Christmas Without Bells and Whistles

I apologies for not blogging in about a month. And then when I do blog, bombarding you with a bunch of different blogs! I've been pretty busy finishing up the past semester of school and getting ready for a Russian Language Celebration party in which I, Jamie and other students sang and danced to 3 songs (I might add that the songs where in Russian and were VERY FAST!!) (Pictures- 3 Japanese students, myself in a Russian get-up and Jamie as "Baba Valya")

Praise God that the singing and dancing is over (along with the 3 practices a week) and that a 2 week break from classes has arrived! I had a great Christmas with the Orner's. God blessed us with good movies, good gifts, good food and good fellowship. I even watched my family open up gifts on Skype :)

There really aren't too many bells and whistles for Christmas here in Russia. Most are busy getting ready for the big New Year's celebration. No businesses were closed. Many students where still in class. And even in the church service last night, there was only about half the people there usually is on a Sunday morning. The traditions of Christmas (as I know them) where hard to come by.

In a way, I'm glad that there haven't been any bells and whistles. It has given me a chance to be reminded of what it's all about. It's about a King who became a helpless infant out of love for man. It's about God's Son who became a man out of faithfulness to His Father. It's about the biggest surrender ever – a surrender of a heavenly dwelling, a setting aside of divine power and – when He became my sin – a spiritual separation between the Son to His Father.

My we think on Christ's sacrifice – and may it cause us to run with endurance the race that is set before us!

Hebrews 12:1-3 “...let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and prefecture of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Miss Scarlet did it in the Kitchen without Any Weapons!

Growing up, Miss Scarlet was always my favorite character in the game of Clue. I always fought my sister for the red game piece :)

Recently, fruit flies have brought back a love for Miss Scarlet. But this time she is not a little wooden game piece, she is my hair blow dryer. The blow dryer I purchased here in Novosibirsk is red, it's brand name is “Scarlett” and she has proved to be a killer!

About 3 weeks ago I started noticing a few fruit flies in the kitchen here and there. Then they started to take over the bathroom as well. I never said anything to Baba T. about them, I would just try to kill as many as I could and not let it bother me. Last week Baba T. left for a 2 week stay with an old friend in Moscow. In her absence I started to notice that the little fly problem was out of hand – they were in the sinks, in the bath tub, in the cupboards, on the walls and sealing, on the dishes, and had taken over the 200-some onions neatly hanging from the wall in the corner of the kitchen.

Thanks to Lucas' internet search for “how to get rid of fruit and drain flies” I has given a few ideas on how to handle this problem. They talked about washing dishes WITH SOAP and laundering towels and wash rags (as far as I knew, neither of these things had been done before in our kitchen during my 3 months of living here). They had clever trap ideas, where you use fruit as a bate. (The best one of these was the “Oven Trap” - put some over-ripened fruit in the oven and leaving the oven door open over night and then in the morning quickly and quietly shutting the door and turning the oven on until all the nasty little flys were fried to nothing.)

I tried some of the trap methods but the flies where not attracted to the bate. Despite, I tried another method listed on the website: “The Hair Dryer Method” - holding the back end of the blow dryer up to the flies until they are sucked in and fried. Though a bit leery of it's effectiveness I gave it a try, and was delightfully surprised by the effectiveness and fun of this method! Next thing I knew I was on the top step of a step-latter in the center of the kitchen with “Miss Scarlet” plugged into an extension cord reaching to every corner of the sealing cremating every fly in sight! I wish you could have been there to enjoy this victories moment with us!

For the next 3 days I left Miss Scarlet plugged in a ready to do her job whenever a nasty little fly would appear. Today, I have yet to see one of those nasty little things :)

Unfortunately the story does not end there. You see, I forgot to mention the 200-some onions. (There are 4 braided stands like the one pictured). I knew that the flies were simply going to keep reproducing in the onions no matter how hard Miss Scarlet worked. So in my “cleverness” I put them out on the balcony (I didn't know that freezing an onion would cause it to rout).

Did I mention that these onions where grown by Baba T. at her dacha (farm house) and neatly braided together by her – now deceased – husband? Yeah, pretty sure nothing but the grace of God is going to get me out of this one!

So here's to Him who helped my get rid of the flies and knows all about my 200 bad onions!