Merry Christmas!

Christmas felt quite different this year. I think it made it easier to be away from home because it didn't "feel" like Christmas. We played Christmas in the house and we made snowflakes for the windows. We went to a couple of Christmas parties so we know it is that time of year, but it still didn't "feel" like Christmas. It's quite difficult to explain. So...I'll just tell you what we did...

Christmas eve we spent a bit of time shucking corn (maize). We were excited to be having corn-on-the-cob with our Christmas lunch so everyone helped.

Except Daddy who was fixing up the grass fort (yes, my flower beds are still missing their mulch). I think he knew something we didn't know (like how fresh maize somehow doesn't taste like corn-on-the-cob. I'm sure I did something wrong, but it was so, so, so hard - tasted a lot like hominy. Yuck!)

After we finished shucking our corn, Dade reminded Joel that he had told Dade he would help him fly his kite. So...despite the fact that there was little to no breeze at all - off they went. We bought some cheap kites in Kampala and this was our first time to use them.


I tried to do the pictures differently so maybe you can click on it and see Dara's tongue sticking out while she is running. (sorry it doesn't work - Joel just has a magic touch). I'm glad she didn't fall. She was just working so hard!
I think the cows enjoyed the show.

Christmas morning came and the kids were excited to know Santa still found them. It's a bit hard to keep the illusion going when Santa brought them the exact thing they wanted in Kampala. Oh well...they know the truth anyway...it was still fun.
We were so blessed to have Zillah, a single girl on our team, spend the night and share our Christmas morning. Her family did a great job of sending her gifts (this is not a jab at our families who also did a great job - it's just the camels that bring the packages have been a bit slow lately)

We gave the kids "Clue" as a gift to share - the instructions are in Arabic so I hope I remember the rules correctly. I will admit that even though the box said it was for ages 5+, it's a bit difficult for 6 year olds (as I learned today).

These are Dade's new pajamas. He has an affinity for soft pajamas so when I found them, I just had to get them. I hope they stay soft.

We were having this slow relaxing morning and I knew that soon I would need to start cooking. We were all still in our pajamas when William knocked on the door and presented me with a chicken. It happened to be one of the roosters they had bought for our Christmas lunch. I hadn't expected to cook one, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I didn't know if I was supposed to boil it or bake it or fry it. I just kept laughing at it. I finally figured out from William that I was supposed to cook it however I wanted to. I was so grateful because I sure didn't want to mess up someone else's Christmas chicken - so much pressure!

I went to cut it up so it would fit in my pan and Joel and I just kept laughing. He asked how he could help, and I just asked for a camera. It was like a rubber chicken - even the color was yellow! It even felt rubbery!
In the end it became a good casserole and we had plenty of food. Donna (William's mom) made chicken, beef, cabbage, and rice. I had fish, chicken, hard-corn (which is how the Ugandan's like it - so that worked out well), and millet bread (which is difficult to describe and make, but it was fun to present as it's Richard's favorite food). The picture doesn't do it justice. So, you'll have to take my word for it that it was a great time.

We ended up having 13 people for lunch and Richard was so comfortable that he fell asleep on the couch afterwards. What a true compliment! This is Medard (May-dad) who is the young man who worked with Joel to start the college Bible study.
In the evening we went to the Wards for an evening get together. We ate so much food and had such nice fellowship with our friends here....what a wonderful celebration of our Lord's birthday.