Almost two months have flown by since my last post.  Lots and lots of things have happened, as one might expect when those two months are December and January.  ('One' creeps into one's vocabulary when one lives in England!)  Since there is so much to catch you up on, it seems the best way to do it is with pictures.

Christmas and New Year were full of friends and food and parties, and sadly lacking in far-away family.

 

We managed a lovely Christmas tree, with homemade decorations

 

There was a whole evening of fun in the making of them, too!

I went to Cambridge with some fellow Old Testament enthusiasts for the winter meeting of the Society for Old Testament Studies.  I was excited to reunite with two classmates from seminary, Kevin and Matt, who are also PhD students here at NTC, but live in the U.S. and come over for research trips.  We had a great time at the conference, met loads of interesting scholars, heard some stimulating papers, and even had a few hours to wander around Cambridge.

 

Kevin, Moi, and Joseph on a bridge over the River Cam.

 

Matt, Joseph, and Kevin in front of 'Cafe Naz' in Cambridge.

A lovely fence at a lovely Cambridge college

Lots and lots of church events have happened, of course, and this is a pic from our Family Christmas Festival. 

 

Just call me Mrs. Clause!  :)

Manchester had a looooooooot of snow over Christmas and New Year, and we had a loooooooooooot of fun with that:

The stunning tree in the back garden at NTC

 

Little Man and his beloved Masha, taking pure delight in the frozen wonderland

Mommy getting in on the fun

Little Man has started Reception at his new school (the British equivalent of Kindergarten).  He has settled into the new routine very well, leaving on the back of Daddy's bike at 8:45 in the morning, and returning at 3:30 in the afternoon.  He plays at Masha's house until Big Man and I are done with work at 5, and we all walk home together.  We don't have any pictures of him in his new uniform right now, but soon, I promise.  The second day of school, as I was getting him dressed in the morning, he said, out of the blue, "Now Mommy, today I promise not to run on the tables."  !!  After I picked up my jaw from the floor, I said, "What??"  He said, "Well, it was just an accident."  Ah, the innocence of youth...

Guess that's enough for now.  An episode of Big Bang Theory is waiting...