Merry Christmas (last week) A few weeks ago now...

What is Christmas, really?!? As we reflect on the birth of Jesus we usually see how the story unfolded as told to his mother Mary, her fiance Joseph, the shepherds in the fields and the wise men who brought their gifts to Bethlehem. I think it's important for us to be reminded of the story - the historical account - of our Savior's birth at this time of year when the malls are competing for our attention and resources. This is such a multi-dimensional story, though, with implications reaching into eternity. One thing that stood out to me this Christmas is that Jesus left his home (in heaven) and his Dad (God the Father) in order to be part of a new family (Mary & Joseph) ultimately to connect us back to God and make a way for us to be part of a spiritual family. So Christmas, really, is about family... not just moms and dads and kids, but people with a bond, coming together to share in this hope, joy and love.

As this was our 5th Christmas in Taipei, we wanted to spend Christmas with some of the people here who have really helped to shape our family. Christmas Eve we had 11 Taiwanese friends (that includes our Costa Rican brother Erick - he's almost Taiwanese now) over for a special "Dinner at the Inn" where we ate foods that were reminiscent of the Christmas story, caught up with each other's lastest happenings and enjoyed each other's company.

Wayne & Ivy met each other at our first Christmas party in 2005 - now they're married! Crazy, eh? They surprised us with a gift - Andrew - who was a friend we knew back from our days at ICLP... what a fun reunion!

And family time is full of traditions, so we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus in keeping with the Boyer family way... it was a fun evening together!

The next morning we woke up with a few of our friends there to join us in the reading of the Christmas story and the opening of prezzies...

Sharon and Anna brought the kids fun hats for our winter stint in Taipei... and our long haul winters when we return to NZ this year.

Tony shared the Christmas spirit with Stephen who said he'd wear his T-shirt every Christmas in honor of the Clarks.

I think we'll make it a tradition to buy a new family game each year (if I can remember), this year it was Twister!!! When was the last time you played Twister?!? I think it'll be a good one for the kids to practice too.

Hunter got a few new Thomas & Friends books from Grandad... he stopped in the middle of the gift opening to read... he's our little reader!

Helena got this beautiful baby doll from my grandma in California - Great Grandma Helen Boyer. It's a beautiful gift, one we'll wait to play with til Helena can do something other than chew on it!

We had a delicious pancake/omellette breakfast with our friends while skyping with Dad & Sasha in New Zealand... that was kinda fun since most of these friends met Dad when he was in Taipei last Christmas.

I hope we make it part of our family's Christmas tradition to welcome friends into our home to share the joy with us... we really enjoyed this special morning with four of our dear friends here. Thanks guys for making it such a nice day!

One of Hunter's most talked about gifts was this set of snowman topped butter knives! Felicity doesn't have children yet, but when she does, we'll be the first to get that kid a machette! We laughed and laughed all morning when Hunter asked over and over for his "dao zi" (knives)!!! They have been successfully stored away till next Christmas...

And it was even a special enough day to warrant letting Hunter eat cake - after all, we were celebrating Jesus' birthday!!!

Helena was having fun being the pusher now rather than the pushee!

Hunter and his buddy Nicholas both got the same present - a new bike!!! So twice already they were out there at the same time riding circles around the sculpture... fun times ahead!!!

Organized Chaos and Meaningful Memories

What do you get when you cross 14 women & 19 children (under 5) with songs, puppets, crafts and sugar??? You got it - Organized chaos and meaningful memories - PLAYGROUP CHRISTMAS PARTY!!! It all went down on Wednesday, December 23rd...

The party began with a couple Christmas songs led by Vicky & Cynthia. They had prepared cues to the song "Joy to the World" and the kids each had a noisy instrument (or soon took one from another child which meant some kids had more than one) ... with that much enthusiasm, you better believe it was indeed noisy! But... the Bible tells us to make a 'joyful noise' to the Lord, eh?!?

Next we set up a puppet show stage and the kids gathered together in the lounge to watch the story of the birth of Jesus. I must give a special thanks to my faithful assistant, Suzanne, who had to help run crowd control while holding up the background - truly a multi-tasker!!!

Though the kids were a bit more intrigued with how the puppets were getting up on stage and who was back there controling them - at least the story was told and seeds are planted. I hope that these types of experiences will build a foundation for our children to learn more about who Jesus is and how much he loves them... these are the meaningful memories I want to facilitate for my children and their friends.

And what's a Christmas party for kids without some kind of craft? Kristie came up with a perfect one for this age/stage... star ornaments!!!

All the kids had to do was choose colored triangles then glue them to the points on their stars... next we took their photos and glued them in the middle... poor ole Kristie spent her Christmas lead-up cutting stars & triangles, but it was worth it... the kids enjoyed it! Hunter decided his would be best all in blue!

Thankfully the weather warmed up a bit from earlier in the week so we were able to go outside to burn off a bit of energy. While Tony was printing the photos for the ornaments (yeah, he was actually home sick - which is how I feature in so many photos), the kids were running around the playground consuming sugary snacks. Having snack time outside was the way to go... a whole lot less mess for me to clean up in the house!!! Besides, the kids LOVE being outside together!

Karen & Lily are two new friends I've met this year - like the others,
I'm very thankful that God has blessed me with these ladies and their kids...

