Christmas stuff

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - ours was nice, though largely unpredictable...we had a nice quiet morning, then I got engrossed in helping my son make a lego tank and forgot all about cooking until it was already 12:00...by the time we were ready to eat (after 3:00) we had a houseful of friends coming to wish us Merry Christmas (it's traditional here to go house to house on Christmas and eat a little bit at each place, but we hadn't planned for guests since everyone on campus was eating lunch at other staff houses). Awkward timing...but they said they had already eaten twice, so it was no big deal. Earlier during a quick break from cooking, I'd gotten a call from an old neighbor who wanted us to come and visit - I tried to get out of it with the "don't have a car" excuse, but she immediately offered to send someone to come and get us, so we ended up going to our old neighborhood at 4:30 - our entire family of 6 and the driver squished in the cab of a small pick-up. Ack! Were there a couple hours, and ate twice more - I could hardly breathe...fell asleep at 8:00 waiting for other friends to come back to watch a movie.

A few pics to share - here's me using my present - a new camera! It's a Canon IXUS 70 if anyone wants to know that! It's super cute. My other point-and-shoot camera died after we went to the Montana Vortex... My other present was orchids - 3 different varieties (the third is similar to the one above, but white instead of yellow).

Our friends said this variety is more rare.

Everyone under the tree - we had a pretty simple Christmas - the kids got bikes, and 1-2 other things, plus their stocking. Dad ended up getting more than anyone, only because the Lord provided me an opportunity to go out shopping with a girlfriend on the 23rd - otherwise he would have only gotten 1 thing!

One more thing to share - I was so excited to see this official-looking Monopoly game at Hypermart, our version of a superstore here (grocery, electronics, household items, clothing, etc). So excited, in fact, that I didn't look closely at any of the writing on the box. Evan opened it and said, "Mom, what does this mean: Ages 8 to ADUIF?" LOL!!! And how did I miss that it says not "Wonders of the World" but "Wonder of the WORID?" Duh....................there are some amusing typos on the game board and instructions as well - from what I can tell, it was translated from French to English in China. Dangerous, very dangerous.

One more funny thing - I had an friend tell me - "It just doesn't feel like Christmas at home if it's not smoky"..........a sentiment I don't exactly share! But to them - the smoke means everyone is cooking in preparation for having guests come to visit with them. So...I guess it makes sense. But to me.......I still have to stick with snow. Sorry!