's past our bedtime here! BUT...maybe tomorrow another bit of blogging. :) There is still MUCH more to update you on. :)

An Update!

Hey all! So as far as legal issues go...right now, we are just waiting. A very trustworthy & capable friend went to this "big important office" on our behalf on Monday. We all prayed together before she left and just gave the situation to the Lord. She went to the office and gave them all of our paperwork (which was a lot!) and they took it with no questions. SO...that's a good thing! They could have looked at our passports said "They've been here too long...send them back now!" but nothing was said. So hopefully what will happen now is that in about 40 days we'll receive our temporary residence cards in the mail. Also, we're expecting the police to come by our flat just to make sure that we are, in fact living here and are who we say we are.

If we were to start getting phone calls and they started asking questions, then we might worry...but for now we just wait and enjoy the holiday season. :)