Christmas Eve: I celebrated with Lilli, Sarah, and their two German friends visiting from Kenya. We delivered popcorn to the nannies on night shift downstairs, visited the tiny babies in the nursery, opened some small gifts, lit Christmas candles, ate chocolate that came from one of Lilli's Christmas packages, and played Christmas music. I stayed up until 3am waiting for my brother to arrive! It was an exciting evening :)
Christmas Day
Jhana with her delicious onion chapati
Christmas dinner at Sonya's house! Mashed potatoes, elk roast, salad, chapati, goat, rice pilaf, ice cream, German chocolate cake, and pumpkin bread. It was original and very yummy!
Beth & Beau & Jen & Jon
Kellie being herself
Sarah the spinning doll
We had fun taking pictures out on the porch after the Christmas rain. The rain left beautiful, glistening, drops on every little leaf and pine-needle.
After spending a cozy Christmas night at Sonya's we walked over to her neighbor's house and milked his cow as a creative boxing day activity. It was an experience to say the least. When we were finished, his wife boiled the milk and served us fresh coffee made from beans off of their own coffee bushes. The next course was fresh goat which was a special holiday treat. The broth had small chunks of goat and a nice sprinkle of goat hair in it. We managed to choke most of the soup down, but Jonathan was the only trooper with the actual goat body parts that were gray and revolting. Ephrahim, the owner of the cow, had two beautiful children who provided us with much entertainment and smiles. We had a blast that morning with great conversation and fellowship.
4-year-old Emmy
2-year-old Edson
first time milking a cow!
\The four of us!
Sonya's house
View of Mt. Kilimanjaro on the way to Sonya's house
Carrying pots and pans back to our house...we stopped at the little shop to rest our feet
Our Christmas crowd!
-2 Germans from Kenya
-2 Americans from Malawi
-2 Germans from Tanzania
-1 Canadian from Tanzania
-1 Canadian from Canada
-3 American's from Tanzania (One of them is behind the camera)
Oh Beth, these pictures are so fun!! I especially love the picture of the four of you when you went to milk the cow. :) So happy you're taking photos, even though the J's won't. :P
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos. Looks like Christmas was memorable and fun with a truly international group! Cool! Had to chuckle that you are milking a cow for the first time in Africa, when you are from nearly the Dairy Capital of Canada. ( That might be a stretch!) Hope you have a terrific rest of your time with your loved ones all together. Love to all! Kisses to little George and all the other babies! xoxo
ReplyDeleteOh, Bethany, you can't know how these pictures warm my heart!!! You do a mother good... Something about seeing you all together there just lifts my spirits and makes me very happy!!! Thank you for taking the time to put up a post. Just cram in as much fun as you can while you are all there, okay?!? :-) Love you guys!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, this will truly be a Christmas to remember for everyone, except the poor goat. While I am sure it was a truly hospitable thing to do, too bad you couldn't have whipped out some packages of tofu and said, "Say, have you ever tried this? It us an uncanny goat flavor, and well, will save you a lot of work." Or something like that. I have to hand it to Jon, that was pretty brave of him to be the official taste master. Afterwards you could have sung..."Goatell It On The Mountain..."
ReplyDeleteYeah for big Christmases at my house!! I'm glad you all came over!!!
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