Merry Christmas!

Our Wreath

Our Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas to all from here in Chad!  I hope it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas where you are.  It is sort of hard to believe that Christmas day is only a few days away.  We even have a chain to count down the days and it still just doesn't seem like it.  We certainly have tried to deck the halls here though.  We constructed a wreath for our door, not that many people here would know what it was.  We built ourselves a tree out of trays and milk tins and a green sheet.  Not quite the same effect as being able to turn off the lights and have your Christmas lights twinkle in the dark and the nice smell of pine.  Let's just say we won't be rocking around the Christmas tree, but we will have a place to put our gifts.

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Nothing says Christmas more than cookies!  So with no school on Thursday we spent our day baking dozens upon dozens of cookies.  Snicker doodle, sugar, chocolate shortbread, and gingerbread were our primary types.  Who knows?  It isn't Christmas yet, so more flavors might arise.  We baked a lot so that we can share our nice American tradition with our neighbors.  We will be delivering our gifts sometime early this week.
 

We also had each of the kids (with lots of assistance from adults) construct and decorate gingerbread houses.  This was a new experience for me.  It was fun and I tried my hardest to make the kids think outside the box …. like giving them a whale and a spaceship.  Joshua was the most creative and decided to do a pyramid with a sarcophagus and treasure box on the side.  He didn't decorate it quite the way I would have, but it was definitely outside the box.  For him I cut out some camels and palm trees since our evergreen cookie cutter didn't seem to fit with his theme.

So we have been going through all the motions, listening to music, preparing gifts, enjoying no school, but I am still missing being with my family.  I am missing sitting in my Christmas light PJ pants, with snow outside, playing games with my siblings.  I miss the smells of Christmas and the traditions that I grew up with.  Perhaps next year will be a normal Christmas, but until then we shall make the most of our fabric tree and paper snowflakes.  Merry Christmas to you all!

Simply Gingerbread