This Sunday our happy little boy turned 5 months old! He continues to be a sweet and easy boy – and very, very happy! He loves smiling and laughing. He loves playing on his tummy and has started grabbing things. He doesn’t stay still long and turns himself around on his tummy and inches forward every once and awhile. He is irresistible!

Ezra is very interested in what others are doing or eating. He likes to play and be around all his siblings. Clara is teaching him to to wrestle.

So glad this precious little boy is ours!

And now for the 5-month comparison pictures. Note that I used Becca’s 7 month picture to adjust for her preemie size.

Christmas is a very special time for the Jarai Christians in Cambodia. Since Christmas is not an official holiday, it’s not celebrated in homes. The only place Christians celebrate is in the church. Many churches schedule their celebrations on different days so people (especially the youth) can attend each others’ Christmas events.

Our church began their celebration Friday night, December 21. They set up everything outside, since they knew the building wouldn’t hold everyone. There was a meal, sermon, and lots of singing. The next Saturday morning, December 22, our church met together for their morning Christmas celebration. The children’s group sang three songs I wrote for them – two of them were verses from Scripture that Josh translated with his team.

We helped the youth do a simple play. Two readers read Matthew chapters 1 & 2 while the actors preformed the story. The Jarai Bible Translation team had just finished translating those chapters in Matthew, so it was neat to see them put into immediate use.

Josh preached a sermon in Jarai from Matthew 2. Afterwards we had a meal together.

I made a pinata for the children, which they did after lunch was over. It was really fun to watch people participate (adults too). Josh and I laughed so hard our faces hurt.

A big thank you to the Pawleys who took many of these pictures, while I was up front helping.

Our family celebrated Christmas on December 24^th and 25^th. On Christmas Eve Josh took each kid out to buy Christmas presents at our local market. (Becca bought hers the week before when we were in Ban Lung.) Most of my Christmas Eve was spent baking and prepping food for the evening and the next day. Around 3PM we went out and delivered fruit and brownies to our neighbors and the families whose kids attend our Bible club. Afterwards we had our annual Christmas Eve dinner of Tacos, followed by drinking hot chocolate while we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol.

Christmas Day we had breakfast and then the kids did a Christmas play for us, directed by Becca. Afterwards the kids gave out their gifts. One of the highlights of Christmas for the kids is their buying/giving gifts. They are so excited!

Late morning, Om Puimeng came to visit with us. We had invited her for lunch. Before lunch we ate cinnamon rolls and sang Christmas carols and after lunch we played a game together.

Christmas dinner we had a buffalo roast with mashed potatoes and carrots. Afterwards the kids decorated their giant gingerbread person.

Becca performed her annual Little People Christmas Play. She quotes straight from Luke 2 and Matthew 3.

We finished out the evening with gifts from us to the kids. And of course, singing carols and lighting the Advent candles. Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely day celebrating Christmas. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll post about all our Christmas happenings. It’s a very full time of year for all the Jarai churches. and by the end of the season we’ll have attended over eight different village church events.

One special Christmas tradition we have is singing carols every evening after supper. Each night a different child gets to light and blow out the candles. Typically everyone gets to choose a carol to sing. It’s one of our favorite parts of the season.

This week Josh was gone Monday-Thursday to Phnom Penh, so we had to find some extra things to do! Monday night the kids had a big sleep-over next to the Christmas tree. (The tricky part is putting up mosquito nets.) Ezra and I slept in our own beds, but I did stay up and participate in all the party activities!

Last Sunday we had our Bible Club Christmas party. We started off with cookie decorating. Then we did singing and the Christmas story. We finished the event with three different water games. Everyone was very muddy by the time we were done! (Pictures taken by Jeff Davis.)

Today we celebrate Ezra’s 4 month birthday. Right after Ezra’s 3 month birthday, he started sleeping through the night. This has been a sweet gift to me, since the extra sleep is a great help for my daylight hours. Part of Ezra’s sleeping is due to his love for sucking his fingers…or hands. He just loves sucking on his fingers and it’s so cute so watch. He sometimes gags himself as he tries to get as many fingers as possible in his mouth. (After I wrote this post, Ezra decided to stop sleeping through the night. He’s been up at 2am every night this week.)

Ezra has started laughing and I could just listen to it all day.  He usually ends by spitting up, very much like Isaiah did when he was a baby. It’s always amusing to see what he finds funny. The other day he kept laughing when I was practicing speaking Jarai to him. When I called Josh in to try, Ezra stopped laughing and listen very intently. I guess that tells you something about my ability to speak Jarai!

Last Friday we decorated for Christmas. We all had a fun time and the kids were so excited to put everything put. Clara got the honor of putting the star on the tree.

We took the kid’s picture in front of the tree. Josh told everyone to “make a Clara face!” I’m sure you can figure out which picture that is. Clara is the master of making grumpy faces during picture taking.

Excited about Christmas!

Ezra here – Daddy has been gone this week teaching at the Pastors’ Bible School and I’m here to report what mischief has been taking place. Most things are going on as normal, but some of the older kids are being more helpful than usual. However I don’t understand what’s been going no at nights.

Monday night Anna and Mommy stayed up while everyone went to bed. From my bed, I could smell nail polish and popcorn and I heard a lot of pages being turned. Later Anna slept on Daddy’s side of the bed. In the morning I saw no evidence of that anything unusual had taken place.

Tuesday night Isaiah and Mommy stayed up late while everyone else went to bed. Again, I heard popcorn, but this time it sounded like they were buying and charging each other rent. I also heard talk of going to jail. Whatever happened it sounded like Mommy ended up with all the loot. This time Isaiah slept on Daddy’s side of the bed – guess they both escaped jail!

On Wednesday night Becca and Mommy stayed up and did the popcorn and jail thing. I think Becca took all of Mommy’s money for I heard loud weeping from her before bed. Then Becca came in and slept on Daddy’s side of the bed.

Clara has been up early with Mommy and I think this morning they put cocoa powder in the coffee. I don’t think Clara or I will be sleeping on Daddy’s side of the bed. He’ll be home soon and I think Mommy looks pretty worn out from all the extra evening excitement. I’ve been making sure she gets up at 4am to give me detailed reports of the evenings!

This is our fifth year year celebrating Cambodian Coronation Day! Delighted to have two kings this year along with our three queens.

On August 8^th (5 days before Ezra was born) we took a trip to Sea Life Bangkok Ocean World. We visited this aquarium when Clara was born last time we were in Bangkok and everyone was looking forward to going again. We were able to use Christmas money to sponsor our trip. Thankful for people’s generosity.

We had a great time seeing all the fish and other sea creatures. A highlight was the shark tunnel, where we walked through the shark, sting ray, and other large fish tank in a glass enclosed tunnel. The place where we could walk on top of the same area was a highlight as well.

What a special treat for our family, especially since we don’t have access to these kind of things in Cambodia. I love watching our children get so excited seeing everything. We love that we can visit special places while here for Ezra’s birth – it’s a special treat!