The First Week Home in Pittsburgh -Part II

These are some other highlights that happened... all 4 days before Christmas!

Iris got her first haircut!

So sweet!

Our new high school opened this week! 

The front tower looking up. 

Since I'd been on the Penn Hills School Board for 

20 years... I had plenty of time, tears and now joy...

invested in this process.  And also.. this "viewing"

was special --taken with the current board a week

before the public open house.  Thanks, for inviting me!

Go Big Red!  What a great result!

There are 3 gym floors here.. Two are under the bleachers

for use during the week. 

The gym floor.

This is my 2nd favorite design and place!
The cafeteria... it is stunning and quiet with great acoustics.

The kitchen!

The cafeteria from another direction.

 The classrooms are incredibly equipped!

School clocks that project the right time.  WOW!

The individual desks are designed to fit together for group work.

The Art Room

One of the restrooms.. Let's pray it will always look like this.

My favorite place in the new school..

and the most drastic change from the old building to the new....
THE AUDITORIUM!!!

 With stadium seating there is not a bad seat in the house.

Awesome, right?

This is a picture of the place AI Architects gave their presentation. 

Thank you AI for giving Penn Hills High school students and 

our community such a great gift! 

And then the snow started falling.

Just enough to give us a white Christmas!
Looking out towards our back yard from the family room.

Wouldn't be Christmas without the Christmas wreath!

And then on Saturday most of the family and Gladys
went to see Dickens, "The Christmas Carol" stage play!
Isaac, Michelle, Henry, Rob, Bruce, and Wyatt.

 Love this pic of Heather, Elizabeth and Gladys (grammy) before the show started.
The usher yelled at me for taking it because they thought I was taking a picture
of the stage... SO... I blocked it out so you can't see it here... 

Adam and Michelle were on the other side of me. 

After the show without the flash... Aren't they cute?

Christmas morning at the 8:15 service!

Christmas eve family service in the Barclay...
the 4th and 5th graders sang.

and then the Candlelighting at the end of the service and 

everyone singing, "Silent Night"!

Isaac and Grampa

It was great to be home for this service.  

A couple snapshots after the service of

Isaac and Iris. 

SMILE!

The real deal

 "But I am smiling!"

After this we all went home and intended to come back to the 7:00 service

but sat down and went to sleep.  We did wake for the midnight service so

we attended that one, too!  

It was so great to be home --to see everyone and to 

worship with them, too!  After the midnight service we all hoped that

it would be snowing as we left the church.  But it wasn't snowing this night.

It was cold though and since our blood has thinned some from
being where it is warm...we've been a bit cold since arriving home.
But nothing can warm you up more than the love of Jesues at Christmas
and tomorrow is Christmas morning--the day he was born!

The children can't wait and neither can I.

love,
margie

First Week at Home in Pittsburgh

WE LANDED IN PITTBURGH TWO WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS....

Flew from Kigali to Amsterdam and found this
lit up airplane!   

And this highly decorated Christmas tree
with lots of little villages underneath.   

Fortunately we got home just in time to make some of the school 

and church Christmas programs! Why would we want to go, you ask? 

Because three of our grand kids were able to participate.  

Can't tell you how special it is to see them seeing and enjoying themselves.

 Isaac's school concert was first on the docket, but it was held at Beulah
Church, where I used to work.  It was fun to return and see all the
beautiful Christmas decorations!  His school doesn't have
a place large enough to accommodate all of the parents and families
so this worked out well.  It was packed!



Grammie Sandi and Papap Billy with Iris 
and Daddy Adam before the concert started.

We were sitting all the way in the back.. but i did manage to get
a picture of Isaac... although it is quite fuzzy.  He had a great time
singing with all of his classmates and we loved hearing them!

¡Feliz Navidad! from the first graders.

And check out this Christmas hair-do!!  Not sure how they did this!

On Friday morning I went to get Isaac and Iris off to school...since Michelle and
Adam both head off to work.  Rosanne has been gramma Patterson
while i am gone and thank the Lord for her and grammie Sandi taking
care of the kids each day!  So, this is their pretty tree in their house at 5:45am.

And their fireplace.  Cozy!


Iris giving her brother a hug before he got dressed for school.
She loves her brother!  (and vice versa)

That afternoon our little grandbaby, Katherine came for a visit and while
she was glad to see me... it was really Barney she wanted....

