Fun-Filled Christmas 2011

We had a lovely Christmas this year and it was full of surprises, fun things from family and friends back home and good time with teammates here in Rwanda. Starting with a visit from Santa...

Jude and Lily are already ahead of Pete, when it comes to smiling pictures with Santa. Pete now has three years of screaming Santa pictures and as you can tell it went no better this year!! And yes, we continue to torture him and try to convince him that Santa is a good guy. It does make me laugh that parents want their kids to like a completely stranger old man, to sit on his lap and take candy from him. What a great tradition?!

Thank you Grandma Stella for the delicious Dr. Pepper, that Pete so desperately tried to squeeze one more drop out of the bottle after Daddy finished it.

This was the only downer about Christmas, Pete got harrassed by a Nairobi Eye, which is a blister beetle. Pete actually smashed it on his face and the acid from the beetles body causes blisters, burning and a lot of mess over the past two weeks. It is still peeling some and is finally clearing up.

Thank you Rogers cousins for Pete's new tool set. He plays with it ALL the time. The only bad thing about it, is that our walls are so terribly weak, that we fear that Pete might actually put a huge hole in the wall which is plastic drill or hammer. :)

Our traditional Gingerbread-making contest and Fred Shelby smoked us all. He came with one amazing design and here it is completed--garage, car and all.

Lily was not as worried as she looks in the picture, I just thought it was too cute a moment not to catch. Pete LOVES his brother and sister so very much.

If we can't have snow for snowmen, then we will make them out of red grapes. Our first time ever to buy grapes here, a REAL Christmas treat for us all! Worth the splurge, it totally made Pete's day.

Making our green Christmas tree cookies, as always. Pete loved decorating them, at least for the first tray of them. Then he was off to sword fight, play with our dog or take on some other adventure.

Pete continues to LOVE to read. Here he is spontaneously reading Frosty the Snowman to his sister. He turned the book around and everything all by himself. I was so impressed, that I even sat down and listened to him sing the song to her.

Christmas Packages and Hot Winter Weather

Family and friends have been so sweet to us this Christmas...as you can see we have gotten a few packages to make our holidays so very special. Here are a few pics of the kids sporting some of their Christmas clothes and enjoying the warm, warm weather of Rwanda during December.

For anyone concerned about the picture above, Lily did NOT ride the scooty with Heath without a helmet. We are always safe and have a good little helmet on her! :) Just kidding, she did not ride the scooter at all.

Jude is loving his little exersaucer and is full of smiles and looking for adventure. He chews on everything in sight now, but no teeth yet. We will see in the weeks to come, I am guessing they are on their way soon.

Thank you Mema for our new outfits, they were so much fun.

Sometimes I do not know what we would do if we could not play outside anytime we want to. Everyone loves it and the weather permits it, pretty much every day of the year. Somedays it rains for a bit, but the sun always comes out and we can enjoy our swingset.

Another picture of our Christmas pajamas from Mema every year. Only difference in them is the size! As you can tell, Jude is wearing a slightly larger size than our sweet Lily. They are both growing well and eating great, but Jude is just a bit more energetic about eating!! :)

We are thankful to have two healthy and happy twins in our lives. We sometimes wonder what it would be like to have only welcomed one little one into our home 7 months ago. Life would be so boring! :) Thank you God for every bit of joy, laughter and exhaustion you have blessed us with.