Christmas time is here,
happiness and cheer.
fun for all that children call
their favorite time of year.

after listening to my one Christmas cd about 4000 times, i broke down and bought "a charlie brown Christmas." it's wonderful. i know Christmas is technically over, but it doesn't really feel like i got my fair share of the holiday since we only got the 1 day off and had to work the rest of the week. so elizabeth and i are extending Christmas into this coming week which is our winter vacation! besides making and decorating sugar cookies, i'm not sure what that will entail -but i do know that my Christmas decorations are staying out.

here are a few pictures of what Christmas looked like here in korea.


"ho ho ho, merry Christmas!" here i am demonstrating the santa beards our kids got to make at the Christmas party.


andy tries to convince santa that he really has been a good boy all year. (except for that one time he tried to flush his sister's barbie doll's head down the toilet...)


jenny and jessy wait for their turn with santa.


near michael's apartment, we found some wild lands to explore. it was great fun. we walked back carrying 2 huge branches which michael wanted to use in his decorating. we got a funny look from the apartment attendant as we struggled to get them into the elevator. =)


we went to an italian place for Christmas dinner. elizabeth and michael were quite happy at the prospect of calzone and pizza.


seth, brittn, and i were mostly excited about the grape fanta.

i hope you all had a wonderful Christmas whether you were at home or on the other side of the world. don't forget to bring Christmas with you throughout the year when stores don't stock eggnog and the radio doesn't play "chestnuts roasting on an open fire." there is still joy for the world.

peace and love.

being away from home over Christmas has been really hard. but there are some things that made it just a little bit easier (or harder -elizabeth and i couldn't decide if familiar things made it harder or easier to cope). at home, baking is a big part of the holidays...here, it's a harder since we don't have an oven or a fred meyer to run to for last minute ingredients. but elizabeth and i were bound and determined to do our best, so one night we wrote out our grocery list and set out for itaewon, (a kind of foreigner's haven). after searching a couple different foreign food markets, we went home victorious (and broke).


evaporated milk -$2.50


chocolate -$2.50


marshmallows -$3.00


duncan hines frosting -$5.50


"sugar powder" (aka powdered sugar) -$3.00


sprinkles!! -$3.50


fudge, chex muddy buddies, and sugar cookies -priceless!

sunshine on my shoulder...

the sun is shining into my window...getting in my eyes and making it hard to see my computer screen. (ironic, yes?) do i mind? most definitely not. far from minding it, i'm soaking it in...literally. my poor white skin can't get enough and the warmth on my face is one of the best feelings in the world. besides human touch -that of our families, friends, and lovers -i think the sun's touch has the biggest impact on us. it does on me at least.

elizabeth and i were out walking yesterday in search of the post office, and at a few points we found ourselves "on the sunny side of the street." it was freezing, but the sunshine's rays pierced the cold with no problem and made our red noses feel like they could live another day. sunshine just makes me happy. i think that's one reason why the people walking around big cities seem to be more sullen and depressed. the sun rarely makes it down to the streets! and we rarely remember to look up.

over the past few days elizabeth and i have been realizing how important the bare necessities are to our happiness. if we're cold -we're not happy. if we're hungry -we're not happy. if we're warm -we're happy. if we're full of good food -we're happy. if we're warm AND full of good food -wow, we're about the happiest girls on earth. of course happiness is a fleeting feeling, and we have joy through both cold and hunger...but it's nice to feel happy. God doesn't leave us cold and hungry, either physically or spiritually. yesterday especially, traipsing through the cold with elizabeth at my side, i had reason after reason to feel warm and full -both inside and out. thank you God.

good morning! i've decided it's high time you saw pictures of who i spend the majority of my time with -my kids.



here are the little ones -my kitten class. (leo, chris, wain, rob, cindy, angel, kelly, and owen)

singing "baby beluga" at the top of their lungs.


cindy thinks chris is about the funniest thing in the world.


owen basks in the glory of rice cakes. (at the november birthday party)


cindy isn't quite as excited as owen...after all, this is pizza, not rice cakes.


little angel.


i love owen.


being the crazy kids they are.

the not-as-little-ones...piglet class. (nick, jonathan, and kevin)


off in their own world (like normal).


they love science (this is just before the water spilled all over the floor and kevin's jeans).

my starfish class. (jessy, justin, judy, jenny, june, mason, edith, and andy)

lunch time!


june, edith, and andy on our field trip to the aquarium.


jessy is so cute.


edith, judy, and jennie -they were smiling fantastically until they saw the camera.


june -a cute handful.


this is classic andy-justin-mason.

my seal class. (alice, lisa, nancy, caleb, brian, willy, dominic, and rachel)


semi-lined up after class.


alice and lisa writing me love notes on the board before class.


nancy and lisa (in the pig tails i did for her...hmmm, i may need to work on my height?)


