Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! (a day late) Christmas day was such a blessing. Everything was perfect. We had Linda, Ian and Caleb staying with us. Oh and baby Georgie (go to the post below to read about him). Linda is our Kenyan friend that will go with us to the U.S., Ian as you all should know is our Kenyan son who is 13 yrs old and Caleb is from Lemoru. He is 16 yrs old and going to be in 11th grade. Christmas eve we stayed up late watching Christmas movie, drinking hot chocolate, and baking sugar cookies for Santa. Of course we ate most of the cookies but managed to save some. Bud and I told them all about Santa and our silly but fun traditions. So for fun we did some of them. We left out milk and cookies. We also left our socks on the fireplace to get candy from Santa. On Christmas morning "Santa" had come and left us all gifts. We didn't go get the children until 10 so before that we had Christmas together. We all opend gifts and then started cooking for the big lunch. As a tradition, Bud's dad has always made scavenger hunts to find their big present. Bud did the same for Ian. It was so cute and he had a lot of fun. He eventually found his big gift, a bicycle. He was sooooo happy! So then we started the cookin. We mixed in American traditions with Kenyan for a great Christmas lunch. We had turkey, beef, rice, mashed potatoes and chapati. The kids loved it all. The children all opened gifts before eating. It was so cute. They all sat in a circle in our living room and waited anxiosly. One at a time they each opened their gifts. The girls all got baby dolls, a new pair of clothes, and a school uniform. The boys got the same but action figures instead of dolls. We got most of the stuff off of the container. We ate, played, and then I read to them the story of Jesus. We sang happy birthday to Jesus and then had cake. By 3:30 we called it a day and the children went back home. It was wonderful but we were exhausted! Today is our last day in Kitale. We're finishing setting things up for while we're gone and then we will go visit the children to say see you soon! Tomorrow its off to Nairobi for a few days. We'll stay with our friends Daniel and Marlies. We'll do some christmas shopping for family back home, get some things done and then fly out Tuesday morning! We get into Newark, New Jersey Tuesday night will stay the night and fly out the next morning to Dallas. Then we hit the ground running with a busy busy schedule. I'll post our schedule next time. We love you all and are are so thankful for you. Thank you for keeping up with us this year. Here's some Christmas pictures...

Our Christmas tree. We printed a picture of each child to put on it and give to them

A few days before Christmas, making snowflakes and Christmas decorations with our kids.

Christmas eve at the Pinewood. A Chinese/Indian restraunt in town.

Christmas morning. Linda, Caleb and Ian seeing their gifts from Santa!

Elisha under the tree...

Linda in our kitchen making Chapati. Its like a tortilla but softer and made with oil in the skillet.

Elisha in his new clothes from his Aunt Kim.

The horrible Kenyan cake we bought at the grocery store. The kids liked it! And take note of my finger... I sliced it cutting the turkey and also burnt it cooking.

Bud and I with the children after putting on their new clothes. Elisha was taking a nap and Vivian was resting. Vivian got malaria! She is doing much better now.

We love you!

Bud, Kimberly, and Elisha