Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a beautiful sunny day in Musoma as you can see from Tessa's picture. After opening all the presents, she got her new dress on, grabbed her new beach bucket and headed out to do some properly-attired gardening. I got a leather framed mirror from my loving husband (see photo). He got a new shoe shelf made just in time by our local carpenter. Jack's favorite present was all the wrapping paper for chewing. Tessa's happy with toys galore including a trike, a backpack on wheels, and tons of books.

Jack's rash went away on Monday so by Christmas he was back to being Happy Jack instead of Cranky Clingy Monster Boy. We're very glad to have him in good health now that the bizarre virus is gone.

The big meal of the day was an amazing BBQ with 3 other families followed by a birthday cake for Jesus and my pecan pie with real ice cream! Then we played a Scandinavian lawn game where you throw short, heavy wood rods at blocks - fun for the whole family (when else do we encourage our kids to throw sticks around?). We had a great warm Christmas this year with thoughts of all you in the snow.

Thirsty?

Are you thirsty? Well, just come on over for a fresh glass of tap water at out house! Yummy! We had water like this for Christmas day, then no water at all on Wednesday, then finally - clear water on Thursday evening. The sad thing is that we were not surprised to see this junk coming out of our faucets because it's not too unusual. Of course, even when it's clear we still have to filter it to drink it. We're trying to explain to Tessa that she can't drink water from the tub or tap when she's playing or bathing. How do you explain parasites to a 2 year old?

Jack's mixed birthday

Jack's birthday yesterday was a mixture of tears and laughs. He had fun with his birthday cake although he wouldn't touch it till I put him and the cake on the floor. Then he had a ball with the mess, including a few bites of cake frosted with dog hair. He also liked watching his sister and friends open his presents, even though he barely got a chance to play with them because of the stiff competition.

However, he's been sick for 6 days now: 3 days of 101-102 fever, and now a very loud rash on his head and torso. He has been clinging to me the whole time which is giving me callouses on my hips and arms. The upside though, is that he's sleeping more, and his laundry is very clean since he doesn't want to be alone long enough to crawl! Times like these, we wish we had a doctor around, but we've used our medical books and think he has 5th or 6th disease, which is just an ordinary virus that just has to wear itself out.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

I just wanted to share these two photos of our African Christmas. Here is Tessa honing her fine cookie-making skills. She wasn't too handy with cutting and decorating but got an A+ at licking.

And I finally got my act together and made our family stockings from scraps of fabrics I've used to make curtains, bedding, upholstery, etc. Both Tessa's and Jack's stockings are made with the fabrics I used to make their quilts. I think it will be fun many years from now to remember how I've used these fabrics through our house. Thanks to my Aunt Lynn and her sewing machine, our stockings also have our names!

Due to slim pickings on small gifts in these parts, our stockings will probably be kind of limp tomorrow morning, but I doubt Jack and Tessa will mind when they see all the presents under the tree. Plus, Tessa likes wearing hers as a hat, and we can probably use Jack's as a sleeping bag!

Christmas tree

Several of you asked to see our little fake Christmas tree, so here it is. Some of the gourds are carved, while others are wrapped in a net of beads. The painting behind the tree is one that my mom painted. I wrapped the chairs and tree stand in African fabric.

We'll be here as a family of 4 Christmas morning, opening presents and stockings, with Christmas music in the background and pumpkin bread. We're sharing the afternoon with Australian friends, for whom warmth is normal on Christmas day so they do a BBQ. Two Wycliffe families (our good Dutch friends and a new family), new to our cluster, will also be joining us.

Christmas here definitely feels more like Bible times with the heat and the lack of commercialism. No gaudy decorations everywhere, no ads in the papers, no commercials for the newest toys, no malls or parking problems - just family and friends, presents and food. And heat. :) It's nice not to be innundated with materialistic side of Christmas. And if the internet is working then we'll try to call home on Skype, which would be very special for us and our families.

Tanzanian Thanksgiving Turkey

We celebrated Thanksgiving here a bit more traditionally than we ever did in the States in that our table was spread with produce from local gardens and a FRESH turkey. Yes, Dusty went to some great effort to find a turkey, and fortunately we paid a local man about $3 to get it "presentable." I tried to get there to take a photo of the bird before he met his maker, but I was just a few seconds late. I told them I was hoping to take a live photo, so the man kindly offered to put the head back on! How funny is that? Anyway, that bird was a tasty treat for us in a place where turkey is definitely not common. About 15 missionaries all came together to share the holiday and we all pitched in to pay the $65 price tag, and let me tell you, it was well worth it, but I think we'll just stick with some roast chickens for Christmas.

Kenya Weekend

Last weekend we had a little mini-vacation in Kenya at a beautiful cottage retreat in the only rain forest in Kenya. The highlights were rolling around in the lush grass, kicking the ball with the kids, watching the blue monkey and colobus monkeys play, eating great food prepared by someone other than myself, and having nothing on the agenda.

The lowlights were Jack vomiting all over himself and the car seat
on the drive up (great entertainment for all the locals who gathered to
watch us clean up), a very stressful shopping trip in the city for 6
months' of supplies (isn't shopping supposed to be fun??), a bumpy
detour, and money issues since our bank was bought and trouble ensued
(but it worked out and is getting resolved).

We'll be staying home for Christmas, so this was a nice pre-holiday
vacation. We've decorated the house a bit with a real fake tree and
African carved gourd ornaments which are pretty cool. We're playing
Christmas music, making something resembling cider, and wrapping gifts,
but with the warm weather it's still a challenge to realize this is
actually the Christmas season although we never miss all the commercialization that you are surely getting.

So here's a "warm" season's greeting from Africa: Merry Christmas to all of you, our family and friends - we sure wish we could celebrate with you this year but will eagerly anticipate seeing you in '08.