Holiday Highlights

Our last Christmas season in Togo has been one of mixed emotions. We have enjoyed experiencing the traditions that we have come to love here while at the same time anticipating future holidays in America with family and “real” Christmas trees.

This post is photo heavy due to the fact that the Internet had been acting erratically and each post was taking me forever to complete. So, I decided to save up all of my pictures and post them after Christmas. Thankfully, this plan has worked in my favor….the Internet has been working great for the past 3 days!

The boys opened a couple of gifts early this year. It’s a good thing they did too since this is the only picture in this post of Owen without a black eye! (The black eye was the result of a dancing accident.)

The annual Ladies’ Christmas Party hosted this year by Andrea Miller. We had a great time snacking, playing games and exchanging gifts.

We played a game in which we had to dress up someone from our group as Santa Clause. We were given cotton batting, red fabric, tape, red crepe paper and black plastic sacks and 15 minutes. The results were hilarious!

At school, we went on a snowflake making spree! Aren’t they lovely?

The boys bought gifts for their friends with their allowance savings. Thankfully, they really enjoyed giving this year too.

At the community Christmas party, the kids all did some sort of performance. Isaac and his classmates performed a short skit about the night before Christmas and then told a few holiday themed jokes. Here’s one…”What did one snowman say to the other?” “Do you smell carrots?”

The preschoolers sang a song about the 3 wise men. It was precious.

Graham’s class played jingle bells with hand bells and read portions of the Christmas story from the Bible.

On Christmas Eve, April’s mom, Ms. Leslie, hosted a Snow Party for the children. She had a ton of great ideas! First of all, she transformed the classroom into a chilly winter wonderland complete with icicles hanging from the ceiling and blue and white twinkling lights! The kids made snowballs by stuffing cotton batting into white knee-high hosiery and had a snowball fight. They also decorated snowmen cookies and played games.

I had to put in this shot of Owen’s shiner.

Opening gifts!!! Thank you to all of our family who sent gifts! Do you notice the Lego theme this year? We’ve had fun building all of the sets over the past few days.

Bryan surprised me by having a diamond from a ring set in a necklace! Can you tell that I’m pleased?

On Christmas Day, we went to Tankoda to worship with a cluster of Christians. It was a great time of fellowship. They ladies served us spicy pork with red sauce and rice and spaghetti. Yum!

I saw this tree stump as I walked back to the truck after our time in Tankoda. I took it as a reminder of God’s love for me and you! Merry Christmas!