Christmas in Hungary

We spent Christmas in Budapest with the Buckleys. We had a great time watching the kids dig into their Christmas presents today. If it wasn't for the fact that Michelle has been under the weather all day it would have been the perfect Christmas. I got some great gifts, even if the big gift didn't make it from the states in time, Michelle still gave me a card with a picture of the gift inside. I also got a great book, a DVD, CD, daily German calendar, coffee motif coasters a shirt and a sweater.

Christmas Heroes

This years Christmas Heroes are Aaron and Dawna Bibby, Michelle's brother and sister-in-law. They were so thoughtful that they sent us our Christmas gifts back in September with Michelle's mom. I got some great accessories for my guitar playing and Michelle got a great cookbook and a fun game. We enjoyed some great food and fun with our friends in Budapest and opened the presents we got each other.

Making Cookies

We spent the weekend baking Christmas cookies. This is just a sample of the frosted magnificence. Three different kinds of snowflake cookies, maple madness, chocolate crescents and Russian tea cakes. And then there was also the fudge, not pictured as I ate it. I actually helped Michelle bake. It wasn't so bad and everything tastes better when you make it yourself. We are giving most of the cookies as gifts for our students and friends. The most challenging part of making the cookies is finding the ingredients. We had to find a lot of maple syrup which is in the health food section here. We also used a lot of ingredients sent from the US and bought at the lone import store. We look forward to baking the cookies in the states next year, where the chocolate chips don't have to make a 5,000 mile flight.

Students

Our students had a great time this last week.
Trygve (in the red Amsterdam shirt) was
here for the last time. He returns to Norway this week. We have 8 nations and 7 languages represented in this picture. Try having a discussion about the proper way to introduce yourself here? We are so grateful for what God is doing in this group of young people. We are amazed to see how he works in their lives week after week. This pic is really a photo of answered prayer.

Christmas Tree Time

We finally got a Christmas tree! It is quite the experience buying a tree when you have no car. We used our new bicycles as a transport medium. We did get some stares from the people we passed on the 45 minute walk home from the building materials store where we bought it. Try and imagine Michelle and I pushing a bicycle with a six foot tree strapped on it from the basket at the back to the handle bars up front. Most Austrians haven't even thought about a tree yet and if they have it is sitting somewhere outside right now waiting for Christmas eve. We told one of our Austrian friends that the tree was up and decorated already and her mouth dropped open in wonder. I know a lot of our family and friends back in the states have had the tree up two weeks now, so we felt a little behind in getting this done. Michelle did most of the decorating but I got to put on the tree topper. This years tree was a lot smaller than last year, but a 10 foot tree on a bike would have been weird don't you think?

We met up with our former youth pastors and their two daughters. They are headed to Serbia and had a stopover in Vienna. We were so grateful to be able to meet them and show them around in Vienna. This pic is of them with Michelle in front of the Opera House.

Traveling in Vienna

We are visiting Vienna this week. A mixture of Business and Pleasure. I had the joy of spending 2 and a half hours among Vienna's finest on 5 subways and 4 busses round trip. Vienna is a great city but if you don't live in the right place you have to travel forever to get anything done. So after all of the travel I was able to be a part of a one hour meeting. Yeah! We are only here two more days and then it's back into life in Graz.

Starting out?

It seems a little weird to be starting a blog page when there isn't necessarily anything new to write. I am more at the end of an important period in my life than the beginning. There is just too much pressure from everyone around me that I finally gave in to doing this. Alright, most of the pressure I put on myself, but lets not go too much into details. As my first post let me say, I hope you enjoy the viewpoint, the stories and the photos. Michelle and I have been living in Austria for 30 months now and it has been an adventure. I look forward to being able to share some of what has been and is our life.