December and the New Year

Merry Christmas!  Okay, so it is a bit late.  Sorry about that.  I put off blogging through the holidays because it got to be a bit crazy.  Roy was traveling a bit and I was busy baking, baking, baking.  

We decided to host an open house for our neighbors and friends the weekend before Christmas.  So, I made 3 kinds of quick breads, dipped pretzels in chocolate, made cookies, peppermint bark and other sweet treats and set up a dessert table along with hot apple cider (not as odd as it sounds in such a hot climate!).  We were blessed by many people coming to hang out and enjoy themselves.  




Christmas Eve was spent at church and I made 5 fudge wreaths for the dessert at the church (400 people came for dinner, worship service and a dramatic production).  It was quite a crowd!

Then on Christmas Day, I made a big dinner with all the fixings - turkey, stuffing, veggies, rolls, cranberry chutney, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.  We invited some international students who didn't have family in town and some other friends as well.  We had dinner and then sang some Christmas carols and shared stories about our past Christmases.  It was a sweet time.  Our Botswanan student LOVED the potatoes!  And, he really liked the pumpkin pie and bread.  

It was a really sweet time of celebrating Christ's birth.  We were amazed at how many stores decorated for Christmas.  But we were also blessed that unlike in the US, Christmas was seen as a Christian holiday.  There wasn't any pressure to change the name or to not say "Merry Christmas" even to a Muslim friend.  It is our holiday and just like we would wish them well on their holiday, they would honor us and wish us well on ours.  It was just nice to not have to be "PC."  

After Christmas Roy and I took a bit of a holiday and went ballroom dancing in Singapore!  That was so much fun.  We have really missed being able to do that frequently like we did in the US.  We used to go to a dance at least once or twice a month, plus we took lessons.  We found that we were a bit out of shape and needed to work on our communication as he led around the dance floor.