2nd Christmas Celebration

We were invited to spend Christmas with the two sweetest girls in the U.K. (and their parents) and are sooooo thankful for the fun filled days.

On Christmas Eve, I had the joy of helping Ellie and her mom made a cute Gingerbread house.
Good job Ellie!!
We enjoyed it that night after a delicious meal of roast lamb and lots of veggies. Claire making Maple Coffee Twist for Christmas breakfast.
One of the 'requirements' for becoming a Niclasen was to understand that it would be difficult for Niclasens to start Chrismtas day without one of those yummy coffee cakes.
Rebekah tasting it the next morning - yummy!!
Omma with those two special girls on Christmas morning!

On Christmas Day we were treated to a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings and this beautiful Christmas cake that Claire made.

We had lots of fun watching the girls open their gifts - their excitement was contagious.
Ellie made me some napkin rings from play dough
- painting them each a different colour.

I will treasure them forever!

Craig helping Rebekah open one of her gifts.

Got it! Time to show it to everyone else.

Craig helping Ellie with her 'Vet Set'

Claire's parents, Doug and Hilary, invited us all to join them for Boxing Day.

We enjoyed a beautful roast beef dinner with them.

Working away at a puzzle.

Grandma reading to Rebekah.

Beautiful Snow

While we were visiting in a Senior Citizen's Home recently, one of the ladies told us that this is the most snow they have had since 1947!

Wow - we better take note and enjoy it because it might be a long time before we see this much again.
Some pictures we took on our way home from church last week.

Back to England

After the meetings in Germany were finished, we began the 12 hour trip back to England, through the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

We stopped for a snack and to fill up on gas,

right on the Belguim-Netherlands border.
Ready to board the ferry in France.On our way across the English Channel.

The driver getting rested up on ferry - ready for the last 5 hours home.

Road Trip to Germany

Last year the Euro meetings were held in Spain; this year they were in Germany. As we were looking into getting tickets, we realized it would be much cheaper to drive there, than to fly. Would we be brave enough to drive through a few countries in Europe in a 'left-handed car', on the right side of the road???

I am sure you can guess we decided to try it, and Ragnar did a fantastic job. You would never know it was his first time to do it. My experience was limited to driving around the small town where the meetings were held.

We basically were in meetings from early morning until late at night, which I didn't get pictures of (wonder why?!) but here are some from a few odds and ends throughout the week.

The meals were great - yummy bread with lots of choices of meat, cheese and jam for breakfast and supper.
Then great fellowship around the dinner table. One of the side benefits of attending these meetings, is spending time with so many friends. This year there were 8 of us who had worked in the Philippines.

On our one 'free' afternoon, we all headed to town, and then met up for coffee.

I wonder what the question was?

A walk through town - lots of beautiful buildings.

We were all excited to see the snow falling one day.

Taken from the window of our meeting room.

I took some knitting projects with me.

End result of one of the scarfs.

Our Last Day Together

The day before Ryan, Kara, Noah and Selah left for Canada, Craig showed us the Delph Locks and how they worked.

It is an amazing system.

Men vs. women - Catch Phrase