"willy willy willy" and brian's big smile.


caleb, dominic and classic rachel.

my oldest elementary class -SA.

after the girls decorated the board for my birthday. (you probably can't tell, but i'm fearing for the life of my camera as kevin and john fight over who gets to take the picture)


introducing our fellow teachers to the goodness of chicken quesadillas.


yes, i spend alot of time with my kids. but in actuality i spend the majority of my time -at school, at home, at coffee shops, etc. -with this kid. she's my favorite. =)

Christmas time is here. it comes in korea, too...surprise surprise. but Christmas isn't shown physically in the same ways here. while the malls are decorated with the traditional trees and lights, the rest of the city hasn't changed much. strings of red, green, and yellow lights don't outline every house and wreaths don't grace the doors i walk by on my way to school. i haven't seen nativity scenes out in front of churches -in fact i haven't seen a single mary, joseph or baby Jesus anywhere. of course the decorations aren't what Christmas is about -but they do help to bring about a certain feeling of "cheer and goodwill." it's a little weird for commercial areas to be the only places that feel like "Christmas."

but i no longer have to go to the mall to feel the Christmas spirit! i just spent the last couple of hours listening to Christmas songs and decorating my house with anything and everything "Christmasy" i could find. i even made a nativity scene with a few toilet paper rolls and some teabags and ribbon (i can't claim the idea since it came from a product of my dad's early years -but he didn't use tea bags!). it feels just about right. now i just need company to fill every crack and crevice with warmth and laughter. so feel free to stop by sometime this Christmas season (or any time of the year). the Christmas music will be playing and i'll have egg nog and peanut butter balls waiting.




peace and joy to you.

sometimes i want to be a child again more than anything else in the world -to wake up to my dad cooking breakfast every morning, look forward to peanut butter and jelly every lunch (ok, i still do that), and to be tucked in every night.

there was a book my mom and dad used to read to my brother and me when we were little. well there were alot of books -but one in particular is ingrained in my memory -"a day at the park." it's incredibly simple -a sister and brother leave the house with their mom for a day at the park . with a small hand clasped in her right hand, and another in her left, the mom leads her children out the door, down the sidewalk, across several streets, until they come to the park. the brother and sister (they probably had names, but they aren't coming to me) play all afternoon and after splashing in a water fountain, walk home with towels wrapped tightly around their wet swimsuits. when they get home, the kids change into dry clothes and the mom makes hot tomato soup and warm bread with butter. they have cold ice cream for dessert. then they get into warm pajamas and the dad reads them a bedtime story. after the story, the girl is worried that she won't be able to sleep, but her dad assures her that she will fall asleep and dream about her wonderful day at the park. and she does.

it's that simple.

my life was like that a few years ago (ok, so more like a few decades ago...). it was wonderful. but i didn't realize it at the time. i knew life was good, but i didn't stop to think about it. i miss playing with my brother -taking care of him back when i was a couple heads taller than him. we've traded places in that respect, but we still take care of each other. alot has changed since we were little -we don't make massive marble runs, record christian radio shows, or play "kaleb sees you, you're dead." but we still play games and he still hates losing, and we still jump on the trampoline and sing "i'm the winner under the apple tree." we've also matured a bit, therefore we do more mature things -like talk about religion and cs lewis, share our latest music finds, drink black coffee (ok, mine's more like slightly brown milk), and play hide and seek when we go camping. i guess it's an ok trade -just a bit more complicated.

now, no matter how much i miss being a child, i'm going to do a very adult thing and go to bed because i'm tired. if my dad was here, i know he would pray with me and assure me that i would fall asleep and dream of my wonderful day at...school?

i just got back from a service at unnori community church, here in seoul. linda, one of the korean teachers at my school, attends there and she told us they hold english services for foreigners. i went expecting to sing familiar praise songs, study a familiar bible passage, etc. but i found something a little different. while i was hurriedly walking (i was a few minutes late) up to the 5th floor of the building i had been told (or so i thought), i heard singing and thought surely i was in the right place. as i got to the top of the stairs, i realized i couldn't understand what the people were singing, but it was too late to turn around. yep, i was at a korean service! i stopped for a second at the door and a lady smiled and said something i couldn't understand -but i could understand the smile, and that was all i needed. as i walked into the big room, i can't describe it -but i felt at home. there wasn't another foreigner in the room, and i'm sure everyone thought i was lost, but for one of the first times in korea, i didn't feel out of place. i didn't know the song everyone was singing, but i knew the God they were singing to. i couldn't understand the prayers they were praying, but i knew Who they were praying to. i didn't knew the passage of Scripture they were studying, but i knew the God who inspired the Scripture. (ok, actually i think i figured out that they were looking at galations 2:11-21 by a process of elimination -there are only so many 2:11-21 passages that work in the new testament. ) it was one of the most beautiful times i've ever experienced. i saw God in a new way -among people i probably have nothing in common other than the fact that we serve the same God. it was beautiful.

next time i think i'll try out the english service, but i'm glad i got "lost" and found God in a korean service today.

there's much more to tell you about -thanksgiving last weekend, the kids birthday party the other day, etc. but i'm attempting to make peanut butter cookies in my toaster oven, and i already burned a batch while writing this, so i should stop multi-tasking. (i also just realized i forgot to put the eggs in my batter -oh well, i guess i'll find out how important eggs are in peanut butter cookies. =))

thank you so much for your prayers -God is near. love and peace.