Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We thank you, O God!
We give thanks because you are near.
People everywhere tell of your mighty miracles.

Psalm 75:1
We pray this finds all of our friends and family
enjoying their holidays with a sense of peace and love
that comes through the grace of knowing our Lord Jesus.
We celebrate with you, all He is and all He means to us.

This has been our first Christmas with an empty nest. It has been fun to do all of the traditional things we've always done, but in miniature . . . compared to the typical Italian excess we enjoy when our kids and extended family are around! I put up a little tree, and we cooked all the traditional foods- but two pieces of fish, six shrimp, a four inch casserole of stuffed squid, you can get the idea. John and I have enjoyed a wonderfully peaceful time together this year.

We were invited to celebrate New Year's Eve with our friends- Eddy Lopez, the medical director of our clinic, and his wife Rebekah. They had us and 5 other families over. They have this big beehive wood oven and they have perfected roasting chickens in it. Here is Eddy carving so we can eat. It was a great time of fellowship . . . .

singing, praying, eating, and as always in Ecuador, everyone gets into fire in a big way to celebrate New Year's . Their house is on a hill on the edge of town, and here are some fireworks that we saw going off over Cuenca. It was amazing to see how the sky filled with smoke over about 10 minutes. Soon we'll talk about burning the old man.

Hope you all have an amazing year, that the Lord's sweet care and blessings are evident to each of you every day. He is near! And people everywhere tell of His wonderful miracles.