Month: December 2010

Christ is born!  Praise Him!

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday.  What a joyous event to celebrate, the birth of our Jesus, the Savior born in the manger, oh how I wish I was one of the shepherds to be there when the angel appeared to tell them great news.  What an honor for them to be one of the first ones to meet Jesus Christ, the Only Son, I have goose bumps as I write this.
This year we have received the best gift, a living soul, our daughter Isabella.  I have never imagined the love that is this huge, it is indescribable.  Thank you dear Lord for gifting her to us!
I don’t know if anyone else notices but it seems to me that during this wonderful season of celebration, people are more angry, rude and simply cruel especially on the road and in stores.  Somehow it has become a race to get the best gift, sign 50 or so cards, cook the best meal and ect.  We get so caught up in all the busyness that we forget the main purpose, the celebration of Christ.  As I read the story to Bella from her little Bible and she tried to bite the book, it brought a smile to my face, it was written so simple and wonderful for kids to understand and to rejoice.  I believe she liked the story, because she moved on to biting other books and left the Bible alone 😉
This year Christmas was a little hectic or at least it seemed that way.  We started our celebration on Christmas Eve at our home with my (Helen’s) parents, Oleg and Lilya joining us for a special dinner.  The next morning we opened our stockings at home and went over to my parent’s house where we had a great fellowship, food and presents.  Bella got spoiled as always with many wonderful gifts, especially her first bicycle, what a surprise it was J  Thank you Papa and Nana for such a generous gift!   On the 26^th we drove to Fresno to spend time with Barry’s family, including his brother Del, sister Lily and their babies that he sees about once or twice a year.  It was a wonderful time of reconnecting and most of all getting to know Bella’s little cousins who are just as cute as they get.   It’s hard to believe that they are all within 6 months apart, they will have a lot of fun playing together as they grow up.  It was so wonderful to finally meet Ava, Lily’s and TJ’s  baby girl, what a little cutie she is J  All in all it was precious time with both families.  Below you can see all the fun that took place.  Enjoy!

When I picked up our Christmas photos and looked at them, I was sad.  It was not because they did not turn out, but because Buddy was not in it.  This year we did not take out own Christmas picture but had a proffecional photographer take it, I can not be more pleased with the quality, but the fact that Buddy is not in it still remains.  So, I decided to do his own little photoshoot in our back yard 🙂  Before Bella joined out family, Buddy was in the spotlight, he had our full attention and he loved it, now he is not getting as much attention from me unfortunately, but him and I still go on our regular runs and he absolutely loves it.  Barry spends much more time with him and makes it a priority, which makes me very happy 🙂  Buddy is a very well trained dog, thanks to Barry, he knows anything from sit and stay to even “cross” when we are at the intersection.  We love our little guy and glad we have him 🙂  Enjoy a few pictures of our Mr. Buddy.

As I write this post, I feel very proud of my dad and my brother Oleg who concurred 26 miles on foot, better yet, running.  I woke up at  4 A.M. on December 5th to the sound of rain and wind, my heart sank.  I looked outside and could not help it but to simply pray, I asked God to let the rain stop and make it a comfortable condition for all the runners to run that morning.  I couldn’t go back to sleep for a while, just kept praying, plus I was very worried about papi (dad) who decided at the age of 53 to do a marathon.  I can not be more proud of him, what a trooper.  He encouraged me more than ever to get out and do things that you always think of doing but wait and then you get older and you end up never doing it.  I will be registering for my own challenge, I will start with 13 miles and move up to 26 🙂  I was blessed to see them crossing the finish line, my heart was beating so hard, as if I was running. Before they showed up on the horizon, I just kept hoping that they were both OK and healthy and what a wonderful son Oleg is, to run it to the very finish with papi when he could have taken off and ran it much faster for the working out machine that he is known to be 😉  I am a very proud daughter and sister.  Enjoy some of the memories captured on camera.