Christmas is over, at least in the West. The day after Christmas shouldn’t be a downer. It should be just as joyful as the day before Christmas! The Messiah has come, he is here, our God is with us, Emmanuel!
One thing we really like about living in Ukraine is that everyone here celebrates Christmas on January 7th. That means we get Christmas twice and December 25th is just the start of a 2 week-long celebration of the birth of Jesus!
I got a nice scarf and a mug!
So how was your Christmas? I received a few nice gifts from family and friends. It seems that gift certificates on Amazon are especially popular this year. I’m grateful for that because I like to read and e-books
The view from our apartment
We had a white Christmas, sort of. It was cold and snowy right up until Christmas day. On Christmas day it finally warmed up to above freezing and by the end of the day most of the snow had melted. It was still nice to see the white stuff on Christmas morning.
Some “Bear Claws” my sister made for Christmas brunch
My sister (Rachel) and her family came down from Kiev to celebrate with us. She continues the tradition my mom started by baking “Bear Claws” for Christmas brunch. I ate way too many in addition to all the other sweets!
We even got a few gifts from family in the US
The kids got some cute gifts from family. Gifts like these are even more precious when they come from across the ocean!
My sister Rachel and her husband Mike with the kids
It was great to spend time with Gustafsons. I know that many missionaries don’t have the luxury of having family in the same country. Rachel and her family live about 6 hours north of us in Kiev. We also have Christina’s parents who live about a 5 minute walk from our place!
We enjoyed celebrating Jonathon’s first Christmas with him
After Christmas dinner we got together with our fellow ABWE missionaries here in Odessa for dessert and a gift exchange. We also sang some carols and I read my new Christmas poem. In all it was a good day. We remembered the birth of our Savior and celebrated the coming of the Messiah with family and friends.
P.S.
I also want to convey my thanks to everyone who downloaded my e-book “Church, Tradition and Scripture” over Christmas weekend. There were nearly 1,000 downloads!
P.S.S.
We didn’t manage to take a family picture with all the Christmas celebrations going on. I’ll try to get one out after New Years.
