SMALL WORDS BUT BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Jonah and I were drawing together yesterday.  After a bit, he wanted the paper and marker to himself.  

ON HIS OWN, he preceded to spell and write DAD, MOM, and BEN.   Even though he said the letters of each name in the correct order as he wrote them, some of them he wrote in wrong order.  But we are very impressed that he was spelling and writing letters on his own, without any help or prompt!

We are so thankful for our school team and all their hard work, determination, patience :) , and high expectations for both of our boys!

Jonah's masterpiece!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Prayer for 2019

Happy New Year from the Laveys!

A LITHUANIAN CHRISTMAS!

On Sunday, 12-23, we celebrated a Lithuanian Christmas in honor of our Ben.  It was fun time!

 A LITHUANIAN CHRISTMAS

Traditions

Family Gathering: Emigration is quite a social problem in Lithuania, as many people have left the country to look for a better life abroad, especially since joining the European Union. But on Christmas, many come back to spend the holiday with their families, as everyone gathers together from all over the world to celebrate and appreciate each other’s company.

 Straw under the Tablecloth: everyone draws a piece of straw.  If you draw a long one, you will have rich life. 

Another interpretation of the straws is this: Single people find out when they will meet their other half by pulling straws from beneath the table (there is no data about the efficiency of this spell, though). 

Straw ornaments on Christmas Tree

 Animals will talk on Christmas Eve.  Pay close attention to Tucker tonight…

 Open gifts on Christmas Eve: we will get our stocking gifts tonight.

 Watch Home Alone [1990].  This movie has been the traditional Christmas movie in Lithuania for years. Many things change in Lithuania, but you can bet you’ll see Home Alone on TV during the holidays. More recently, the Harry Potter movies have also become a staple of Lithuanian Christmas.

 Go to Midnight Mass: will we try this on Christmas Eve?  Lithuania is mainly a Catholic country. 

 Lithuanians always prefer to have snow during the Christmas holiday. However, for the last couple of years, nature was not so kind, and kids had to learn how to build snowmen from sand and grass.

 12 Dish Meal: Lithuanians serve 12 dishes on Christmas because Jesus had 12 disciples.  In accordance with Catholic traditions, many Lithuanians abstain from meat on Christmas, so the main dish is usually fish.

1.         Apple slices

2.         Mulled Cranberry Juice

3.         Mushrooms

4.         Hot Cabbage Dish:

            substituted this for sauerkraut

5.         Cod- ironically our own little Lithuanian doesn't like this so there will be meat available too

6.         Baked Potatoes

7.         Carrots&Cucumbers and veggie dip: substituted this for beets as the veggie

8.         Wheat Porridge

9.         Dried Fruit

10.       Kūčiukai are bite-sized biscuits served with freshly made poppy milk that are only eaten            during the Christmas season. 

11.       Marble Rye Bread

12.       Apple Cake for Jesus' Birthday

linksmų Kalėdų

Merry Christmas in Lithuanian

Thank you Lord for our Lithuanian treasure!

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

I love Christmas!  I love the decorations, I love the special church services and Christmas programs, I love the family get togethers, I love having all our kids under one roof for a few weeks!  I love that we get to celebrate and rejoice the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It's just a great time of year.  This Christmas season was filled with lots of joy!  

 The boys had their school Christmas program.  An improvement I saw from last year's program is that the boys both tried to sing this year instead of stand there.  The funny thing is Ben worked very hard to tempt his brother to get into trouble on stage, but Jonah stayed strong and just stood there as he was suppose to!

The boys also got to be in our church's Christmas program.  They were in the children's choir, but somehow they also got themselves in the last scene of the play which is what you see in this photo.  Pretty good for two boys only attended the practice  on the day of the program!

Fun celebrations at school for the boys.

Our church had a manger scene set up that you could use for photos.  Something of interest, the last time our church did this manger scene 

for photos was way back when:

Weren't they super cute?  

This is Abigail and Stephen.

On Christmas Eve, we had the privilege of attending our own church's Candlelight Service at 6 p.m.  

Then at 10 p.m. we attended a Christmas Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Port Washington.  As you can see, it's a beautiful church, and the service had beautiful music.  This was a very special way to celebrate the night of Jesus' birth. 

 

Christmas Morning!  

Boys discover Santa ate the cookies they left him!

  

Santa leaves a thank you note for the cookies!

We wake up to a white Christmas!  

We haven't had much snow so far this winter so this was very exciting for all of us.

 

Abigail and Stephen take Ben to the Grinch movie.  Jonah refused to go along.  I think he was scared of the theater being too loud, or he just wanted a break from a certain brother who shall remain nameless...

Each year Andrew and I give the 

girls tickets to a play.  

This Christmas season was unique because we were in the middle of Bathroom Boot Camp.  Since early December we have been intensely working on bathroom training both at school and home:  pants check every 15 minutes and bathroom break every hour.  Our house has been filled with the sound of timers going off to remind us of these things every 15 minutes.  It's sort of driving us all nuts, but the good news is we have had the most success we have ever had with Jonah.  Hoping the next few weeks we can really wrap this up and call it a success....finally!

OUR ANNUAL CHRISTMAS LETTER

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2018 and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

ABIGAIL is in her 3rd year at U of M.  Early 2018, she was accepted into the Bio-medical Engineering program.  Abigail enjoyed working an internship in her field of study this past summer and hopes to go back to the same company this coming summer.

STEPHEN is in his 1st year at Carleton College in Northfield, MN.  He is thinking of majoring in biology or math with the hope of going on to medical school.  He enjoyed running college cross country, and is excited for the upcoming track season.

TUCKER (our dog) has really missed his best friend Stephen this fall. 

LYDIA is a sophomore in high school.  She is busy practicing for the school play in December.  She is a very talented artist and is thinking of pursuing a degree in art education.

JONAH and BEN are busy 2nd graders.  They enjoyed their Miracle League Baseball again this past summer.  They also enjoy taking horse therapy lessons.  Jonah is working hard on his speech.  Ben is still working hard on learning what it means to be part of a family and not an orphanage.

ANDREW is still working at Larson Eye Care.  He loves visiting the 2 oldest at their colleges, watching Stephen run, teaching Lydia how to drive ,and keeping up with our active little boys!

MARY is busy taking care of the kids, especially the little boys.  She subs occasionally as an special ed aide at the school which she enjoys.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018: Spring trip to FL for the 3 Lavey gals, Stephen finishing 3rd at state track in 3200m, Stephen's high school graduation, family trip to Winona, MN, and celebrating Mary's parents 65th wedding anniversary.

We hope the story of Jesus' birth reminds you how much God loves and cares for you! 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

TIME FOR THE SHOW!

In early December, Lydia was in the high school play.  It was comedy murder mystery.  She played the roll of rich widow, cowboy, and pirate.  She did an amazing job, and even ad libbed a line which turned out to be one of funniest ones of the play!  

So proud of our Lydia!

THERE ARE SOME LIFE LESSONS IN THIS VIDEO...

This video is one of my biggest 

joys this Christmas season.

So many life lessons you could learn from it:

1. Don't take what isn't yours.
2. We should be willing to endure anything for the sake of Jesus.
3. The love of a mother is fierce.
4. Don't underestimate the power of a sheep.
5. Hopefully we all have someone in our lives like the good Sunday School teacher to keep us on track.

Or you can forget trying to be deep about it, and just have a good Christmas laugh!