Christmas Eve & Christmas

This year we had a Christmas Eve and Christmas service at the church. It was a wonderful time to be able to focus on how God became flesh and dwelt among us. We had three visitors over the weekend which was nice. Also, the people who live across the street came over to wish us all "Happy Christmas" on Christmas day. They didn't stay, but we were glad to meet them. Two of our usual people were gone celebrating with family out of town (and out of country), one of which usually leads music, so I (Alisa) practiced and practiced and played keyboard for both services so that Stephen could just concentrate on preaching (for the most part). Stephen and I also sang a special on Christmas Eve, in which towards the end of the song, Silas finally realized he could basically go anywhere he wanted as his parents were both occupied and so ran up to the front and started messing with things. haha.

One thing that has been a hit from last year and I did it this year was bake these Chewy Gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting. Everyone seemed to love them. They are really easy to put together and taste fantastic. I got the recipe here. I actually doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9x13 pan. In that size pan I find they take about 40 minutes to bake. I hope you try them out!

We had the Kiiski family over for Christmas dinner. It was the last meal we shared with them as they moved to the USA the next morning. We will miss them dearly, but are hoping that they transition well to their new home.

We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating Jesus' birth!