Christmas Eve scenes

It's Christmas Eve here!  We are busy doing family stuff, but I wanted to share a bit of our day with loved ones who might be checking the blog!  We love you and miss you!  Merry Christmas!

We finished up our two advent calenders today.  The sticker scene, from Grandma Arlette, is seen in the background.  The ornament one, from Grandma Coral, gave us a second toy rocking horse ornament today.  Here Jonathan is showing us the both of them. 

The ornament advent calender has given us a lot of cute ornaments for our tree -- a train, a candy cane, a couple of snowmen, an angel and even a manger scene.

 We just have a little fake tree, so I'm happy to put it up high on the counter and avoid the junk stress of little hands pulling things off every day.  Joshua would sure love to get his hands on it though!

He LOVES it when someone takes compassion on him and picks him up so he can see the tree and the lights up close!

So Jonathan did a little manger scene art project today.  (Becky, this is from the curriculum you sent us. Thanks!)  After we pasted Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus on, Jonathan said "But where are the animals?"  He answered his own question...."I know!  We can make some!"  What you see here is "A turtle....a special turtle....a VERY special turtle," and a "special snake," and a "special worm," and a bird and another snake.   Who said only cows and donkeys and sheep could be with Baby Jesus in the stable that night? 

Field trip -- 6th graders learn about Mount Merapi

Dave with this year's crop of 6th grade boys -- they all have amazing stories.  One was born and lived most of his life in Bangladesh.  Another lived most of his life in a remote tribal village accessible only by helicopter.  Another will be tested to see if he is "gifted" in the next few months.  One boy's father, a passionate Christian, is the owner of a successful film company.  Others are children of missionaries form South Korea.  A special group indeed!

Yesterday's post featured the 11th grade fieldtrip to search for invertebrates in a local stream.  The next day, the 6th graders went to a surprisingly good interpretive center featuring our local volcano, Mount Merapi.  After erupting quite severely 2 years ago, Merapi has been quiet enough although I hear it still burps from time to time. 

This field trip was kind of rained out ....except for the time inside the visitor center watching the short movie and looking at a few pictures, much time was spent huddling under umbrellas and trying to avoid getting wet.

Here are all of this year's 6th graders.  They are working hard to enjoy their last year of elementary school -- their last year of having recess -- before jumping into 7th grade!  Thanks for taking them out to make some memories, Mr Patrow!

Field trip -- 11th graders search for invertebrates

Dr. Livingston I presume?

For this blog post, we depart from family news to focus on what Dave has been doing at school.  Last month he took his students on a couple of field trips.  Field trips are hard to organize and a bit stressful along the way, but years later the students will remember it.  He's excited to be teaching Advanced Placement Environmental Science this year, a new class for him.   I (Jennifer) am signing off now and Dave is taking over the story....

My first field trip with Environmental Science was to a stream flowing through rice paddies.  Our goal was to find bugs and count them; which the students did with gusto.

In transit to the fieldtrip site

Most families here have a motorcycle instead of a car.  Here you see a whole line of them driving ahead of our bus.  The blue van is our town's answer to the public bus.  We normally ride these blue vans when we go shopping. 

Still in transit

Here you can clearly see the rise paddies above the stream we visited.  The students are carrying nets and buckets.

I'm doing my best to look like a true professor.  I don't think the students are fooled.

Caught one!

After catching our bugs we head back down the hill to our bus.  I must mention that it was a missionary kid who is auditing my class that found this stream for us.

And heading back to school now...

No eloquence here....responding to last week's tragedies

Although we are on the other side of the world, we too are shocked, hurting, weeping, and grieving with America after the horrible shooting tragedies of last week.  I won't say much.  So much is already being said and my words, feelings, and ideas are not really different from anyone else.

When the world doesn't make sense to me, this passage has always brought truth and calm to my spirit:  Collosians 1:15-20, and especially this:

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." 

