This seems to be our new system--post pictures when we get a flash of internet and come back whenever we get access again to add the captions. I think it works out that we're updating this twice as often if we do it this way. :-)
I'm actually INSIDE the house as I type this. This is the first time we've been able to get internet in our house--usually we have to go up on the roof to catch the signal from our landlord's house across the street. Today, for some reason, the signal is penetrating the concrete... I don't know why, but I sure am thankful.
We also have full strength lights right now--another luxury these days. We don't have power for 5 hours in the morning and 5 hours at night, and lately when we were supposed to have power, we've only had "half line" which is the Nepali-ized English for "brown out." Therefore we've been burning lots of candles and using our headlamps--even when the electricity is on. I'm realizing that getting used to things in stages is sometimes harder than getting the whole deal at the beginning. We had such reliable internet and power for awhile, now we don't have it much at all--and just when I thought that I had a right to these things, I learn again that there are all kinds of opportunities to get cranky and that it isn't worth getting cranky over most of them. I'm seeing again that there are many, many things to be thankful for and that joy shouldn't be based on availability of internet access, but on the privilege of resting in God. Little lessons to be sure, but they make all the difference in living out the gospel in this land where so much doesn't play by the rules that are imbedded in me.
On to the pictures. I never remember what order these get posted in, so if you want the "right" order, you'll have to go down to the bottom of this post and work your way up. . .


Our little Christmas tree. . .this year we "pruned" a shrub in our courtyard and stuck it in a flower pot and brought it inside. Andrew got me a hand crank "old fashioned" sewing machine (with a poinsetta on it) and we were blessed with many other thoughtful gifts from family and friends.
Pete by the toothe ache god. I think we mentioned this in one of our letters awhile ago, but if you have a toothe ache you nail a coin to this "god" and it will go away. Ironically, this is in the stretch of town where all the false teeth sellers have their stores. It is a little disconcerting to walk down the narrow alley and have hundreds of pairs of dentures lined up in windows and glass counters on both sides of you. . .

Our shopping confessions. . . there is an open air bazaar/market close to where we have language class and we wondered in there one day to browse the tables of clothes, shoes, jackets, and cell phone covers. We then discovered you can get nice wool sweaters for $5 and occasionally can even find them in our size (which is significantly larger than most Nepalis). Our second discovery was that many of these clothes are Goodwill or Salvation Army cast-offs that get sent overseas for some reason. Anyway, this is Andrew trying on what has become known as "the Christmas tree sweater" We actually took the picture so he could see how it looked on him, since the open market doesn't have mirrors. The whole market gets picked up every night and re-set out in the morning.

Us and our friends at a lodge on our Christmas trek. We were pretty excited to have this fire to huddle around at night.

New Year's Eve in Tadapani, Nepal. We all ate rice and lentils and celebrated by eating chocolate and going to bed by 8pm.

Making bricks on the land. The brick maker is the contraption in the middle of the picture. When we all get going, it is a pretty smooth system--one scoops dirt, one sprinkles sand inside the machine so the bricks don't stick, one person closes the press and throws their body weight on the lever to compress the brick, one person opens the press and hands the brick to the person carrying the bricks to the drying spot.

Pete and Andrew felting wool slippers. The art needs some refining, but the slippers came out pretty well.

Not the most flattering picture of anyone, but it is the only one I have of us making and eating momos at my language teacher's house. (she's the one on the far right). Momos are like a pierogi but with either meat or veggies and cheese inside and you serve them with a tomato seasme sauce that is AMAZING. My teacher is famous for her momos and it is always a treat to get an invite to her house.

Hmmm, again not the most flattering picture. This is the three of us at our "chowmein place"--a small restaurant up the road where all three of us can eat for $2 (total). Not all restaurants are like this, but it is really handy to have somewhere close by to eat lunch if I don't have time or don't feel like cooking. This is all that is available for convenient/fast food--everything else has to be made from scratch.

My favorite picture that I had tried to place at the top of this post to catch your attention right away. This is Andrew on his 29th birthday, sporting his "birthday mustache". Mind you I really like his beard, his gotee (it only lasted a few weeks) and clean shaven face, but after a 3 second trial run after a long hiking trip awhile ago, I vetoed him ever having a mustache. This of course, made him very determined to have one, so for his birthday, I "gave" him a mustache. We just happened to be at our organization's yearly conference on his birthday, so we got lots of attention :-) It only lasted a day. . .thankfully.

A bunch of us from conference going to see the mountains one early morning. . .