Christmas Concert at the College

We enjoyed a night of spectacular music at the Master's College as the guests of Keith and Louise Essex. The programme was preceded by mime-and-music scenes from Christmas through the ages, performed by students from the college. All the photos that follow , are of students in frozen mode. The would stay in that pose while the music played then change position/expression when the music stopped. They would chat to the audience as we passed by but strike a new pose as soon as the music started again.

Those cookies slowly disappeared from the tray she's holding - they were real and smelled lovely!
Victorians - yeah!

First Christmas - that tableau was fantastic. During the performance, the whole story was told without a word being said.
The choir and instrumental performances were world class. The Master's Choral sang a part of Handel's Messiah in Hebrew - come 2013, they'll be performing the whole one in Hebrew in Jerusalem. It was an inspiring evening and certainly helped to get us in the mood for Christmas.

American Heritage Day

Somewhere in November comes American Heritage Day and/or Veteran's Day. Members and ex-members of the armed forces can come to church in uniform. The school has a half day the Friday before and a special service remembering the fallen and the brave. Marise played in the school band and also accompanied the junior choir with a solo on the flute.

That's her on the far left

Sunday morning after church and we met a member of the Airforce, a Green Beret and a Marine

There were many more men in uniform, but we were most impressed by the Green Beret! A real live one!!

Thanksgiving

We were invited by the Swartz family to join them for Thanksgiving. They have also started seminary in August after moving to LA from Texas. It was such a special treat! Their house was glowing with beautiful candles everywhere and the food was like I always imagined an American Thanksgiving meal should be.

The dessert table with 4 different pies.

Sylvia, Steven, hubby and me

The 7 kids from left to right: Daniel, Michael, Daniel, Francois, Joel, Julia and Marise

Turkey and gravy with 2 potato dishes, greenbean casserole, broccoli-rice-cheesey dish, 3 types of cranberry jelly/sauce/condiment, all washed down with sparkly apple cider.

After the meal we raised the roof in song , Steve is a very accomplished pianist and very entertaining! God has blessed us with the friendship of this family.

Back again!

Harvest Party at the Devaneys Pumpkin carving

Doughnut gobbling

Jocelyn's house is beautifully decorated for the "Fall" season.


The teenagers were divided into 2 teams for the "bigger and better" game. They went out into the neighbourhood with a paperclip each and had to knock on doors and trade the clip for something bigger and better. Then go to next house and trade their new object for bigger and better etc etc. WELL...Marise's team came back with this (broken) motorcycle! The other team came back with a (not broken) television set. Amazing what some people have in their attics and garages , just waiting to give it away to kids playing a game!

Frans, Ryk and Rich staring into the flames,thinking deeply, saying wise things.

Apple bobbing

We had a great time that evening, met a lot of new people and had food we've never had before - Tortilla Soup. It was delicious! I still have so many more good pics of the evening, but can't locate them after we downloaded our back-up files onto the new computer. They were taken with our really nice Canon camera which we sadly don't have anymore. Fall/Autumn and harvest celebrations are a big deal in America, and it leads up to Thanksgiving which is the biggest national holiday.

Such is life

The sight that met my eyes when I got back from picking Francois up at college yesterday afternoon No computer

Big mess all over the house

Raided room

Empty boxes

Empty drawers

Francois's room

Awana Fair

We recently found ourselves the parents of an only child for a whole weekend. The older 2 were away on various outings and we could spend some time with Daniel. It was the weekend of the Awana Fair. Daniel attends Awana - a midweek bible club (read fun and games!) with the sole purpose of encouraging Scripture memorization from the age of 3. It is astounding how much he has learned since September.... he can even say "Ecclesiastes" :)
The fair reminded us very much of a school fete, with lots of games to play at various stalls, prizes to win and too many sweet things to eat.

Digging for treasure

Hammering in nails with a big man-size hammer. Laughing in the face of Health and Safety...

Daniel and his friend Daniel hammering away

Yeah...why not give hammers to toddlers??

My favourite of the day - Sno-Kones! I am an ice-muncher anyway, so this was just a fantastic treat for me plus it turned out to be such a hot day. Again.

Beanbag tossing

Throw-the-hoop-over -the-pumpkin-without-hooking -onto-your-own-backpack -game

Not candyfloss but cottoncandy

A kid with a gun . This has got to be America....aim......and shoot! (with an elastic band gun shooty thingy)

Dressing up

A lot of dressing up has been going on in this family! Daniel and I had to attend a Harvest Parade as "something you find on a farm". Parents and toddlers had to join the parade which took us around campus where staffmembers were waiting to fill the childrens' bags with sweets. Daniel - not familiar with the trick'or'treat tradition (done un-halloween like) - kept asking very loudly why the strangers were giving us sweeties?! Here is the whole class , can you spot D on the far left in his (homemade) John Deere tractor?

Joining in song and actions

Making some minor adjustments to the engine while the rest continue in song. The lamb looked on - very interested in tractor engines

Oh yes, the mums had to dress up too! I felt so stupid...so like a pumpkin...

At Marise's school it was Spirit Week. every day called for a different theme and outfit. On the last day it was School Colours Day and they could go in any outfit as long as it had blue, yellow and white in. Some kid even brought in tortilla chips in school colours!

Clash Day

Invent -your-own-Super hero Day. M went as Super Bo Dooper Peep , a sweet shepherdess that can speed-knit, wrap kids up in cottonwool and chase away the ba-a-a-adies. She looked so cute and even won a prize for the outfit.

During Reformation week she went as a time-machine that could transport you back to the Dark Middle Ages