As many of our family and friends are waking up to Christmas morning and unwrapping presents, we are "wrapping up" a busy but wonderful Christmas.
We attended a number of holiday parties in the last week - including the big Embassy party with over 600 invitees (Embassy employees and their families). But with weather in the high 80s it has taken an effort to get into the Christmas spirit. Stacey's baking helped a lot, and the kids' excitement could not be contained.
When Christmas Eve arrived, we weren't sure if we were ready. But the day turned out to be a wonderful mosaic of what Christmas means to us. Jeff headed off for church at 7 am to practice with the choir for the Sunday program. Jeff directs the choir and they had been working on the Christmas hymns for several weeks. He also worked with the Primary children on two songs for them to sing in Sacrament meeting. The program had a distinctly African flavor, and may have seemed like a disaster to those more used to polished programs, but Jeff was proud of the choir's heart-felt rendering of the Christmas hymns.
After church, our closest friends in Cameroon came over for lunch and Christmas Eve festivities. Jon and Leora brought the fixings for taco salad - a tradition of theirs each Christmas Eve. The Swaneys came with their three boys and the ingredients for doughnut balls - one of their Christmas traditions. Elder and Sister Hanks also came over to enjoy food, football and festivities. After lunch, we played games together and munched on cookies and Holiday slush - a traditional drink from Jeff's family.
Then Stacey directed this year's Christmas Eve reenactment of the Nativity. We were glad to have plenty of actors this year, and really enjoyed sharing with our friends the touching and sometimes humorous pageant. We sang Christmas carols together and pondered the true meaning of Christmas.
After saying good night to our friends, Stacey gave each of the kids one present to open - new striped Christmas pajamas. After the long and wonderful afternoon of festivities, the kids fell asleep quickly, and we rushed to finish getting the tree ready for Santa to deliver his presents.
As always, the morning came too fast, but we couldn't hold back the boys much later than 6:30 am. We thoroughly enjoyed the flurry of wrapping paper, sips of egg nog, and the search for batteries that come with each Christmas morning. It was great being a family and sharing the excitement of new toys and games and books.
We missed all of you and hope that your Christmases were also full of peace and love.
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