Christmas!

 

On Christmas morning, the kids are allowed to get up and open their stockings before we wake up. But this time I forgot to tell them how early they were allowed to get up... normally I say that the earliest they can get up is 6:00 am, but instead they were up at 5:15 am! They were excited!!

Then Jacob and I opened our stockings too!

Naomi was very excited to have her own desk finally!

Telling the Christmas story

Bathrobe from Grandma and Grandpa!

Patriots shirts from Grandma and Grandpa!

K'nex from Grandma and Grandpa!

Goodbye holey hockey gloves! Roller hockey will be so much easier now!

Opening Nannie and Poppie's Christmas bags

Christmas dinner and our neighbors, Steffan and Julie.

We gave Jonathan a rack for his bike... Jacob helped him put it on.

Christmas Eve - Ready for Christmas!

 

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve service with all our co-workers. And then we came home and opened a present each and watched a Christmas movie - a family tradition.

Holidays at the Guesthouse

 

I had fun teaching Rumbi, Georgie, Simau and Fiona how to make pumpkin pies. :)

Putting up the guesthouse Christmas tree!

We had helpers too! and Jacob is fixing the ceiling because we had a water pipe burst and the ceiling plywood had to be replaced.

Everyone enjoyed the pumpkin pies so much the first time, we made more and had a little Christmas party with our Guesthouse team.

I also set up a Christmas Pop Up shop - Norwex anyone?

Projects at the Guesthouse plus

 

A new tiny vanity for a Guest house room. Before it was just a metal sink and did not look too inviting.

Jacob says it is always fun to work with such strange rainforest wood available here. 

Vanity number two. Hopefully much homier than just a metal sink. If Jacob has time he says, "someday I will cover up the pipes in the floor, but hey, these are missionaries and they are used to things being thrown together with whatever is lying around."

He has enjoyed working with James, the local Lumber yard owner. A clever guy who knows his way around the rainforest with a sawmill.

Fixing up a bunk bed for a guesthouse room

A Solar hot water heater developed a leak and destroyed a built-in closet and filled it with mold. A quick trip to James's lumber mill and a couple weeks later, things were put back together.

In the picture, you can notice some repairs left to do on the ceiling. but the Guesthouse flat is up and running again. Cosmetic fixes can be done another day...

On to more important projects; Like getting the gigantic amounts of rain we have here to go around instead of under the guesthouse.

Hopefully my wall accomplishes this without unforeseen consequences. And we hope it gets rid of the standing water and all the mosquitoes! 

Jacob has now moved back completely into guesthouse work and finished training the maintenance guys. This project was the first one the guys have done since Jacob finished training them. It was all built without his supervision, but a Tech Services guy would check in on them most days. They did a beautiful job so far. They have really developed some great skills, and it will be cool to see what they do in the future! He looks forward to some more training projects in the future.