Christmas

This has by far been the most unique/different/non-Christmasy Christmas we've ever had. The combination of warm weather and lack of Christmas hype in Uganda has made the whole month of December feel more like August. However, with a few special touches and efforts we have managed to have a very special couple of days.

Yesterday (Christmas Eve) our visiting men - Travis, Jared, Grady, Rob and Tyler - headed up to Kitovu Hospital with Paul after a request came from our Irish doctor friend, Una, for blood donations. The children's ward was especially short on blood, and kids were being brought from Kampala in hopes that Masaka would have more available.

Donating blood seems rather trivial until you realize that your blood is actually saving little lives.

Christmas Eve turned out to be more like home than we expected, when a heavy rain and thunderstorm rolled in. Not quite as dismal as Vancouver rain, but a bit of a reminder of home! In the evening we enjoyed appetizers at Lizabee's house (including wildebeest and zebra pate) and then a BBQ for dinner.

This morning, rather than wake up and open presents like every other Christmas morning I've experienced, we went to church where our pastor gave a great message about the Prince of Peace. Lizabee, Jenn (Paul's sister) and I sang a couple carols as "special music numbers," which went over well despite our lack of practice!

When we got home from church we enjoyed a brunch that was inspired by my own family tradition - my mom's Christmas tree cinnamon buns. Mine did not end up looking much like Christmas trees, thanks to crazy yeast.

This afternoon, while Lizabee and I stayed home to get dinner ready, the rest of the group went back to the hospital to hand out gifts and treats to the kids. They loved the chance to do something meaningful on Christmas day - and I think the kids were pretty happy to have some visitors as well.

Thanks to the Christmasy things brought from home, we were able to make our dinner table look pretty good tonight! (And we even had turkey - scrawny, but still turkey!)

And thanks to my Christmas present from Lizabee (the tray) I was able to arrange our baking to look almost as good as my mom's.

I am aware that I have posted enough pictures of baking. I can't help it - it's been my LIFE for the past few weeks. Don't worry. No more.

After dinner we played some games, opened some gifts, and now everyone has gone to bed. Another Christmas, come and gone! And now I'm going to bed too, because let's be real - I'm exhausted!

Merry Christmas to our friends and family! Love and hugs from Uganda.