Christmas Eve & Celebrations

The kids were eagerly awaiting the Christmas Eve .. as we had planned to have a 'barbecue' that evening in our terrace, with a few families who lived in the building.
However, the kids had other reasons to be excited .. they were planning on going for caroling a day before that to collect money to have pizzas, while the adults relished the barbecue meat!

These are the photos from their carol singing outing:





































The Barbecue Event:
Trying to get the fire going .. which eventually was good enough for the meat :-)



























Kids opening up their presents and having fun.












All that started well .. didn't finish that well ... as I ended up in bed the next day, due to the excessive tasting of the meat, while it was getting cooked :-)

Looking forward to the picnic on New Year's Eve!!!



This is Tryphena getting ready with her make-up for the Annual Day program at School and with some of her friends and her dance teacher in School:






























































Theo ready for his program during the Annual Day.

School Annual Day & Christmas Concert

Wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It was great to see the kids perform at the Annual Day program in School. Theo taking part in singing for the first time; and Tryphena in dancing.


Theo taking part in the class choir to sing at the DMCS (Deva Matha Central School) Annual Day program in School. He was quite excited about wearing a full-sleeve shirt with a bow-tie!
That made his day, more than standing on-stage and singing. He is at the far-left on the screen.



Tryphena took part in the dancing program at the Annual Day. She is keen on singing and dancing. Tryphena is in the front-row in the middle.



Tryphena at the CME (Center for Music Education) kids choir during their Christmas concert, on 16th Dec. '10. This was her first 'opera' experience. She thoroughly enjoyed. She is part of the kids choir there for the last 2 months.


Well, Christmas season is here ... and the last of the functions are over .. and it's now 'family time'.
On 24th evening, a few families are getting together to have a barbecue and gift exchange and to sing some carols.
Will post photos early next week.

Hooray! It's Christmas time!!

The much awaited time to put up the X'mas decorations finally arrived ..
and we were not ready!


The kids had their term exams this week (which was surprisingly early) .. but the good thing about it is, we are now free - especially the kids!

We were waiting to put up the decor as they wanted to help with it. It was part of the fun for them ... so, finally it went up today.
We had to look through the loft to see where we had packed all the decoration items from last year.

Theo loves horses -- and for some reason, he thinks our dog, 'sparkles' is a horse and he sits on her back. At times, she doesn't like it, though today she was willing for him to sit on her back for a while .. while the X'mas decor were all out.


Wishing you all a joyous Christmas, filled with His love and His glory!
May Christ be the reason for our celebration this season!

Kids learning Bicycle

A couple of days from now is our kids 2nd birthday for the year - no, we are not Chinese nor Koreans, who have 2 birthdays in a year - but it's a special one for our kids - what we call:
'the family birthday'.

It's not the day they were born (which is celebrated as their regular birthday), but this is a special day in our life, the day they came home.
We celebrate it each year as a family.

This year, we decided to gift them a bicycle each, as they have outgrown their tri-cycle and have been wanting one for several months now.
Theo's cycle ended up being a notch too high for him ... and he was struggling to get on with it. Fortunately for him, one of our family friends in the church, called up and said that they had a cycle which was not used much, and so they decided to give it to Theo - not knowing how disappointed Theo was for not being able to ride his.

Here, you see them riding their bicycles - took them a day or two perhaps to get on with it.
Theo had a few falls - but he is a natural risk-taker & tries a lot of stunts already ... and that's the only way he's going to learn.

Pictures from Goa

Scenery enroute to Goa at Karwar, Goa-Karnataka Border

Kids enjoying at the beach - it was our typical outing every evening from 5-7 pm)

The Quiet beaches in Goa awaiting the tourist season, even as the sun goes down!

Sun setting at the beach in Betal Batim












Lush green scene around Carmen's mums place





Kids with Granny!







No, believe me when I say, they are NOT
praying!
Carmen is giving a demo to her mum on how to use a cell phone, as the landline can get disrupted quite often in this remote place.

Caught them napping :-)

Off to Goa

While you read this, we are either busy packing for our annual trip to Goa or on the road or have already reached - depending on when you look at this.
It's the kids break from school for the Pooja holidays for the next 10 days.
I must admit, it's one of the pleasant times to visit Goa - not too hot.

We will be back on the 16th evening.
The kids are so looking forward to this trip .. pray that the late monsoons will not play spoilsport.
As we near Goa, we would be driving through the ghats, which is prone to landslide this time of the year.

One of the big stretches enroute to Goa is the NH-4, on which we will be for nearly 5 hrs., has a bad stretch for about 20 kms. which really slows things down ... with the roadwork under construction for a flyover, it's like a boat being tossed on the waves.
But I hear that the work now stands complete - hooray!
That would mean the trip would be cut short by approx. 30-45 mts.

We are hoping to leave by 6 am from Bangalore, so we could reach home in Goa by dusk.

