Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Krakow !!!!

Have I mentioned how beautiful our city is during the holidays?  Krakow does an amazing job with decorations...............new stuff every year !!  Here's Arin and Kirstin out on a girl date shopping for gifts for our guys.

On one cold, windy, and rainy night, we found a local hotel that has an indoor rink.....................we had the whole place to ourselves !!!  What fun !!!

It's Christmas Eve, and mom HAS to have those stinkin' family photos......................so here's my "cooperative family" enduring the torture with promises of gift-opening to come !!!

Even grandparents had to wait paitently on skype for us to finish the photo shoot...............almost done !!!

Now, let's celebrate our Lord's birthday !!!!!

One of Arin's gifts was a manicure together!!!  She even allowed me to snag a couple of pics to remember our time together !!!

Happy New Year 2015 !!!

We did an early celebration with some of our neighbors, then returned home for our favorite family traditions of chocolate covered strawberries, cherry sprite toasts in fancy glasses, and the best fireworks show we've ever experienced................from our balcony !!!

To start of the new year off with a bang, we decided to tackle the slopes !!!  We had to get our bearings again since it's been a year, but what fun we have together enjoying this winter sport !!!

Celebrating with others!!!

We had Albert's language class over for a Christmas party together.  Both of his teachers also came and one brought her husband.  It was a great time to have them in our home, serve them, and build deeper relationships with each one!  We attempted to do a white elephant gift exchange, but the rules kind of got lost in translation, so our family had to show them how to steal a gift !!  But once they got the idea.....the game was ON !!! We thought Arin was going to ruin the whole witnessing opportunity as she threatened to steal a precious gift from Al's teacher, but in the end, she let Pani Ula keep her gift and even blessed her with some of the chocolate in her own gift.

It's a blessing to get to live life with these Poles and other foreigners attempting to tackle this Polish language with us!!!

We got to bless Lukasz with some American treats for Christmas..........Reese's Peanut Butter Bars!!!! -- his favorite sweet from Bible study nights.  Lukasz has graciously and faithfully come to Bible study early for the past month and a half to help Kaleb with his Polish and History homework.................in Polish !!!  We are so thankful for his investment in our son, and his heart is growing with knowledge of our Lord each week as he studies the Word with Al.

Kaleb had Kuba over to spend the night.  Amidst all the skylanders game time and watching Ninjago, the guys managed to help Arin make Ninja Christmas cookies !!!

Arin and Kirstin had the opportunity to meet some friends for ice skating at another outdoor rink!  And we met some new friends !!!

Our team also had a Christmas party. We don't see each other very much, so it's always a blessings to see our kids play and have fun together !!  And this White Elephant Gift Exchange is always ruthless with lots of memories made !!!!

Here's our annual Christmas Story and Caroling time together with the candles !!!

On Christmas Day, our church gathers together for a morning service to celebrate our Savior's birthday together!!  I love this tradition in Poland !!  Since most of the Polish Christmas traditions take place on the 24th, this leaves time to gather together on the 25th !!  Although we have to modify our family celebrations a little bit, we think there is no better day to be with the body of Christ than on the 25th of December.  Each year, Arin makes an extra birthday cake for Jesus to take to this service so that all the kids can have a birthday celebration together.  It's usually a small crowd, but always a blessing nonetheless !!!