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Merry Christmas to you from our family. We've enjoyed a full few weeks already with the arrival of our nephew Kevin and his wife Allie. They are spending Christmas and New Year's holidays with us and it's been great to have them in the middle of our life here in Poland. As I mentioned in our previous post, we wanted to take a small Christmas gift to our new neighbors and introduce ourselves to them. It was a little awkward getting started, but we found all but 2 of our neighbors home that afternoon. A great way to start something more than nodding heads to each other as we drive by. We included a card that had our names on it and asked them if sometime in the future they could give us their names and phone number. We've had 3 families drop by with their names and also small Christmas goodies.

Below you'll find a portion of our Fala team in fun Santa hats. We were able to host our Fala work Christmas party, play a few games, enjoy a wonderful meal with contributions by all, sing carols in a few languages, and take part in our annual White Elephant gift exchange. It was a great time to play and laugh together. We took some time to take Kevin and Allie to beautiful Krakow to catch the Christmas mart, enjoy Polish sausage off the grill & a cup of warm mulled wine. In addition to the quaint old european charm, we headed into the mall for a Starbucks treat as well. This summer at our English camp we met a family that we've wanted to get together with more often. They've been here; we've been there and we tentatively planned to get together for dinner during this break. Well, yesterday I planned on calling to set up a time to meet and before I called, they were at the door, singing, holding a lantern and a plate of cookies! What a fun holiday surprise! Wishing you a happy New Year and a time to reflect on 2012 as well as think about 2013 and those things you wish to be true. 
Posted by Just Us - The Carlsons at 10:56 AM Labels: Christmas, Family, Neighborhood


