We had a fun Christmas. My brother and his wife arrived Saturday night. They found out when they arrived in Budapest that the train workers were on strike and the trains weren't running. Fortunately, there are 22 million Romanians in the country and about that many outside the country working and so many of those 22 million come home for Christmas. Go and Pam couldn't find a bus they could get on, they were all full so my brother started looking for cars with Romanian tags and found a bunch so they hithced a ride into Romania and caught a train from Arad to Lugoj and arrived at midnight. It was bumper to bumper traffic from Budapest to the Romanian border.
Sunday night, 12/21, we had our Christmas banquet at church. Tuesday we had Zach's 10th birthday and that night we went caroling. We went to about 12 or so houses and each houses pours you a cup of soda and forces you to eat sweets. By the time you arrive at the 4th house you are full of sweets but people get upset and don't understand why you can't eat the sweets they set out before you. It started snowing a little while we were caroling.
Christmas Eve we woke up and had french toast and bacon for breakfast. Go and Pam fixed it for us. Then we had our Christmas dinner that evening. That morning my oven decided not to turn on but after lots of prayer and a couple hours later it came on so we could cook Christmas dinner. Oh, by the way, we were eagerly awaiting a box from my mom with some Christmas goodies in it and my gift for Go and Pam. We got the package slip in the mail on Christmas Eve morning and Go and Baron went to the post office in Timisoara to get the box...we had our Christmas M & M's just in time for a Christmas Eve movie!
We woke up Christmas morning to a pretty snow! The kids opened their stockings and then they longingly looked at all the gifts under the tree but we had to get ready for church. In Romania everyone goes to church on Christmas morning. So, they pain stakingly sat through a service and then had to come home and change their clothes and go out and bring up some wood before digging into the presents. They really had a great time though looking at what each other got and they were very patient while waiting for their turn to open a gift...well they were kind of patient. We had left overs that day and just relaxed and enjoyed the day. That evening we had a birthday cake for Jesus and each person lit a candle and said what Jesus had done for them this year. It was a special time and we really enjoyed it.
Today Go and Pam left. Her mom's package still hadn't arrived but we will send it on to them and it will be a nice surprise. The only disappointment was that the stuff didn't come in time to make gingerbread houses but that's ok...we'll make them next year!
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