Our church has their Christmas Eve and Day service on the 24th and 25th. The evening service went from 6:30 to 10pm, starting with a meal. The service consist of preaching and many different groups getting up to sing.

Christmas Day the service went from 8:30 to 11:30, with a lunch at the end. This year both Becca and Isaiah were in the Christmas pageant, I figured if we were directing I could ask for our kids to be included. Isaiah was a sheep and Becca was an angel. There are two readers and the rest just act. The readings were taken from Matthew and Luke.

The two kids groups and adult groups sang different Bible verse songs I’ve put to music. Genesis 1:2-3. Matthew 11: 28-30. Matthew 9:12-13b. Matthew 1: 23. Our kids sang as well, but since they are taller they are in the back.

Josh preached at the morning service. (Notice Josh behind the boys.)

Afterwards we enjoyed a great lunch and taking lots of photos with friends: children’s teachers & ladies teachers.

It was a good day. We came back and rested in the afternoon. Then we had our Khmer Bible Study in the evening. Because of all the services, we moved our family Christmas celebrations to the 26th and 27th.

December 2nd we had our Christmas decorating night. It was a very exciting night, as this year all 6 kids were putting ornaments on the tree. I divide all the ornaments up beforehand, so each child gets a bag with his/her own ornaments. It keeps it from turning into a grab-for-all. Our tree is filling up with homemade ornaments our kids make every year – it’s so full of personality. This was Micah’s first year to put the star on the tree. He wasn’t sure what to do at first.

We started our Christmas Countdown Calendar two weeks before our Christmas. This week we’ve been making Christmas cookies – one day to make all the dough and one day to cut out and bake all the cookies. 7 batches of cookie dough. 3 types of cookies. We’ll decorate them later this week. This was the first year Ezra rolled out and cut out his own cookies. When you have 6 kids working on cookies, you give up the idea of having perfectly cut cookies. We’ve got some very thick cookies and some very strange looking cookies, and they will all taste great! (Micah spent his time eating his cookie dough…but he was content!)

Wednesday we made wrapping paper. Greet feet-prints and red handprints. 10 large sheets. It’s a very exciting time with 6 sets of green feet running around. We had to spend a little time scrubbing the floor where feet missed the paper.

During the Advent season we sing Christmas carols and songs every night. Each kid gets a turn to light the candles, and every night each person gets to choose a song – that’s 8 songs a night. Four of our kids can accompany a few songs each on the piano, so if those songs are chosen they get to play the piano while we sing. Last night we had a concert with all the songs everyone knows how to play. It took over an hour. We got out the other percussion instruments, so everyone could play along or sing. It was loud. It was chaotic at points. It’s a fun a memory.

On October 29, Isaiah brought in this very bright, very hairy caterpillar. Those hairs sting and cause itching, so beware! We decided to see if we could hatch it to see what ind of moth it would be. Five days later (Nov. 4) it made a most unusual cocoon out of its hairs. It was as though it had made a mesh bag to hatch in, very unlike a normal butterfly cocoon.

Five day after it entered the cocoon phase, the moth appeared. It wasn’t as amazing as we expected, based on its bright colors as a caterpillar. It was really fun to discover and observe.

Last week Becca turned 13 – we have a teenager in our home now! Becca started the day with a bike ride with Josh and they rode all the way to Saom Kaning Village. I was busy all morning preparing lunch and the birthday dinner meal – lasagne, salad, & garlic bread. I ended up enlisting the other kids to help me. We had to grate a lot of cheese!

Becca designed her cake the day before. All the brown frosting is peanut butter frosting. We had a lovely dinner meal, then did gifts, then had cake, and then watched a slide show reviewing Becca’s past 13 years of life.

Becca’s countdown calendar included a Mother/daughter night away in Ban Lung at a hotel the weekend before her birthday. We played lots of games, ate dinner and breakfast out, gave Becca a make-over, drank special drinks twice, and stayed up until midnight watching Sense and Sensibility. We had a fun time and Josh and the other survived at home without us.

We’re thankful for our first-born daughter, Becca. And excited about starting these teenage years with her.