Christmas in Georia

well merry christmas to all from georgia! thanks to the miracles of a rotating planet i am able to send you the pictures of our christmas before yours has really started. things here are great, i am in zugdidi with my friends (right to left in the picture) paul, mark, lisa and christy. we are staying with mark and lisa, a couple from new york state and they are wonderful! we all opened presents this morning (that mostly consisted of cheap crap we all bought at the same bazaar) and had a bottle of champagne together. now we are cooking a christmas dinner that has turned out to be vegetarian. we wanted to buy a turkey at the market, but they were really expensive, not that bit, and you have to kill, pluck, gut, clean etc. yourself, so the extra cost wasnt worth it to us in the end. we have a squash soup going, a baked ziti type pasta dish, and a creamy cucumber number, as well as eggplant with some of the non stinky type cheese that we found in the market. so life here in the big city has been great for paul and i the last few days. mark and lisa have cheap internet phone, so i was able to talk to a few people back home which was great. also we went to lisa's school to help with her christmas party with her classes which was so much fun. all in all, it has been a great way to celebrate christmas while not being in the states. i don't have too many funny stories but hopefully i wil get some posted up here soon. until then, marry christmas to all, and especially to my brother ryan and whitney and their new baby soon on the way. i miss you so much and am thinking of you constantly. take care, lots of love, merry christmas.