Happy Holidays, Friends!

As we move through the holidays, be sure to greet everyone with a happy greeting. Don't be surprised when they answer back! You can say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas. After Christmas (December 25) you can say Happy New Year! You can say Happy New Year to everyone you meet for the first time until the middle of January!

This time of year you may get a lot of mail. If you get cards, letters, or other pieces of mail addressed to someone else (different name and different address), just put them back in your mail box or drop them by the post office to be redelivered properly. If they are addressed to someone with your address, write "not at this address" on the card and put it back in the box (or take it to the post office) to be delivered to the return address. The cards will be returned to the sender. You can also write "return to sender." Finally, when you get junk mail with the old addressee's name, you can throw them away (or enjoy the catalog order stuff and shop away).

International Bible Study, Tuesdays, 9:00-10:30
We read in Luke 6:1-11 how Jesus declares that He is "Lord of the Sabbath" and that if He says something is ok to do on the holy day, it is ok! The church leaders were concerned that people keep the laws. They lost track of the idea that the laws were there to keep the people. His disciples were picking a snack of grain, and they were being reprimanded. We wondered about those laws (you can read them in Leviticus; but remember that people added to these laws: they added laws to keep people from coming close to the law and then only looked at the letter of the laws: the man mand laws) Jesus reprimands the church leaders telling them that what the disciples were doing wasn't against the law or hurting anyone. He goes further to heal a man who has a withered hand. He asks them, "which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?"

We also read in Luke 6:12-16 how He calls (or appoints) the 12 Apostles (who would become the new teachers and leaders). Jesus followed the original plan of 12 leaders/teachers. We noticed that He appointed Judas Iscariot even though he would become a traitor. We marveled that God takes the painful and turns things to His glory and to our benefit.

Tuesday, December 15: Let's read the Christmas Story and sing Christmas songs

International Friends, Tuesdays, 10:30-12:00
We baked Christmas Cookies! Wow! Great work, ladies. Tatiana taught us to make Tatiana's. Here is her recipe:

1. Mix together: 4 cups of flour, sticks (1/2 a cup) of butter
2. When well mixed, add one cup of beer
3. Mix to make a soft dough.
4. Refrigerate for 3 hours.
5. Roll out the and cut into shapes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
6. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until brown.

Tuesday, December 15: Let's have a Holiday Party!

1. Bring a dish to share.
2. Bring a white elephant gift wrapped and ready to trade (if you want to play)
3. See the separate e-mail for directions!

Conversation, Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00

Elizabeth treated us to some home made guacamole. She served it in the traditional stone molcajete ground with the tejolote (mortar and pestle in English). We also talked about emergencies and shared emergency stories. It was interesting that we could laugh at our emergency stories. Some important tips to take away from our discussions


Wednesday, December 15: Let's have a party
Read Unit: 15. Bring your favorite dish to show you care.

International Friends, Thursdays, 9:00-12:00, upstairs classrooms

Thursday, December 16: Join us for the last class of the year!

pieces of mail: fancy for mail
addressed: the name and address on the mail
addressed: the name of the person on the mail
address: the physical location where someone lives
return address: where the card came from
junk mail: ads, catalogs, other pieces of mail hoping you will buy something
addressee: the person who who the mail is addressed to
lost track of: became distracted, loose something
shop away: adding "away" after a verb just means to have fun and enjoy the verb freely
declares: tells with authority
reprimanded: scolded
letter of the law: a literal and narrow definition
withered: crippled, it doesn't work
white elephant gift: a white elephant gift is some previously owned item or gift that you don't want (usually someone else does want it). most; if you don't have anything on hand head out to Goodwill! The one rule is that it HAS to be previously owned!