Expanded Sunday Review Monday

I'm expanded my Sunday Review Monday to include the entire weekend. The truth is, I didn't take many photos from Sunday so for this to be an interesting post I'm gonna need to borrow from the rest of the weekend. *wink*

We (my honey and I plus Hannah and another church lady who had business to do in the capital) started out early Friday morning by heading to the capital to start the dental process for our Hannah to get her implant. She was born without a tooth, just never developed so she's been wearing braces to straiten her teeth that moved into the open space and make room for an implant. I'm thanking the Lord that implants here in Croatia are a fraction of the cost in the States and they're awesome about letting us pay as we go. Anyhoo, she's super excited about finally having a complete smile and since she's already adorable, she'll be even cuter. 

We found these cute cutouts at the mall and had to try them out. I think Hannah liked having Dad as her helper. 

The above photo is true to life!

Hannah also ran into some girlfriends at the mall. My kids have always loved Legos.

Saturday was our annual church Christmas party. We had a ball watching some of our newer folks play games. Cooperation games are so fun cause true natures come out with frustration. 

Daniljela and Jurica were our winners of the gift wrapping game. They work very well together. 

The above lady is Baka (grandma). She's only 55 but she insists on everyone calling her Grandma. She's one of the most loving and giving ladies I've ever met. She has an endless supply of love for anyone who comes to our church. She's a greeter extraordinaire. This is her and Krešo, our most faithful Gypsy man. He is a huge blessing and his love of the Lord is almost unreal. He has grown so much in the past year and we are anticipating that God is going to use him to reach the Gypsy people of Croatia with the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We are always thrilled when Pastor Rich Telebar and his sweet family come from Stablo Života Independent Baptist Church in Čakovec to be with us. He and his wife are our dearest friends in Croatia. Brother Rich is playing potato hockey with his son Ruben. 

Oh yea and one of the things we made for the party was a hot cocoa bar. We had the hot cocoa mix along with whipped cream and 5 different sprinkles. The kids loved it and it was super easy to make. 

Ingredients

• 5 cups of dry milk
• 1/2 C plus 6 Tbsp of coffee creamer
• 1/2 C plus 6 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa
• 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Instructions

Combine well all ingredients in a large bowl. 

Store in airtight container in cool dry place for up to 6 months. 

Makes about 25 C servings.

Combine ⅓ cup of this mix with ¾ cup of boiling/hot water.

Top with whipped cream and sprinkles for an enhanced experience!

This recipe tastes like the real stuff! I was surprised that it was so authentic tasting, you'd never know it was homemade. It's be great as a jar gift. Oh yea and I'm linking up with Tasty Tuesday over at New Mrs. Adventures and Ladybug Blessings.  

Sunday morning I sat in on SS with my daughter hannah and missionary Melissa houston. It was great! I was so impressed with Hannah and Melissa has done a wonderful job teaching her. Melissa will be headed to the States tomorrow morning to spend Chrsitmas with her family so I'll be her fill-in till she returns. 

Right now our SS only has 6 young 'uns but it's growning. We would love to run a van route to pick up children but it's not possible here in Croatia. The truth is that the Baptist church is considered a cult here and the truth is it's very difficult to get Croats to come to church much less them send their children. So our little SS class is made up of drive in walk in folks. 

We have traditional services at the church Sunday mornings and evenings just like in the States but we also have a 4 o'clock meeting in a nearby Gypsy village. The meeting is in the early stages but we are confident that God is going to do something great here and we're praying that he would use us and our brother Krešo to do it. 

Anyhoo, as much as I love our annual Christmas party and all the fun, I'm sure glad it's over. It's amazing how you can prepare for something like that for a week and it's over in a few hours. 

So that is my expnded Sunday Review Monday. Hope you guys had a great weekend too!!