click here for travel pictures during our December Vacation...

The first thing we did in December was celebrate Evangeline's 9th birthday. She invited all her friends and their families. We had a great time of games, fellowship, and food. We also showed a slideshow of Evangeline from birth until now.

The night of Evangeline's birthday was the first significant snow of the season. The landscape became beautifully covered in fresh powder.

Soccer was a fun, slippery, disaster in the snow especially for those without cleats.

Here, the kindergarten co-op sings a song in English and shows off their Constantine shields they made.

After learning about Constantine, the afternoon co-op began to discuss what heresies are and how to beware of them.

We spent an entire day at two famous Korean shopping markets called Namdaemun and Dongdaemun.

Gabe and Judah found a "Christmas Tree." There aren't the typical Colorado Spruce here except in people's landscaping (which are really tempting to cut down). So, we found the next closest thing. To make it look better, the girls strung popcorn to wrap around the tree.

The "Heavenly Sound Youth Orchestra" of the home school group had their year-end performance. They played an amazing set of music after only three months of playing together. Many thanks to the Willing family for all their hard work.

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Here are pictures from the end-of-the-year presentation. The evening started with a wonderful catered dinner and a large display of some of the students' work from the fall school semester. There was then a presentation by the students and their families of instrument playing, skits, dancing, powerpoint presentations, Bible recitation, and testimonies. The evening closed with very special gifts to our family from the entire group. We also thanked our translators with flowers for all their hard work throughout the year. The work was made possible because of them.

A few city pictures to mix things up. Notice the famous Seoul Tower.

We returned to the crowded streets of Namdaemun and Dongdaemun. We stopped for Bibimbap at lunchtime.

One foggy evening, Jared, Judah, and Gabe picked up Matt DeVincenzo from Incheon Airport. He stayed with us for two weeks over Christmas break. These pictures are crossing the bridge from mainland Korea to the island that the airport is on. It has a mystical Asian look with low-lying fog, marshes, and mountains all in the middle of the ocean.

The older kids drove to Daemeong Vivaldi Park to snowboard. The ski resorts here are comparable to east coast resorts in the US.

Christmas Eve, we had an open house. Though many people could not come due to holiday schedules, we wanted to have people over while the entire family was here. We enjoyed supper, the reading of the Christmas story, singing, and a prayer time. Many thanks to Matt D for his beautiful solo during The Twelve Days of Christmas...

Christmas morning, we spent time together as a family. Matt, Dad, Evangeline, Julianna, and Susanna made donuts for breakfast. We had a much more simple gift exchange this year. It was nice to skip out on all the typical Christmas shopping we have done past years in the US. We each got small gifts, most of which were souvenirs from Korea. The three youngest girls got full traditional Korean garb called Hanboks. Certainly not your typical street attire. Christmas afternoon, we went with the Sumralls on a hike up Grandfather Mountain. (Named by us because it's the biggest in our neighborhood) There is a path to the top of the mountain, but having long before learned that paths are not nearly as fun as going straight up the side of the mountain, we took the usual Timothy Pent detour. After a number of hours pulling, pushing, coercing, and carrying, all 16 of us made it to the top.

During the break, we were able to spend more time inside the city of Seoul, shopping and walking around. Notice the Seoul Tower which is where the night pictures of the city were taken from. The tall gold building across the river is the 63 Building. Guess how many stories it is? You are right. There is an interesting contrast between the ancient and the modern. The picture shows the gate of Namdaemun from the old days, and above it, you can see the huge TV screens used for advertising. The domed building is the National Assembly Building.

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Global Mission Church is praying for a second revival on the 100th anniversary of the 1907 revival that started in North Korea and then spread throughout all of Korea. Their slogan is AGAIN 1907! New Year's Eve, the church put on a large program to begin their prayer for revival. It went from 9pm, December 31 to 7am, January 1. Thousands and thousands of people showed up for the entire service. It was a service of prayer, six different speakers, and numerous musical groups. Our family sang Little Drummer Boy, quoted Psalm 67, and sang O Lamb of God with some English and some Korean.

Check out pictures of our travels during December vacation...