Sister Gubar's Christmas Eve birthday

Always felt sorry for those whose birthday fell so close to Christmas.  "Here is your Birthday and Christmas gift", didn't seem fair. 

So we made a big deal of this birthday.  Chocolate cake with candy cane sprinkles on top and chocolate chips saying Happy B-day.

Our First find in chocolate chips were so big we cut them in half.  Now the ones available are about 1/3 the size of those at home.  This package costing about a dollar filled 1/2 cup.

After blowing out the candles and before eating the cake we went to dinner.  This parking lot is usually jam packed. Guess Romanians stay home for the most part Christmas Eve.

Rand drove but we still had to walk some. 

 Humidity turning to ice made the trees look so lacy.  

 Deciding what to get for lunch

 Figured it out - now for the wait

Sora Strader's idea of waiting.

She heard the snickering.

 This is the Christmas tree we found in the basement.  Alex joined the missionaries for the pose.

 Twin shirts.  Where can I get me one?

 Visited members throughout the week telling them that Sunday would only be for one hour.  Anita Doncu will not be able to come but she sent her love.  

She is the only member in the family.  Her husband is catholic and the son & wife orthodox.  We had never met her husband and thought this was him as he told us about Romanian Christmas traditions.  Turns out he was just the TV repairman.

The computer monitor quit working.  Pres. Craciun hooked the projector up to the computer so that we could continue to use the computer.  Hoping to get the new monitor  the first of 2017.

 Wed. was Zone Conference in Cluj.  We drove up the day before so that we could stay awake for the conference.  The city center was just beautiful.

Sora Day and I during lunch.

 Hung the sheet out on our clothes line in the garage.  When we realized it was froze solid we brought it in.  We discovered if we turn the heat up in the house and lay things over the radiators they dry much faster.   It didn't get much above freezing all week.  Mostly it's below freezing.

 Reindeer appeared on our last roundabout heading home.

We were commissioned by Pres. Ivory to make up a fruit basket for our branch president.  Had a ball doing that.

 Rand's been saving this tie to wear all year 

 Rand could see the library at the church was filling up with old lesson manuals from the President's of the church.  When we got the new Gordon B Hinckley books we started giving the old ones out to members with a Christmas bow on them.  Hope they'll make good use of them.

 Christmas brings out some that haven't been for a long time.

 Ioan standing with his reactivated member.  He ran into Bro. Stoica and invited him back to church.  He came.

Bro. Stoica brought Rand and I this Christmas bouquet with redish  colored orchids.  So pretty.

After our one hour Sacrament meeting we hurried home to finish getting ready for the Missionaries Christmas dinner.  

 Everyone got a stocking.  Felt a little like home at this point.

 Sora Gubar's family tradition had never included getting a stocking filled with gifts.

 Elder Winder with his stocking

 Sora Strader checking out the contents of her stocking

 Elder Dixon wondering if his tree ornament rings.

 They brought us a framed (in brown to match our name) picture of our Christmas District.

 I even made roles and red Christmas jello.

 Sora Gubar always volunteers to wash the dishes.

 Found a deck of Rook cards and Elder Winder taught us how to play.  It's been years since I've played Rook and definitely didn't remember the rules.

 The highlight for the missionaries was skyping with their families.

 We had two lap tops

 An I-phone and an

 I-pad.  Each missionary took a different room and Rand and I were wondering if we'd ever get to visit with our family.

 Fortunately we visited with Kensie and the Findlays earlier.  We got to visit with Eagars, Conners, Braithwaites & Kara after the missionaries went home.

Early Monday morning we finally got to talk to Andrew and family.  It wasn't till the missionaries were taking pictures of their skyping sessions that we got our camera out to do the same thing.

Sorry we didn't get to talk to Chase and Tiffany but they sent us a lovely Christmas card.

The Monday after Christmas was the highlight of the week for us.  Our friend and branch president, Radu Stoica from Iasi paid us a visit.  He and his wife Dominica were headed for Poland where she is from.

 Radu's parents were also traveling with them and they all spent the night with us.  Maria is his Mother and I was her visiting teacher.  She understands a little English but does not speak it.  Her husband does not speak or understand any English.  They brought us some real grape juice from their garden and Romanian potato salad.  So yummy.

 Sora Gubar served in Iasi and wanted to get with the Stoica's too so we had a party on centre.

We even climbed the tower to get a birds eye view of the Christmas festivities.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and the preparation didn't overcome the simple beauty of the Christ Child born in a manger.  A gift from our Heavenly Father.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King!

Let every heart prepare him room,

And Saints and angels sing,

And Saints and angels sing, 

And Saints, and Saints and angels sing.