Critters 2

 I've been adding photos to this post for several months as I collect them.  Time to publish!  This "critter" trumps all of the rest.  He looked pretty scary when we found him in our back bathroom.  We have found 2 others in our house at other times.  He was painstakingly captured in our new "bug box," photographed and then put to death in our freezer.  Come to find out, he's harmless and you can buy one for $30 on the internet.  He's a pretty interesting critter actually, known as a whip scorpion or Vinegaroon.   As we captured him, we noticed an odd smell, but couldn't identify it.  Turns out these arachnids produce acetic acid (pure undiluted vinegar) and emit the substance when threatened!  Now that we know they are harmless, we might keep the next one we find as a pet ...at least for a little while. 

I usually can't get a successful photo of a butterfly, but here is an exception. 

Fuzzy caterpillars that show up on our front porch from time to time.  Don't touch them because their hairs will come off and be very itchy.

Now the cicak ....our friends who chirp, who poop on our walls, and who actually do eat the mosquitoes in our house.  To describe them, I give you this quote from one of our favorite books about our host country

"Cicak are house lizards that occupy a space in every self-respecting ....home.  Bashful creatures they most certainly are, preferring to stick about on walls, behind pictures and in corners.  Cicak are everywhere -- they don't care where they stick.  While there might appear to be less cicak in a well-off, tightly air-conditioned home than in say, a Padang restaurant, al lyou need to do is look behind a picture frame and there they all are, hoping for a bite to eat.  Cicak are wonderful because they eat mosquitoes.

...They are not big, seldom more than four inches, nose to tail.  They move in zigzag directions and make clicking sounds to each other.  If you startle a cicak, they are prone, as a shock tactic, to release their tail, which then wriggles about disturbingly on its own for a while.  One of the few drawbacks with these domestic lizards, apart from little birdlike droppings everywhere, is when they die behind a wardrobe without telling you and start making decomposing smells.  Not nice." 

 

Jonathan actually was inspired to learn counting when he became aware of the cicaks on our walls. 

 

This one lost his tail once....see where it is growing back skinny?

Sigh ...sometimes cicak loose their toe suction and fall.  Usually they just run away, but for some reason they can't get their grip on the sink walls.  Finding a cicak in my sink is not my favorite way to start the day.  They are not that easy to get out ...but Jonathan is usually entertained. 

Giant grasshopper on our gate ....this is what inspired me to finally buy a bug box so we can catch and keep a guy like this for a half day and study him. 

This is a little snake that showed up on our back door handle several weeks ago.  Inside the house.  No idea how he got there.  Dave was just checking the door to make sure it was locked and ....surprise! 

So strong! Joshua is 11 months old!

I'm starting to get scared ....yesterday we found Joshua in the bathroom on the top step of the stepstool, holding onto the sink and laughing at his reflection in  the mirror.  Of course he was as cute as can be ...but I'm not ready for him to be a climber yet!  Need to do some more child-proofing!

Here's a video for your enjoyment.....be sure to watch it to the end to get the full effect!

(Yes I was pulling them. Smile.)

I also am posting a picture of Josh with his friend Xander.  They are just 16 days apart.  Xander's mommy has been bringing him over to play on Monday mornings, and the boys have a good time together.

Oh Christmas Tree! ....and the Joy of Rudolph

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches!  This Christmas is lots of fun as Jonathan is starting to understand and enjoy all of the little details that make Christmas....Christmas!

 Making Christmas cards for friends and family....now we have green and white and red confetti all over the house!  Very festive!

 "I'm Rudolph!  I'm Rudolph!"

Let me tell you what you are looking at here ....This is a picture of Santa (Jonathan) driving his sleigh (stool) with the back (basket) loaded with toys (green ball).  Rudolph (daddy) is harnessed up (clothes rack) and is pulling the sleigh wherever Santa leads.

We learning a lot about Baby Jesus too -- who is real. Santa is pretend, and Jonathan knows it .....but Santa is a bit more popular to my airplane/helicopter loving boy since he can fly in the sky!  At least in this brief stage of his life.  :)  I know Jesus understands!