Merry Christmas!!!  

Since it's the middle of the summer for Christmas here, Australia has their OWN version of 

Jingle Bells

Can you guess what the Aussie words mean? Definitions at the end of the post

AUSTRALIAN JINGLE BELLS  

Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden Ute, 

Kicking up the dust, esky in the boot, 

Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs, 

It's Summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs 

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, 

Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!

Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute. 

Engine's getting hot; we dodge the kangaroos, 

The swaggie climbs aboard, he is welcome too. 

All the family's there, sitting by the pool, 

Christmas Day the Aussie way, by the barbecue.  

Chorus

Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze, 

The kids and Uncle Bruce, are swimming in their clothes. 

The time comes 'round to go, we take the family snap,

Pack the car and all shoot through, before the washing up.

Yep! I've been busy!  At the moment I am both staffing a DTS AND preparing for my other school to begin in January.  I am THRILLED that we don't have to cancel this one.  However, I am sad that I won't get to go on outreach with my students.  They will be going to London and then do a 3-week trek in Nepal.  This is why we go hiking a lot in the bush.  

In other news, my base has officially moved off our property.  It was a rental property that ended in November.  We're moving because God has spoken to us about actually building our own building for all the training we do for the nations.  There's only one problem: we're out of our old building but our new building isn't completed.  What does this mean??  A LOT of flexibility. 

 Our DTS class now meets in a local church.  

Our meals are at people's houses

Our worship and staff meetings are at a park.  

Yep!  it's been crazy fun if anything.  We're missionaries!  I think the dictionary should add an extra definition to that word: "being flexible with whatever situation presents itself" because you never know what kind of crazy adventures God will bring your way when you walk His way :)

Ok, I think that's about it.  I hope you're doing great.  I miss all my friend and family during this Christmas season.  Love you all!

our base worshiping in the park

the other night was a lunar eclipse.  the moon was all red.  of course, it was much bigger than this in real life

our Christmas "forest" (there are 3 trees there)

on our way to the bush for our hike-a-thon (a way to raise money for the outreach)

a cute lizard found in the bush on one of our hikes

on trail, we found these massive pipes......so why not walk on them?

we're a serving group

and an eating group

anything that looks fun and challenging, we do.  here, the guys raced up this massive steep rock

and of course, on the trail, we take any opportunity to enjoy streams

at the end of our 15 kilometer hike

our group helped move things into this warehouse (cool story....we were desperate for a place to store some of our stuff and the week of the move, someone offered this big empty warehouse FOR FREE....and the building is just a few kilometers down the road from us!)

Australian Song Definitions

Ute-sports utility (truck)

esky (cooler)

Kelpie (a dog)

singlet (tank top)

thongs (don't freak out.....they are flip flops)

beaut (beautiful)

swaggie (hitch hiker)

snap (photo)