Merry Christmas to all of our playgroup friends!!!

T'was The Week Before Christmas...

and we had all sorts of stuff to do... it was a welcome change to our 'spontaneous streak' the prior weeks.

On Tuesday, December 15th we were invited by our friends Anna & Tilly, to attend a Christmas party at Grace Baptist Church... I scrubbed up the kids and we rode the bus over on a beautiful, sunny morning and enjoyed a couple hours of interactive fun with meaning. It turns out, there's room for me to join this mother's group in the new year! What a blessing since there will be programs for the kids while I can hang out with other moms as we learn how to "shepherd a child's heart".

Tilly (just over 2) had a bit of stage fright and decided it was better to watch her friends perform; whereas...

Hunter was chomping at the bit to get up on stage even though he'd never been here before and didn't know what was going on... I must say, he did watch almost all of the songs before finally hopping up on stage for the last of it... The funny part is how much bigger he is than these kids who are about the same age.


Cynthia & Hilo also came along, so it was fun to see other familiar faces. The kids loved seeing the nativity scene outside the church...

and they were all quite fascinated by the baby Jesus... and took turns trying to make him open his eyes.

On Thursday, December 17th - we hung out with Anna & Tilly again, this time at their house on the first day of our "cold spell". Kristie, Ellie & Abram joined in too for a gingerbread Bake-Off!!! Anna had pre-prepared gingerbread dough for the kids to cut, decorate and eat...

Oops, wrong side, Hunter... He absolutely loved hanging out at the table rolling dough, cutting shapes and decorating the cookies... he's my right-hand man in the kitchen anyway!!!

Tilly enjoyed making colorful clothes for her gingerbread man.

Abram had a prime seat for watching and snitching!!! You can see he had his share of gingerbread...

as did we moms!!!!

Thanks, Anna & Kristie for the fun day inside!!!

Thursday night was the NZCIO Christmas Party over at the Director's residence. It was fun to see everyone from Tony's office again and as always there was plenty of delicious food to enjoy! But before we ate, there was a visit from... "The Christmas Man"...

This year Hunter jumped up and down gleefully when "Santa" entered the room and pretty much bounced all the way over to where the presents sat waiting to be distributed. Hunter received a really fun helicopter and he's still telling people that "The Christmas man gave it to me".

Helena, on the other hand, had a similar reaction as Hunter did on his first meeting with Santa... she was pretty much freaked out by it all, until...

he gave her a present and then she stopped crying enough to try to open it... I'm guessing she thought something like "this guy can't be all that bad". A special thanks to the Slade family for their generosity!! And to our own "Christmas man"... what a fun memory for these guys.

Heck, even mom got a gift... I would've settled for another piece of that cheesecake.

On Friday we hung out at Cynthia, Hilo & Hannah's house on a cold, rainy day. The kids are starting to play better around and with each other, so it's a bit easier. It was fun to chat about Christmas plans and BSF lessons with Cynthia, Karen & Kristie while the kids ate pasta and wreaked havoc on Hilo's toys...

Hunter & Ellie are especially playing well around each other. It's fun to see the development and progression in their interactions with each other.

Helena was loving being at the table with the "big kids"... of course she ended up in the high chair after a few too many scoldings for climbing on the chair.

Thanks, Cynthia, for arranging a fun day in.

On Saturday, December 19, we went along to a Christmas program at Friendship Presbyterian Church with Kristie, Ellie & Abram. Unfortunately, Helena was just too squirmy so we had to leave after only 30 minutes. Hunter would've been content to stay through the whole thing, but we just couldn't contain mei-mei any longer...

so we ended up playing in a little park outside the church for a bit so she could run around... then we ate dinner at one of our old favorites on Xinsheng South Road - it was fun to be back in our old neighborhood again. Strangely, Hunter fell asleep in the stroller during dinner (couldn't get a photo because the camera was under his sleeping body)... so it actually wasn't too surprising when he woke up sick in the middle of the night. You know something's wrong with Hunter if a) he misses a meal and b) he wants to sleep while we're outside.

Sunday, December 20th was the Fubon Taipei Marathon... though I only participated in the 10km run, it was a great event on a cold, but non-rainy morning!!! It was my first 10km race and I finished it in 63 minutes, so even though that is pretty slow, it was still 10 minutes faster than my previous attempt at the full distance during my training! I was pretty pleased. I was more excited that I was able to participate... it was actually fun running through the familiar streets that I'm usually pushing the pram across or riding under on the MRT. Now that I've done one, I'm keen to sign up for another event... I loved all the buzz from the thousands of participants and the scattered spectators... Tony was right - he's been trying to tell me for years that I would enjoy doing something like this.

And when I got home, my not-as-sick but still very tired boy was eating breakfast and enjoying the Sunday comics...

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Our complex staff has been working hard to transform our neighborhood into a winter wonderland... our kids are delighted!

but we do live in the city and there are some effects of pollution... or is that radioactivity from the north?

We did get out to Tienmu to see a live Nativity production on Sunday night... it was well done with a real horse and some angels in the night sky, so the kids were able to see the Christmas story unfold. Hunter was right into it... and he loved playing on the stage with the baby Jesus when it was over.

Yes, it is Christmas time... time to enjoy the ones you love, time to reflect on the One who loves you. We hope you make it merry!