Christmas Memories

Curt, Olivia, and Tessa relaxing during the Christmas holidays. Fun family times had by all!

Our Christmas Tree

Family picture taken at a friend's house

Out at the Budapest Christmas market. Brr! So cold!

Merry Christmas!!!

By the time you read this, Christmas in Hungary will be well into the day. So, we have been celebrating the birth of our Savior for several hours now! Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Day. We promised to share a little about how Hungarians celebrate Christmas. The following is an excerpt from a monthly newsletter that comes out for the benefit of expats living in Hungary:

In Hungary on December 24th, everything closes around noon, or by 4 PM at the latest. All public transportation stops as well. People get home by that time, and start putting up the tree. (It's rarely done before the 24th - You will not see decorated Christmas trees in Hungary before December 24, except perhaps in stores for advertising purposes!) So, the afternoon and early evening of Christmas Eve is occupied by decorating the tree, together, with the family.
Traditional Hungarian tree lights always included candles and sparklers.

According to Hungarian custom, Christmas tree decorations always include very special holiday candies, wrapped in bright gold, red, or other colored foil and tied with bows, called Szaloncukor. These are chocolate on the outside, with marzipan, raspberry, orange or other flavored jellies inside. Some time before Christmas, Hungarian children have already written their letters to baby Jesus, or "Jézuska," much in the same way American children might write letters to Santa Claus. They tell baby Jesus what presents they want for Christmas. Then they leave their letters, on a windowsill for example, to be picked up by angel messengers during the night, while the children are sleeping, and to be "delivered" to baby Jesus! Baby Jesus and the angels will then deliver their gift requests on the night of December 24.

Definitely different from American customs! But the "custom" that the Brannon family desires for all people is the recognition that God sent His Son in flesh to the world to save His people from their sins. Isn't that amazing that God would love us that much??

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!! We send our love and prayers to you......

brannons@scsonline.com

Check back later for Christmas Day pictures.

Just In Time

We're very glad that the construction outside our house has finally finished! It lasted almost 3 months and we thought it would never end. Check out our September blogs if you missed seeing what a mess it all was. It's been a little tricky getting to the places we needed to go with all the heavy equipment blocking our garage door. But we've decided it was worth the hassle since we now have a very nice street, driveway, and sidewalk. Also, things finished just in time for the predicted weather forecast of snow showers for the next few days! It wouldn't be fun to have all that dirt and snow together---MUD!!!

brannons@scsonline.com

Happy Birthday, Meredith

Meredith is 14 today on the 14th! We actually celebrated yesterday since we're leaving early this morning going out of town for a few days. To us, Meredith is a gift from God and we're blessed to have her in our family!

BSF Team Members

We are SO blessed to be able to serve with such wonderful BSF team members here in Hungary. Bob and Shari Volk, with their granddaughter, Madison, arrived in Budapest in April, 2005. The Volks have become our close friends and fellow workers. All of us serve with BSF but we also serve together to proclaim Christ in any avenue that God allows. The 7 of us have had unique opportunities to plant seeds for the gospel and hopefully to have made some eternal impact on the people here. We are thankful for that! This is a picture of us at our Christmas get-together. We had it a little early since the Volks are going back to the states for a couple of weeks for Christmas.

brannons@scsonline.com

A Sunny Day

Yes, these are pictures showing the sun! Never would have thought we all would be so thankful for a beautiful, sunny day. But we are grateful. It's been over 2 weeks since we've had a sunny day like today and we are thanking God for the weather. No snow yet! Hope wherever you are in the world, it's terrific weather there, too. But with or without sun, isn't it still a wonderful day to praise the Son? The Son of God, that is!

brannons@scsonline.com

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory...." Hebrews 1:3

Mikulas Nap (Nicholas Day)

Happy St. Nicholas Day! In Hungary, Santa has nothing to do with Christmas. He comes today, December 6, to visit children everywhere. He'll make his rounds among the shops, schools, and parades to give children some candy and chocolate in red wrappings. Another part of this day is the custom of children setting out their boots or shoes in the windowsill on the night of December 5. During the night, if the children have been really good this past year, they might get tangerines, candies, and even small presents from St. Nicholas. But if the children have been naughty, then they will get a lump of coal or a bunch of switches! We won't tell you what Olivia and Meredith got in their shoes! :)

Check back on our blogs to find out more about Christmas customs that the Hungarians celebrate. It's very fascinating and we are still learning about this culture.

brannons@scsonline.com

Happy First Sunday of Advent!

The girls got the opportunity to sing on the praise team today at church. Hark the Herald Angels Sing! was one of the Christmas hymns we sung. We just love Christmas music that praises the birth of the Lord Jesus!