We had a nice Christmas here in Ulan-Ude. For Christmas Eve, Elizabeth, Shannon, and Shannon's friend Emma (from Ohio) came over. We made fondue. It was relaxing and fun. I had tried to make my grandpa's famous peanut butter candy the day before, but it didn't harden... so we used it as fondue for the fruit. Mmmm. That night we watched "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and awoke the next morning to presents under our tree and in our stockings. (Shannon and Emma stayed the night) Leif and my tradition on Christmas morning is to make Swedish pancakes. We couldn't find lingonberries, but we found a jelly that's very similar in taste. I also got to talk with my family over skype. It was so fun to hear their voices. After opening gifts, I prepared my first turkey! I was very nervous about it, and the meat thermometer was broken... and the oven temperature was about 200 degress off for the first hour!! But amazingly, by God's grace, it turned out just great.

At two o'clock, our teammates, a lady here with a radio ministry, and a Romanian family came over. Before everything started, Leif led us all in a time of communion and remembering Jesus and how He's worked in our lives. It is good to reflect upon our loving saviour. Then we feasted, sang Christmas carols, played games, and opened gifts. My gift is from Heidi, the 11-year-old on our team. As you see in the picture, it was wrapped like a pig, in honor of the upcoming "year of the pig". Isn't he darling? Inside was a wonderful basket and some homemade soap. Also pictured are the cute Romanian girls. They really liked Leif and climbed all over his lap (even though they didn't speak any English or Russian). They also like me and liked to fix my hair and have me hold their little doll. So sweet.

We feel blessed by how God takes care of us, even as we're far away from our families. We feel very loved. Oh, and our families did a great job of sending us gifts that we LOVE! Thank you! They were so fun to open.

Love to you all!