I love Czech Christmas:)

 

 

It's like living in a winter wonderland; it's been so cold and moist that the snow seems to just form out of thin air and attach to the trees. The top picture was taken in the morning on my way to work on Friday, and the next picture shows the long line of people waiting to buy their carp for the Christmas Dinner. Yesterday we had a full day, the our Christmas pageant in the morning and Live Nativity in the evening. The play was great, if you've ever read "The best Christmas pageant Ever," this was a translation into Czech language and culture. You can see the group of hoodlums in this picture starting some firecrackers, and in the next picture the firemen came to clean it up.

 

 

Our band also played two songs during the worship, a big step. We got many great comments of support and encouragement, plus I feel like the members of the band really felt like they played a special role in the service. We had many visitors and I think they could tell from the service that exciting things are happening in this church.
And of course, the Live Nativity was the perfect ending to the day. We stood outside for an hour, singing in the FREEZING COLD! I had two sets of gloves(thank you MaryAnn and Jacque:), two hats(thanks to one of my students), two layers of pants, and my special coat from a woman in Switzerland(see first snow post from last November). In between the singing, I did somethings with members from our Band, Madla on violin and Honza on guitar. Honza and I put together Jingle Bell Rock as kind of a last minute idea, and it was a great hit. Lots of people know this song; it was quite a surprise though, against the other classical carols. We finished off the evening with Christmas Punch and Goulash:) to bring the feeling back into our fingers and toes. It was an amazing day full of celebrating Christ's birth. I'm excited to get started on another one today!