Pass the tissues please!  Not so much because we’re emotional about the holidays (yet), but because we’ve all been fighting colds this week.

Christmas… really?

As a Canadian living in France, the lead-up to Christmas has been a bit different as many of the visual cues that help you “get into the Spirit” have been missing.

• no frost or snow (temps have been between 10 & 15)
• many home decorations go up only 1-3 weeks beforehand
• friends aren’t rushing state-side for Black-Friday deals

Add to that the fact that we were away last week and it seems like just as soon as we land back home, Christmas had somehow snuck up on us. Before we could really think seriously about that however…

Kids Weekend

Eleven kids had a blast last Saturday as we hosted a games day with Franck & Marion Nowacki from Melun. Marion is the national Sunday School director and together with her husband, has ministered both in France and North America.

It’s amazing how much fun 9 boys and 2 girls can have with 5 Nerf guns a big yard & some pallets for “cover”! They enjoyed a 1/2-dozen other games before ending the evening with a bonfire and marshmallow roast.

The goal of the afternoon was to allow the kids to connect with the Nowackis through fun before they ministered to the kids the following morning, where everyone became child-like and enjoyed their team ministry. The Lord touched young and old alike… we are grateful!

a very Furry Christmas

We don’t have an Elf on a Shelf but we are sharing Christmas with a collie named Jacques. Friends Justin & Caroline Ward are spending Christmas in Texas and needed a dog-sitter; our kids were only too happy to oblige.

It’s noteworthy that Jacques is a well-travelled dog. Justin got him while he was an AIMer in Romania then returned to the USA with him before moving to France. Way to go Jacques!

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve day was fun & kind of unique! The city built a temporary ice skating rink right in front of city hall and the kids had been dying to go. We got together some friends and headed down. When temperatures are 13 (55) degrees though… it’s pretty hard to keep ice… well… hard. There were puddles all over the place and within minutes, after a few falls, the boys were rather wet!  … but they had an absolute blast!

We walked through the Christmas market and had a hot treat to warm the insides before heading back to the house.

Normally at home, my mom’s seafood chowder is on the Christmas eve menu, but given the distance, we settled for corn chowder in stead. We started it off, however, with France’s famous foie-gras on baguette with some apricot jam as an appetizer (Oh… my!) and ended the evening by watching “The Nativity Story“ a 2006 depiction of Jesus’ birth… great show!

Christmas Day

I love it that our kids are getting older. We weren’t awakened until 8:30ish! There may have been some Nerf-gun wars, some colouring & some new pyjamas.

We were able to find turkey (unlike at Thanksgiving – it’s mostly a Christmas meat) and Liz had some lime jello to make cucumber salad; so dinner was a hit!

After supper, since we’re dog-sitting a collie, what else was there to do but to watch Lassie before having a game of Apples to Apples & hitting the hay.

Newsletters by email…

In the New Year, rather than publishing our monthly – bi-monthly newsletter here on the blog, I’ll be relying on Mailchimp to publish it via email… meaning you can receive it directly in your inbox…

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Looking ahead

Next week I’ll be posting a video for you and newsletter subscribers will receive a couple of bonuses as well… but more on that next Saturday (when we’ll be in 2016… can you believe it?).

Thank you for walking this road with us! We are here because of your generosity and see God’s hand at work because of your prayers. Merry Christmas friends. God bless you today!