Sooo much to say--I don't know WHERE to begin!!

My good friend, Tambur is prodding me to "get to it" and finally put something (anything) on here to update my peeps...so, here goes--

MuuuCH has happened (obviously) since the last time I actually wrote anything on my blog (I don't know if I even have the right to call it that anymore)!!  I will update (someday) the particulars that are most definitely going to be missing at this point, of our many "firsts" here in Cyprus.  But what I can tell you is that although we had many, many things going on all at the same time, they somehow all came together perfectly and the whole move turned out smoothly...well, as smoothly as a move half-way around the world can go!

When we arrived here, we were greeted by our new (& fast) friends, the McDonald's (Greg & Tambur & their clan of 4 kiddos) who so perfectly had filled our fridge, prepared dinner for us, made our beds, & arranged our furniture in a way that worked for us...THANK YOU!!!  Theennn, Tambur (the SAINT)

chauffeured Colt & I around for the first month until we finally found a car...THANK YOU MORE!!  :)  We have been truly blessed with the new friends we have made and are still making here, and the feeling of family.  I have gotten to meet some incredible women at coffees each month and Colt has made some sweet friends at his new preschool and at playgroup.  We've also gotten to go sight-seeing to some beautiful places that we hope to go back to soon...like Kyrenia and the Troodos mountains.

Thankfully we also finally found a car that fit Clint--this was a task in itself since he literally "tried on" every car at one dealership and didn't fit in ONE of them!!  We just waited patiently and I prayed that we would find one that was in our budget and voila...the next day, Clint told me he had found the perfect car for us--a 2002 Isuzu Trooper!!  Not only does it fit Clint, it (kinda) fit our budget, and it seats 7 people (which we had given up on finding).

I'll go back to the updates later (I hope) but right now, we're in Christmas mode and are sooo looking forward to Santa's arrival in a few days.  We've had a few conversations about whether Santa will know where to find us and how he will get in the house.  But I think after receiving emails from "The Big Guy in the Red Suit" himself, the confidence returned!  ;)  Tonight we got to attend the kids' school Christmas concert and we were pleasantly treated to songs that talked about the Savior's birth...in school (there were also songs about Hanukah, and Mexico, and other traditions)!  CJ & Ashlee are fitting in well at school and were so proud of their artwork that was displayed and of their concert...it was PERFECT (like Aunt Bean would say :))!! 

I promise to write more often in shorter spurts from this point on and I will try to go back and touch on the cool things we've already seen and done (just to document them).

Big shout out (& THANK YOU) to my "soul sista", Tambur for the prodding--I definitely needed that (& I'm not surprised that you "just knew")!!

Here are a few pics of the new wheels, visiting Santa, The Gibsons in front of the advent wreath at our new church, and the gorgeous decorations we get to see on almost every corner and roundabout...its lovely!  Merry Christmas!!