Happy New Year 2007!

We had a good Christmas and New Year's.

We started off with our annual Happy Birthday Jesus party and went carolling in the neighbor
hood. Jamie did a great job playing guitar for us and it was nice to have Bill, our new Vietnamese friend from church, join us this year. We had some of our "old" care group friends and other friends from our old neighborhood (Kevin & Rose) and church come along.

We had a very good response this year! Our best year yet! Yeh!
We handed out tracts & goodies to our neighbors and sang carols by candlelight, then had hot chocolate and sang happy birthday to Jesus after. It was a good time!

Our "Asian kids"

Hanny (our Korean student living with us) has moved out for month into a basement suite (with her mom and gramma from Korea while they're here visiting) so it's made it a little quieter around here than we had expected.
We had Benz (Thai student now at UBC) come visit for a few days before he went back to Thailand for Christmas. Salem (a Korean friend), Benz & I went snowboarding and had a lot of fun.
Charlie (Taiwanese student at U of Toronto) called us from Italy! He said even though he chose Europe over us for Christmas, he still loved us! And he had a neat answer to prayer. He couldn't get in to see the "Last Supper" painting because you had to reserve 2 weeks in advance, so he left and prayed and asked again if there was any way he could get in. They said to wait a few minutes and they'd see, and he got in to see it! Great answer to prayer!
I got to talk to Kelly, our Korean friend, over msn which was nice cause we hadn't connected since summer. Her dad has had some health concerns so we want to remember to pray for her family.

Christmas & New Year's

On Christmas Eve, we went to church in the morning (enjoyed seeing our pastors dress up as animals in the nativity scene - esp. Pastor Chris "heehaw" as a donkey!?) and had sushi with Hanny & her mom & gramma. Then we went out to Vancouver and brought Bill's dad to his friend's annual Christmas Eve party. He still made it! (we had him transported by wheelchair taxi & Dan & Bill's brother, Steve carried him up the stairs!) Bill & his sister had a DVD made (by our friend Jon) of their dad's life (pictures when he was young and of him & Bill's mom). That turned out really well and is a great keepsake of memories.
My dad showed up on Christmas morning (surprise!). I thought he wasn't coming down for Christmas so that was a nice surprise. We had "huevos rancheros" (mexican breakfast) on Christmas morning. Matt was also in town and Teresa (our "daughter from Whistler" that lives with us) & boyfriend, Daryl, were here to exchange Christmas presents. Then we went to Bill's sister's house for Christmas dinner with Bill's family. Bill's brother & girlfriend were there from the island and Bill's aunt & uncle too. I had fun playing pool with Dan & my Dad.

This picture of the 4 of us was taken on Christmas afternoon before we left for Bill's sister's place. On Boxing Day, I made a turkey and we had a few friends over (Lorne from church, Carla & baby from the island, etc.).
Bill and I went skiing/snowboarding with Dan & some friends (Dave & Erin) the next day and we had a lot of fun (and were very sore after). Then we had Glen, our friend from Mexico, come to visit for a few days (he left on New Year's Day). New Year's Eve was spent with our friends from Nanaimo at their parents house in Langley. We played a game where you had to ask questions and try to guess your identity. Our friend, Darwin's identity, was "killer bee" and he guessed "am I an animal?" (to which we said yes, part of the animal kingdom) and "do I wear clothes?". We had fun teasing him about if you're an animal, what animal wears clothes?! New Year's Day we were invited to our Korean friend's, Jon & Grace's for yummy Korean food & a visit. I feel like I've been very lazy and haven't done much but it's been nice to not have to do much too! Saw a couple good movies "The Nativity" and "Rocky Balboa" and read a couple good books "Blue like Jazz" & "Children of the Hills". All in all over the holidays, we had a good time spent, too, with family & friends and I'm thankful for that.