Blasts from the Past - Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas - 2013!

The children enjoyed several Christmas parties throughout the month of December by companies in our area! We love having the local people involved in the ministry of The Fold!

Junior opening a Christmas gift from visitors!








We became parents of a teenager! Yikes!

Ethan turned 13 on December 20th!

We gave him a bow for his birthday. He had done a ton of research and knew exactly what he was interested in. It was fun to give him something that he can keep and use for a long time.

We celebrated with The Fold, enjoying chocolate cake and ice cream!

We celebrated as a family with German Chocolate Cake and Taco Night! 

Our first tacos in South Africa and Ethan's favorite!

We are friends with some students from ECHO, a school in Florida doing research at a farm here in South Africa. Here we are with Chris and Arun. They brought us 50-60 moringa trees to plant in our garden!

If you aren't familiar with Moringa Trees, please take a few minutes to check them out. The vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that they nourish your body with are amazing, not to mention the protein content! The internet is full of info and Organic Moringa can be purchased many places in the states, including Amazon.com.

Another Christmas celebration! This time with OK Grocers. They had an "angel tree" for the kids set up in their Lephahale store location.

Sweet little Junior!

Caeley, the mamas, and a couple of the kids making Caeley's Grandma Lynne's Christmas Shortbread Cookies! They were so yummy!







Reading the kids the Christmas Story on Christmas Eve! It was an interactive felt book, and the kids enjoyed each having a piece and coming up to help with the story.

We do Bible Story Time every night, but we especially enjoyed it throughout this month of December. We did advent lessons every night and the kids decorated a new ornament each evening for their Jesse Tree, which followed the lineage of Jesus through the Old Testament.










Caeley and I made Christmas sugar cookies!
















The Christmas tree in Ruth House
with round one of gifts!

The girls with some of their new gifts.

L - R

Gadibo, Anna, Mpho, Jessica & Maria

 The boys with some of their new gifts!

LR
Ronnie, O'Neill, Kamo, Shimane, Teyani, Pete, Tebogo Sello &

Below:
The kids loved their new Fold shirts that Micky had embroidered for each of them!

Our home - Christmas Morning!



















Caeley with the painting supplies that we bought her with money from her Grandma Lynne and Grandma Carol. The grandmas love to paint together, so we thought this would be a fun gift with the money they sent. She loves it all and has used it a lot!

Ethan with the knife and leather case that Adam and I got for him.

A new doll set with a baby, stroller and crib.









Adam with the grilling set that Caeley bought for him!

On Christmas morning our windows were open, fan was blowing and we were hot hot hot! We had to wipe sweat off of our faces for pictures!



















New doll house for her room. We were so happy to find this for a decent price!





Below:

The Bow family joined us on Christmas day and spent the night. Meda and Randy brought their bows along and Ethan enjoyed trying out some of the new bow accessories that we gave him.

We had a braai for Christmas dinner! 

Steak and boer voers on the grill!

Jennifer and the girls brought homemade cookies in the shape of stables and lots of sweets to put on top! The children loved decorating stables with Baby Jesus and animals on Christmas night!

We ended the evening with just us and the Bows relaxing together and watching Elf, one of our holiday favorites! And again thanking the Lord for providing this sweet family of five to be our family here in SA where traditions are different and the warm holiday weather just makes things seem weird.... :)

Blasts from the Past - Thanksgiving 2013

 I am going to catch up as quick as I can...

We spent Thanksgiving 2013 with our friends, The Bow Family! We were so excited to find a choice of 4 turkeys at our local grocery store - imported from North Carolina! Can you believe it? We couldn't either! Jennifer and I worked hard to create an American celebration. The food was not exactly the same, but was so very yummy and filled with so much love! Everything had to be made from scratch, including the french fried onions for the green bean casserole, the "Stove Top" stuffing, and the pumpkin pies, which involved me up in the middle of the night squeezing fresh cooked pumpkin through cheese cloth.

The beautiful table settings that Jennifer, Meda, and Mabry organized were so beautiful and helped me to forget about Adam dropping one of my pumpkin pies on the kitchen floor that morning, pumpkin puree, shards of glass, and my sweat and tears....everywhere. Oops. Back to the tables, aren't they absolutely beautiful?!








We were so blessed to be able to spend our first big holiday with this sweet family! We were missing our families, and special traditions so much, and this day of celebration with the Bows was a joy and a comfort.

American Thanksgiving food -

                                 

                                        South African Style

Ethan, Evan, Mabry, and Caeley, I think Meda was in the kitchen. They are enjoying Ginger Beer with their dinner. It is like ginger ale, but kind of reaches in and grabs your throat. I don't like it, but Ethan sure does!









You've probably noticed by now that we are eating outside. November here is summer time, with some of the hottest weather right around the corner...









Caeley capped off the day swimming with Mabry in the main lodge's pool at the farm that the Bows stay at. It was a beautiful place to relax and visit with full bellies!

I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

Psalm 7:17