A few words from our team

Christmas party at our place

Every year that we are here for Christmas, Emma and I like to throw a party for all of our friends and Emma's brothers and sisters. The videos from the previous post are from this party.

Here are some photos to go with the videos.


This is a traditional Romanian potato salad called, "Salata de Beouf". It says, "Craciun Fericit" which means "Merry Christmas"

Here I am with my nephew Filip in the kitchen.
Bird's eye view on the food. We had a gift exchange traditional style (meaning we didn't do the white elephant but the secret santa instead to avoid black-eyes)

Kids playing in the snow outside my window on New Year's Day

We wish you a merry Christmas

Carolers at our Door

Every year, Hope of Life Church sends out nearly 3 dozen carolers to tour the city and sing sing sing!

This year, Emma led the way as one of our greatest turnouts yet sang to the families in our church as well as a few new families.

The tradition is: You let families know that you are coming and you ask if they would like you to stop by their place. If they say yes, you create a game plan and basically walk the entire city.

It's quite a bit of walking, so each house traditionally prepares something to eat and drink for all of the carolers. So, you sing at the door, one or two carols and then they invite you in for snacks. One lady this year served an entire meal. Our young people said that it was well worth it!

They were truly a blessing to each family, just as each family was a blessing to them.

Living Room

We just wanted to show you our living room, cause we really like our tree :)
Those drinks and snacks on the table were for the carolers that came later that night.

Philip's First Birthday

Emma and I are aunt and uncle for the first time. Her brother Ionut (which is Romanian for "Little John"; cool huh!) and his wife Oana (Joanna) had little Philip last year at this time.
We threw him a party at their house and he had a great time. He's a cutie!