Snow at Christmas?

Alysun and Jeff and little Emma leave Africa on December 19th, so this may be the last posting before they take off for Monmouth!!
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Janice and I went to a "Ladies Night Out" Christmas party last night
at the home of a Church of Christ missionary. The house was unlike
anything I've ever seen. It was essentially a mud-mortar mansion. The
walls were mud and it had a grass roof, but it was about 1500 sq. feet
of living space, plus a loft, vaulted ceilings, tile, custom wood
cabinets, arched doorways, running water, and electricity. The
decorating was straight from Pottery Barn and I sat back and chuckled
at what a mud hut can be. It was beautiful – this lady even had an
artificial, 7ft noble fir Christmas tree in the living room, strung
with red wood beads and white twinkle lights, and an array of cutsy
ornaments. We had a gift exchange and Janice and I had brought DVDs
(previously viewed of course). Other kits of the party was a box of
cake mix from the States, homemade bonbons, and sugar peanuts. You can
tell you are with a bunch of missionary women in a 3rd word country
when you hear gushy comments like, "Where ever did you find chocolate
chips?", and "Is this a PAL DVD from the States, or Asia? – I hope it
will work in my universal DVD player."

It was a lot of fun and I had interesting conversations with the
ladies. There were ladies from South Africa, Australia, Spain, the U.S.,
and England – it was funny to me that even though the backgrounds and
cultures of all the women were so different, we still found plenty to
talk about, from recipes, to fashion, to raising children.

It still doesn't feel too much like Christmas, so I am eager to get
home to the cold weather, spiced cider, Christmas cookies, and the
Christmas Story on a rainy day. When it is 80 degrees and sunny, it
just isn't the same. I was talking to a South African lady last night
who said she once spent Christmas in Vermont and thought it was so
strange to be cold at Christmas. She said there was snow, ice skating,
and evergreen trees and she was used to hot weather, going to the
beach and having a picnic with cold-cuts and ice-cream.

So, wherever you are and however you celebrate the season, I hope we
can all remember why we celebrate in the first place… from Africa to
Oregon and everywhere in between, it is Christ's birth that calls for a
celebration.

We are ALMOST done with the tile job today! Jeff is just grouting the
kitchen- the last and final room. He is grumbling about me blogging
while he is working (I have to find some way to convince him that
blogging is a valuable use of time). The floor looks really good and
it is a huge improvement from the rough cement floor.