New year, here, Christmas there

It is Christmas eve in Ukraine, where most people celebrate with the "old calendar" of the Orthodox church- old New Year is yet to come, Garry has been in Ukraine for it the last few years, and he will be again. Here is Manitoba we spent the afternoon celebrating our son Noah's 25th birthday. It is actually on January 7th, but we did it early since Jessica and Jonah had to return to Morden for the start of school tomorrow, so it was our last chance to have the whole family together for this visit home.

We fly out on Thursday, Garry to Ukraine, I am flying to New Jersey for a week to visit with my parents before joining him. So the next few days we are tying up loose ends, stuffing suitcases with all the stuff to bring home, including the model tractors the John Deere dealer donated to display at the the trade school, and I need to undecorate the Christmas tree and "throw it outside, but not the ornaments" our 4 year old granddaughter gave me instructions today since they did it last week.

How will we get all this stuff in our suitcases???

Tuesday evening we will be speaking and showing slides at Emmanuel Evangelical Free church in Steinbach at 7 pm, if you can make it out.