Christmas is Coming….

The last week of school before Christmas is always a fun one.  Monday started out with the school "English Olympics" competition, which Tim and I helped with the oral role-play portions.  It's an intense but fun day!  

Wednesday after school, the I.A5 class invited us to their parent Christmas party.  Katarina Joy is their class teacher, so she welcomed everyone to the festivities.  

Then the class sang a Christmas song - some nice voices!!  There was a violin solo too.  

They brought lots of sweets and goodies for everyone to enjoy after the entertainment.  

This view of sunrise was really pretty out our bedroom window.  :-)  

Wednesday evening, Janka and her son Roman took us out to dinner for a relaxed holiday  celebration.  Roman did a nice job of translating!   

On Thursday, our V.AP class all came down the hall singing carols, to present us with a big box of Slovak Christmas cookies, all made by their moms and grandmas for our family.  Just like last year!  What a wonderful and thoughtful group!   :-) 

Friday was a short day of classes with only 1st hour being a normal lesson.  2nd hour was shortened, and the students met with their Class Teachers before walking into the town center for our monthly church service.  We were busy trying to get everything finished (we had several things to do for seniors applying to universities), and were running late, so Pat'ka gave us a ride to the church.  After that, Zuzka walked back with us until we split off and went to our flat to change clothes, finish packing, and head for the train station.  It was fun seeing so many students and colleagues at the station before we left!!  

Here we are at the Berlin Airport after the first of three flights on Saturday.  

We finally made it to Chicago, and for a while we were afraid we'd be spending the night there, since our flight kept getting delayed and there was bad weather rolling in soon!  

The flight attendant on the plane to Des Moines thought I was wearing her Santa hat!  Then she found hers (the same one) so we could take a picture together!   :-)  

Our welcoming committee at the D.M. airport!!  Grammy, Papa, Beth, Lute, and Jon!!  And they even made a bilingual sign for us this time!!   THANKS!!!     :-)

The best early Christmas present ever was discovered on Sunday morning ---- freshly cleared sidewalks AND driveway!!  One of our neighbors had blown out the 4-6" of new snow that fell overnight, before we awoke from our jet-lagged sleep.   What a fantastic surprise, as we expected to do this chore ourselves before church in the morning!!