...and Mommy!  She loves her mommy more than any of the other 
kids ever have.. It is
really funny and we all giggle a lot about it. 
She is adorable, too!  I love this picture.

 One of the other days the Ashe kids went to have their
professional Christmas pictures done--at Target! 
Here they are picking out their pictures as 
I strolled Katherine around in the cart.  The pictures are 
great, by the way.


And this is the Ashe Christmas Tree and Fireplace they created! 

 The next night was Elizabeth's concert of the Oakland Girls' Choir
at a church in Shadyside/Oakland.  This was rather a heavy classical
concert.  The girls all have beautiful voices and the music
is mostly Gregorian... A little heavy for an 8 year old, but she loves it! 

The younger girls have their own level choir and their
diction was terrific.  Elizabeth is in the back row!

 She looked so sweet and dreamy-eyed...
but she was singing her heart out.  This was her first
"professional" concert!  ( i think)

This is the whole choir.... Again we were sitting back aways,
and so the shots are hard to get.. Katherine and Brian
probably won't be coming next year, ... it wasn't the kind
of concert to hold their attention.  Brian had a great time in
childcare and Katherine with Aunt Michelle.

Then came Sunday! The children's choir at Fox Chapel was singing so
after attending Hebron's early service we headed over to
hear Wyatt sing in his choir.  They are sitting on the floor here
in the narthex waiting for the time to process in with the adult choir people.

Love this angelic picture! 

Both of the choirs and the brass quintet, as well.

With all the beautiful music, from the week and especially 
today during the worship service... it brought us closer and closer
to the real meaning of Christmas.  Wyatt singing his heart out
didn't hinder anything either... moist eyes all around!

Right after church Oscar and Henry found the snacks.
Smiles all around!

A couple of days later we were at Rob and
Michelle' house at Christmas.

         So you've now had the tour of all three houses and the

      excitement is building.

I'm so glad we were able to be home this week to celebrate with our families

as the kids were involved in so many wonderful things for Christmas.  But the first week

isn't over....  I'll see you on the next page.

I thank the Lord that our kids love him, honor him and give Him glory for

all the things He has helped them become.  Seeing the little ones continue in

those steps is the best Chrsitmas gift ever.  Thanks kids and keep raising your

kids to be more like Him!

love, 

margie

Party "Hearty" at Heaven!

Boy, am I behind!  Before we left for the States in Early December we took 

our middle schoolers and our friend, Innocent to Heaven for lunch and our
little Christmas party!

Yes, Heaven is the name of a local resturant and it is a cool place. 

 Innocent on left, Kofi in long sleeves, on his right Cynthia and across
from her is Patrick and Bruce.

Then the waiter took our picture. 

                                           Scenes from Heaven..  Far and Near!

The new and the not so new.

Even the sky opened up for us as we celebrated our Christmas together.
A giant Dunkin' Donut in the Sky!

Patrick checking out his first ever candy cane! 

Kofi checking out his candy cane, too and Cynthia just taking it all in.
The kids received things they would need and appreciate for school.
They all three start boarding school in Jan.   

Innocent had a few presents, too.

The infamous CMU T-shirt!

Patrick took the camera and he and Kofi continued to check out
the sights below "Heaven".  We live actually in the houses
at the top left hand corner of this picture. And the kids' school is near
that little bright green hill on the right hand side. 

 Being Cool turns up in Rwanda, too.

This sign is for everyone in the office at Hebron Church.
Remember the day we got rid of the Kyocera???
I used to call her --the Kyocera girl...She was a bit of a slowpoke. ha!
I'm sure they are making them better by now. 

 See why they call it heaven... with the sky, the trees
and in general the whole effect?  Heaven will probably
be even better!  I'm sure of it! 

 On our way home we got so excited to see the
yellow arches!  But to no avail.....  Not a Mickey D's
Just a Micha's B!

This is the last day we had to spend with the kids, 
so we did party "hearty" (with full hearts).
It will really be hard not to see them as much when we return.
Please pray that they will work hard in school
and do well and learn everything they can get their hands on!

Being in boarding school will be new for the boys but Cynthia
has already gone to boarding school before-- way out in the country.
We are happy she will be so much closer so we can see her.
Merry Christmas to all but especially these kids that
we have come to know and love with all our hearts!
love,
margie