Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Some of our best experiences included:

Christmas Morning in Pascani

1) Christmas concert performed by 30 local priests.

Colinde by the Priests

2) Visits from volunteers Stephen, Anthony, Abby, and Aran.

3) Carolers on Christmas Eve, including two groups of Theron's students.

12A Stops by to Sing

4) Anthony's spaghetti sauce, which ended up feeding all of us for a week.

5) Decorating our Christmas tree with popcorn garland made by Theron and Anthony, and ornaments made by my 3rd graders. (The 3rd graders win.)

6) Christmas "breakfast" at the Judele's house including pork roast and sausage, fresh from the slaughter, and lots of homemade alcohol starting at 9:00 a.m.

Anthony, Theron, Stephen, Lucia, Sarah, Mădălina & Cristi

7) Traditional Moldovan Christmas meal (including răcitură, a meat jello) prepared by one of Theron's counterparts and her husband.

Răcitură!

8) Party for St. Stephen's Day which is the name day of Theron's principal's husband. "Name days" or "saint days" are like second birthdays based your name and the Orthodox calendar.

9) Seeing mini "parades" of people in traditional costumes playing traditional music, or in goat and bear costumes dancing.

A Christmas Parade

10) Knowing that New Year's is celebrated for three days and we still have two more weeks of vacation!