Thanksgiving and Christmas 2015

One of the holidays that we [H2H] celebrate here in Romania, but is not a Romanian holiday, is Thanksgiving.  It is one of our most favorite holidays and most well attended.  Jen and I spend about 3 days preparing for this feast and serve between 60-70 staff, former staff and their families, former transition kids and their families and the current transition kids.  We pretty much go all out and prepare all of the fixings!

I have to get a little bit creative!

Ruthie and Emi didn't have anywhere to color!  Underneath the table was free--they had a blast under there!

Me with 4 of the 9 H2H grandchildren!

Because I was leaving the next day to go to the U.S., Ruthie and I had to decorate our pink Christmas tree!  This is a fun tradition that I've started with her!

The next day, I flew out for California for my month long furlough.  I was able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family, visit with many friends, speak in my church and do just a little bit of shopping...

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to do something fun with my nieces and nephews, so I planned "The Great Thanksgiving Caper"--a whole bunch of activities, stories, songs, crafts and food projects to go with Thanksgiving.  I wanted them to really think about the things that they were thankful for.  They couldn't wait to go out to "the classroom" each day.  Pinterest is my best friend!!

Our Thankful Pumpkin!  The kids loved coming up with things they were thankful for!

So many things to be thankful for...so wonderful to be home with my family!

 The day after Thanksgiving, the girls headed down south to the All-American Girl Doll store.  What the little girls didn't know was that they were each getting a doll for Christmas from Grammy and Grandpa!

One of the best things I get to do while I'm at home is to visit my nieces and nephews at their houses. We always get to do some pretty cool things together like ice skate, cook and bake, go on little hiking adventures, look at Christmas lights, go to the trampoline place and much more.

But the best thing we do is celebrate Christmas as a family and put on a little "play" aka: dress up and Grandpa reads the story of Jesus' birth.  One child is missing...I know.  He was kind of grumpy....

All good things must come to an end and all too fast, I was on an airplane on my way back to Romania.  As you can see from all my luggage, I did just a little bit of shopping....

As an added bonus, these two little cuties met me at the airport to welcome me home!!