Tuesday, December 23, 2008

World Wonder


Yes...AYo is here for Christmas! Before we came to my city, we met up in Delhi and then trained down to Agra to see one of the world wonders, the Taj Mahal. We had a great time and took a ton of pictures. For more info on the Taj, click HERE.


As a "Non-Indian" we had to pay an outrageous price...about 25 times the price for Indians!


These are the little booties they make foreigners wear. Indians go barefoot.


Now, we are back in my city, Christmas-ing it up. Last night, we finished up stories with the neighbors and will be able to attend several Christmas parties over the next few days. I love this time of year, and I am so thankful AYo came to spend it with me!

Friday, December 19, 2008

The Jesse Tree

I promised I would do a post that included our story set for the Jesse Tree and pictures. I actually haven't taken that many photos so far, but I plan to as we continue. Please lift us and our neighbors up. We'll be finishing the stories on December 23.



The Stories (with Scripture reference):
1. Creation: Genesis 1-2
2. Fall of Man: Genesis 3
3. Noah & the flood: Genesis 6-9
4. Tower of Babel: Genesis 11
5. God's promise to Abraham: Genesis 12:1-7; 15:1-6
6. Joseph: Genesis 37-50
7. Moses & the Exodus: Exodus 2-40
8. David made King: 1 Samuel 16:1-3; 2 Samuel 5:4; 7:1-28
9. Isaiah- The Promise of the Savior: Isaiah 53
10. Promised Savior's Birth: 1:5-24; Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 1-2; Luke 2:1-34, 39-40
12. Jesus' baptism: Luke 3:1-3; Matthew 3:7-9, 13-15
13. Assurance of salvation: John 10:14-39
14. Jesus heals a blind man: Luke 18:15-17; 31-42
15. Triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday story): Luke 19:28-44, 47-48
16. The arrest and trial of Jesus: Luke 22:39; 23:13-21; Matthew 26:36, 45-67; 27:1-2. 11-14, 24-26
17. Jesus' execution: Luke 23:32-56
18. Alive! (Resurrection story): Luke 24:1-7. 36-47; Matthew 28: 19-20; Acts 1:8-11

A neighbor putting the ornament on the tree...
Friends, listening to the story...
We do a mini discussion time at the end about what we learned and what we liked about the story.
Cute little neighbor.

Monday, December 15, 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

While Mama was visiting me over here in South Asia, we decorated for Christmas. So...I thought I'd give you a peek at our cute little flat while participating in this bloggy Tour of Homes:

BooMamaChristmasTour

The view of the living room all decked out. Here, stars in windows or on porches show others that you celebrate Christmas. Don't you just love our bright South Asian home?


Here is our cute little tree. Again, this year we borrowed the tree from a family that is currently out of town. Most of the ornaments are a beautiful papier mache that is famous in a particular part of my country. Others are made from scrapbooking papers or sent from home.


This is our stairway...with hand-me-down stockings and a felt garland that I made. The tutorial is HERE at Anna Maria Horner's Web site. It's absolutely adorable!


I made this wreath from an embroidery hoop and scraps of fabric leftover from a cute Christmas tote I made for Mama. The ornament in the middle was sent over by Reba's mom.


This miniature nativity set was given to me by friends before I left to come to South Asia. It has been very helpful in explaining what Christmas is all about to neighbors and friends.


Here is our table. The tablecloth and napkins were bought at a fabulous department store here, and the napkin rings are made of pretty ribbon. The green center cloth is a silk scarf, and the little trees are from my favorite stationary store.


Finally here is our Jesse Tree. It's actually a bangle bracelet tree that we've converted to serve as the Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree is a unique way to celebrate Advent through stories. Creation until the Messiah. We've been telling the stories every night in December to neighbors and friends. We made the ornaments, and each represents the story for the night. If you haven't heard of the Jesse Tree, please click on the following links for good explanations and sample story sets. One, Two and Three


We didn't follow any of these story sets in the links above, but I will do a separate post with our story set and pictures from our nightly get-togethers with neighbors.

That does it for the tour! I hope you enjoyed our South Asian Christmas decor!

Monday, December 8, 2008

"She's too young to be your mother."


For the whole 9 days that Mama was here, our national friends could not get over how young she is and how much we "act like sisters or friends instead of mother and daughter." How proud I was to introduce my sweet mama to all my friends here! We had a quick but amazing 9 days, and I am so proud of her for tackling the 30 hour journey.

We missed Daddy and Blake and all the family, but we were glad to have a little bit of "girl time" at the same time. We had a great Thanksgiving and just an all-around good time. Here are some pics from the visit. Click to make the image larger, if you wish. (Some of the pics got cropped oddly in the mosaic, but just know Mama is there in all of them.)

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Saturday Signs

Week 8: Which jams are good for health? Grape?

Monday, December 1, 2008