Though there was no snow and though there was no Christmas conifer and though the rest of our family was thousands of miles away, we did have a very merry Christmas.
When my family was in Congo when I was a kid we had a tradition of doing work projects during the afternoon of Christmas Eve before opening gifts later that night. Not my favorite tradition at the time but a good one to emulate. This Christmas Eve I got to help pass out soap, rice, sardines and sheets to the patients at the hospital here. I manned the pushcart as we wheeled our way through the different wards. Read this post from the Danforths, another missionary family here, to find out more: Merry Christmas!!
Driving Santa's sleigh
On Christmas Day I woke up a little earlier and walked just outside the mission to buy some beignets from a roadside stand. Once back at the house we had a breakfast of beignets, pineapple and Nescafe instant coffee. We read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke--another family tradition--and then moved to our Christmas tree in the living room. Yes, we did have a Christmas tree, put together from the tips of some cut palm fronds. We even had some presents "under" the tree, received unexpectedly from some of the fellow missionaries here. They included this baby hat and a few other baby clothes which qualify as her first Christmas gifts...and she hasn't even been born yet!
Our Christmas tree
Baby's 1st Christmas present
In the afternoon we relaxed together and that evening all the missionaries celebrated with a big meal at the Danforth's. Instead of a Christmas ham we enjoyed a Christmas goat. Also stuffing, corn pudding, dinner rolls, green beans, cranberry sauce, etcetera, etcetera. Fortunately we were able to save some room for dessert. For that we walked over to the Wester's for coffee and pie--five different kinds of pie. We also did a White Elephant gift exchange where we parted with a bag of mints and a holographic Obama belt and received a scented candle and a Norwegian finger-warming mug.
The highlights of the day were talking to our parents for about fifteen minutes each. And though we couldn't be in either Denver with Michelle's family or in Wisconsin with mine, we were happy to celebrate with each other and with the missionary families of Gamboula, most whom I have known as my friends' parents since I was a kid in Zaire. God is good and while we look forward to celebrating with our family back in the US in the future we are happy to make some new (and very different) memories too.
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