Update on Carmen

Thanks to all of you who prayed with us for Carmen's backache & for the many who sent messages and/or called. She is doing much better now.
Though on medication and anti-inflammatory tablets, she says the pain has reduced by about 75-90%. So, she is getting back to her rhythm, albeit slowly!

My mum who had to go Chennai for a 'possible' eye-surgery returned within a week, as the doc said that she is fine and doesn't need any review for at least another year.
With her coming back, she has taken over the cooking and other little little things around the house.

In her absence, however, I was able to hone my culinary skills.
I tried my hand on The Shepherd's Pie and Lasagne - both turned out exceptionally well :-)
The kids also gave a helping hand in cooking. Tryphena loves to fry the Ladies Finger (Okra) and has learnt to fry her own pappad & eggs.

Theo for his share wanted to help in chopping the tomatoes one day, so I let him with a warning to be careful. Not soon after that he told me, "Papa, give me a minute .. i will come back and cut the rest" and he left. I was busy doing something else and so didn't ask him or notice what he was up to.
And he never returned for a while, and Carmen told me a little later that he had slit his finger in the process :-( Oouch!!
But he dismissed the fact that he cut himself when he returned and said, "Papa can i cut the rest?" - I honestly didn't know what that 'rest' meant - tomatoes or the rest of his finger!!!
Not to mention, we had a very red tomato that day in our curry :-)

The kids have started their I Term exam this week. By the end of the month, they should be finished ... and as usual, we will be making a trip to Goa to visit Carmen's mum and spending about 10 days with her.
The kids are so looking forward to it.
Their only prayer is that Carmen's back holds up for that long arduous 10-12 hrs. drive from B'lore to Goa.
It's something which we, as a family, look forward to each year. Pray that it will not be disrupted.

Carmen's Health

As I am writing this, Carmen is in bed with an acute pain on her lower back. MRI scan revealed a slight bulge at the root of L4 & L5 discs.
As per the medical opinion it's supposed to revert back to normal position, provided she undertakes a complete bed rest - no walking at length, no travel by car, no carrying heavy things, but lying flat on her back on a flat surface.
She is also on a hip belt for lumbar support.

Suddenly things have come to a stand still in the house, especially with my limitations around the house.
Mum, who is with us has to go to Chennai on Tuesday (7th), for an eye surgery.

With no one else in the house, it's going to be a challenge to keep things going this month.
Carmen hopes to recover well in time for a long trip to Goa early October.

God's grace is always sufficient, no matter what we go through!
And this is just one such instance, where we need to experience His grace in a supernatural way!!

Back in India

After an enjoyable 1 month, our family is now back in India. Got over the jet-lag and are now ready to go.

The kids begin their new academic year tomorrow (2nd June '10), and they are not excited about it at all - because of all the fun they had in the last 2 months; but we are sure they will get back into the groove.

We have uploaded some photos in the PICTURE GALLERY. To view that go back to the Home Page of our website, and click on the 'picture gallery' and in there, you will find an album called "UK TRIP MAY 2010".
Please take a look at some of those memorable moments, along with the captions.

Our family in the UK

We arrived in the UK on 27th of April, late in the evening, just as the 'ash clouds' started to settle down in Iceland - after a long and tiring day!

It's been Theo's prayer to fly in an aeroplane and he was pleasantly surprised that we would be able fly to the UK and spend a month with friends near Manchester, during the summer holidays.
Needless to say the kids are enjoying it.

It's spring-time here in the UK, but 'very cold' for us, having coming from a rather dry summer, temp. touching near 40's.

We will be here until the 25th of May, and return in time for the kids new academic year.
Will be posting some photos as and when we take them, if it's worth posting.
In the meantime, take a look at what's already been taken. These are pictures taken at a farm-house, where the kids had a blast.







Theo with Jacob at Church, getting ready for the 'parade' service.






Please pray for our time here.
Blessings & thanks.

Theo's Graduation

Well, the first one in the family! We didn't have to wait for that long, as the school introduced the concept of GRADUATING the nursery students to the Primary School.





















The School made it very special for the children, by printing a personalized invitation with their picture.


The parents were called up on stage and a few phrases said about the child,while giving away the certificate.


I had to miss this, because of my commitment at the church.
We had scheduled the PREACHER'S WORKSHOP MODULE in the church several months ago .. and this one happened at the last minute. But Carmen was there on stage with Theo, while he received his Kinderfun Certificate.


A nice little memento for Theo to remember these days!

Birthday ... Birthday ...

It's been a birthday fortnight in our house, with my mum celebrating her 66th birthday in an 'in-house celebration', on the 17th of Feb.















































Yesterday, it was Theo, who entered '1' digit of his granny's birthday. He was happy to be '6'.














Theo is so fond of horses, that when we went to order his birthday cake, he wanted a cake with the picture of a horse. The cake did taste delicious, and the kids were seen fighting for various part of the horse-icing :-)

































And it's snack-time!








The older girls had organized some games, and it was entertaining to watch them take on the responsibility and organize everything for the evening.
It was a fun evening!!