Christmas in Romania 2006

This update is LONG overdue. We will try to be better at keeping you updated on the current happenings in our lives.

As all of you know, this past December we took a long awaited trip to Sibiu, Romania, Delia’s home town. She hadn’t been “home” for Christmas in more than six years and Brian had never experienced a Romanian Christmas. We prepared in advance for this trip and held our breaths till the day came to board the plane and be off. The excitement was equally shared by Delia’s family. We were there for about two weeks, which needless to say, flew by way too fast. We got to see family and friends and experience some of the Romanian Christmas traditions – like caroling till 3-4 am, going to different church services, eating all the traditional Romanian meals like sarmale, mamaliga and all kinds of sweets and other home made favorites. Brian even got to witness the famous “slaughtering of the pig” – a quite literal description of what actually takes place.

We arrived in Romania mid December and were able to spend the first couple of days with Delia’s grand-parents (her dad’s parents). It was a good time of getting re-acquainted and building a few more memories together.

Then off we were to Sibiu where everyone was anxiously awaiting our arrival. We were so excited to share our joy with everyone in person this time, as we expect our first child.

We decorated the house/trees for Christmas together while listening to carols. Silvan, our four year old nephew, was so precious to be around and he and Brian became quite good friends. He started speaking English and made quite a progress while we were there. If anyone asks what he wants to be when he grows up, he will respond without hesitation that he will be a paleontologist! Dinosaurs are the most exciting thing for him – he knows all species and their characteristics quite well.

Exchanging presents on Christmas Eve together was a time we look back on as such a fond memory, but mainly the time spent together with Mom and Dad (Claudiu & Ana), Ina, Sebi and Silvan, Noni, Maria and Debi is what we mostly hold close to our hearts.

Towards the end of our stay, we took a trip to Balea Lac, up in the mountains. It was about an hour and a half away from Sibiu and we had such a great time playing in the snow (they had at least 3 feet of snow there). We had to take a cable car up to the top of the mountain since the roads were snowed in. Then we sled down the hill and had a blast taking pictures, having snow fights, making snow angels, etc... Here are some pictures below..

If you want to see more pictures of our entire trip you can copy and paste the entire two line link below (copy and paste one line at a time):

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=842181171861284497/l=

245030478/g=6045795/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Thank you for all of your prayers during this time. We are happy to report that we did not miss any of our flights and all of our travel went according to plan. Keep checking back for updates on the baby VERY SOON we promise!