Christmas Day at the Devine Home!

 We started off the morning with a yummy breakfast... waffles, strawberry & papaya sauce, sausage and apple cider. It was fun to have our neighbor, Erika, join us for breakfast! Then Jacob read the Christmas story out of a children's Bible.

 Then we opened a few gifts... from each other and fellow missionaries. Jonathan had a great time with the wrapping paper. :)

Most of our Christmas packages haven't arrived yet. But we did receive one from Julie, our former Interface co-worker, with the Carcassonne game extension! Very fun!

 Jonathan in the middle of our Christmas mess!

 Jacob hung up our hammock for Christmas break and we all enjoyed it! Especially Jonathan!

And of course we had lots of yummy food over Christmas... Christmas cookies... as well as smoked chicken, cheesy sweet potato casserole, fresh green beans from Goroka and apple pie!

December... every day life

 We go to the market every Saturday to buy our fruits and vegetables... we usually get pineapple, papaya, bananas, sweet potato, pumpkin, cucumbers, mangos and coconuts every week. We are very thankful that the market is so close, just 5 minutes away in town.

 Enjoying the slide... just not quite sure how it works yet.

Jonathan loves dogs! And they love him too... licking his face like crazy!

 Jonathan playing with Isabell, the daughter of the lady who helps us around the house.

 Jonathan loves bath time!

Jonathan likes to be prepared for everything!

 Jacob enjoying his Christmas break!

 Jonathan loves the pool at the local hotel!

Wewak Christmas Party!

Everyone on the NTM Center and many other missionaries in town got together for a Christmas party... a good time of food, fellowship, Christmas presents, singing and thinking on all God has done!

Jonathan loves to chew on carrot sticks... good for the gums... but he doesn't actually eat much of it.

The kids did a Christmas play for us too. :)

And we thank Jack for the wonderful pictures he took at the party!

Jacob rebuilt a truck bed...

NTM's Dyna truck bed was about to fall off due to the rust factor... so Jacob tore it all off and buillt a new truck bed with quila wood, a very hard wood.

There was a lot of welding involved.... and it was tricky to weld the sides correctly so they folded down properly.

But Jacob figured it out, it was a good learning experience for him. And hopefully it will be many years before this truck bed rusts out again.

Our New Home!

 After our crates arrived in October it took us a few months to unpack boxes and put together furniture, but now we are finally settled. :) This is our living room... dining room.. and kitchen...

Our living room and dining room...

Our Kitchen.. I love the island!

 Standing in our dining room, looking at the living room and front door. And, by the way, our office is behind the bookshelves.

 Another shot of our kitchen.  :)

 Our bedroom...

 Our office/piano room....

Our office..

Jonathan's room... we still have a quite a bit of decorating to do in his room.

Our bathroom...

 So, now you have had a little tour of our home... but you must know that it doesn't always look like that... when Jonathan is awake and playing, he is quite busy!

 He loves to remove everything from the coffee table and sometimes pushes books out of the bookshelf. But now I have enough books on our shelves and he isn't able to push them. :)

But when Jonathan is awake the living room normally looks like this. :)

Jacob hard at work!

 After the generator project was finished, the ditches were all filled in, but new sidewalks needed to be poured to finish the clean up process.... in this picture Jacob isn't quite sure where the footprint came from!

 But it was easily fixed!

Jacob uses his four-wheeler so often around the center... to pour cement, smooth out the ground after ditches had been filled in, rescuing broken down riding lawnmowers and carrying tools everywhere!

Time to Decorate for Christmas!

Jonathan wonders what on earth is going on?

 Then he figures out that decorating for Christmas is a lot of fun!

Jonathan and I are putting the Christmas ornaments on the tree. Although he couldn't figure out why the ornaments didn't stay on the tree when he held them up to the tree and let go. :)

 The final product!

 The stockings were hung by the air conditioner with care...

 Finished and ready for Christmas!

Our Christmas flowers... the flowers of the Sepik!