Crazy-ness

Now that we survived the crazy-ness of last weekend, we are busy getting prepared for the crazy-ness of this coming weekend. Sunday we have our annual Christmas service in English, which is a way for our International Bible study to meet other internationals. We have a Christian band from Poland driving in late Thursday night/morning who are leading the service. So there have been a lot of preparations made in getting the band here to Holland and places to stay, food provided, etc. I spent the day yesterday with a few of the other women baking and decorating cookies to be served after the service during the time set aside for mingling and fellowship. I also learned a few things in the world of baking that are apparently different than cooking - like ALWAYS cream the butter and sugar together before you add the eggs - otherwise you may ruin perfectly good sugar cookies. What can I say - my culinary skills are a work in progress :)
Also, while the team from Poland are here, we have worked out an opportunity for them to do a Polish service Friday night in a nearby community of Poles that moved here for better jobs. I will also get to test out my baking skills on my own as I get to make the cookies for the Polish service. We don't have any idea how many people will be there, but it has been advertised in the papers, and we hung and passed out a lot of fliers.

Friday night is also Sinterklaas. After leaving their shoes out for the last few weeks (in case Sinterklaas rode by outside and wanted to drop a small gift inside), December 5th marks the final celebration - Sinterklaas's birthday. We have had fun getting into the Sinterklaas spirit, which is a fun Dutch tradition. It is a nice to way to separate the dimensions of the Christmas season. Traditionally the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas with gifts and parties, and then Christmas days (both December 25th and 26th are considered Christmas - so you can see both sides of family) is specifically to celebrate the birth of Jesus, by going to church and spending time with family, but no gifts.

Tuesday my women's Bible study group had a brunch to celebrate the Christmas season; here's a picture of the group.
Jeremy has been working really hard editing papers for the Tyndale students as their semester comes to a close, and Keiric has been loving time with his daddy even while Jeremy tries to work at the computer. Jeremy has also started taking guitar lessons from one of our student leaders. He has really enjoyed learning and has wanted to for a while; it also gives us some time to get to know Joran better.

To close, I'm going to post pics of the kids. Kaylie getting ready for school (and the cold) Coat - check. Scarf - check. Hat - check. Gloves - check.

I am not sure how I would caption these for Keiric. Any suggestions?