Christmas Day

Warning: if you aren't my mother, you may find all of this detail a little boring. Feel free to skip to the photos.

We had a really nice day on Tuesday...relaxing, eating, laughing, playing games, etc. It was wonderful to have Kirk and Karla here, of course. I must say we would have been a little bit lonely without them!

Christmas morning started out with lighting the Christ candle in our advent "wreath" (you can see it in the background of the first picture) and Uncle Kirk reading the Christmas story to us. We also prayed for C, who had a terrible earache. Then, as the kids were saying, they "unstuffed their stockings!" Cracked me up. They got a bunch of new Polly Pockets, so while M and I made breakfast they entertained K and K with that. :)

While we made our breakfast, I got one of my best Christmas presents! My friend Erin (she moved away from here in July) called me! It was so wonderful to hear her voice again. Thanks Erin. (I won't talk about how much it made me miss her and her family the rest of the day...)

We had scrambled eggs with peppers, onions, mushrooms, ham and imported co-jack cheese. Our neighbour Josh brought us cinnamon rolls the day before, which was a lovely surprise since I had really wanted to make some and just didn't have time.

After breakfast we opened gifts. Highlights included a scrapbook and some stickers for C (from us), a gift certificate for a loooong massage (for me from M), Lindt chocolates for M and I (from K and K), and new DVDs for the kids (from K and K). The girls also got some new books and L got a princess and prince with their carriage for her Little People set.

I can't actually remember what all we did between then and dinner, but I think we played yet another game of Puerto Rico and ate some leftovers from the night before (cheeseball, etc). I also know that C started her scrapbooking career, and life will never be the same again. :) She is doing a great job, and it's hilarious to see that every single page says "Fun!" or "Fun! Fun!" :) Oh yeah, Karla and I attempted to nap, and S and L played in the pool for awhile.

We had an excellent Christmas dinner, made even more excellent because of the fact that most of the food prep was done the day before. We had grilled steak and shrimp, green beans (fresh!), coleslaw, and garlic mashed potatoes made by K and K. The steak was definitely something to write home about. Watch Kirk's blog to see his tribute to the zebu that gave his life for that meal. :) We finished off the meal with pumpkin pie that was tasty but less than ideal. (My blender gave out while I was making it, so it wouldn't be called silky smooth.) We topped it with "whipped" cream which was also less than ideal. For some reason my cream wouldn't whip and it started to turn to butter! Ugh. Oh well.

I have absolutely no recollection at this moment about what we did when the kids went to bed. Maybe napped on the couches? It happened a lot of evenings around here, so maybe that's it. Oh, I think we played a game, maybe. Puerto Rico again, I think.

Here's a photo of S decorating our nativity set with seashells. Karla thought it gave them a "Beachy" look. I declare you an ethnic Menno (likely with American roots) if you got that pun! :)

I now have a picture of me with each of my sisters here in Madagascar! I never expected to have all 3 of my sisters visit us here. It has been a series of good gifts from God.