Chats with Zach and the Christmas tree

What do you do with an old candy cane? Zachary has a great idea!

It's beginning to look at like Christmas

We took advantage of our long Thanksgiving weekend (2 1/2 days! Ha! Gotta love living in a country where Thanksgiving doesn't really exist :) ) to decorate for Christmas. I have a love hate relationship with our artificial Christmas tree. I miss the smell of a real tree but I do love how perfect it looks each time we put it up. This year, I brought an evergreen candle back from the states so at times our house actually smells like Christmas.

Shelby Grace has enjoyed exploring the tree for the first time. Last year she was too little. She takes a few ornaments off but does pretty well with it. Zachary did a great job making sure that the ornaments down low were Shelby Grace safe.

I am so glad that we took the space in our luggage to bring Christmas ornaments from home. It was so much fun explaining to Zachary where all the ornaments came from. This was the first year that he could really understand and was interested in that. I have ornaments on my tree that hung on my grandmother's tree when I was little. We ornaments from past students, ones I made as a kid, and many made by so many of our friends back home. Somehow these ornaments bring us a little closer to the ones we love that we have left behind.

Merry Christmas from the Pinhos!

We meet Silas!

When we traveled the states for my Uncle John's funeral, we had the pleasure of meeting my sister's youngest boy for the first time. He is 1 month older than Shelby Grace. We had a lot of fun with Silas, just wish the rest of the boys were there as well. Just 6 more weeks and we will see all of them in Mali!

Bath time!

Zachary and Silas fought with their swords- boys will be boys!

Lunch time!

Cute cousins
See you again Silas!

Uncle John

On November 7, 2009 my uncle, John Woodward, went to be with his Lord and Savior.
John was a man whom everyone wanted to be around. I don't think I have ever met someone who was so full of joy and life as much as he was. John loved life and was going to enjoy every minute God gave him. He loved everyone around him and wanted all to know the source of his happiness, Jesus Christ. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend.

Our family loved Uncle John. If there was anyone we had to get stuck on a desert island with, it would be John. Why? Because we know we would never be bored. Some of my fondest memories of John are playing board games, wii, or volleyball and bocce at the beach. John was always up for a game of any kind and would play his heart out to beat you no matter how old you were. Even when we were kids, John made us earn our wins.

John's laugh was infectious. So many of my memories of Uncle John involve laughter and singing. I will pass on John's legacy by teaching "We're going to the lake" and "We're going to the beach" songs to my kids. Songs that John made up but for the longest time I thought they were real songs! I will miss John's laughter and hope that I can still hear it in my mind many years from now.

As I have grown older, I have appreciated John's love not just for me but for my family as well. He and Patricia would travel down to Raleigh to make sure they said goodbye to us before we left for Korea or come see us when we got back and would even write about us on his blog. He was genuinely interested in our lives. We don't get a lot of calls in Korea but he would always make sure he called to see how we were doing. John was like another grandfather to my kids. Zachary loves Uncle John. He shared John's passion with the wii and I think gained a lot of his skills. Even Zachary knew from a young age that Uncle John was the fun one.

Life will be very different with John gone. I know he is in heaven rejoicing and singing praises to his King at the top of his lungs. He is not looking back. He is in a much better place. Life is always harder for those left behind. John can never be replaced but we will keep his memory alive. Zachary reminds me so much of John with his thirst for knowledge, wii fanaticism, silliness, and competitiveness. John's legacy will live on through his family.
We love you Uncle John!

You're future is so bright...

...you gotta wear shades!

Halloween 2009

Halloween morning began with spooky spider pancakes!

Yum!

Luigi and our toddler turtle

Trick-or-treating at school with buddy Seth

Chim chiminey, Chim chiminey....

Chim chim chiree..a sweep is a lucky, as lucky can be!