Christmas Morning

Elijah and Anna waited in eager anticipation to open their stockings. It was actually Christmas eve night that they got their stockings. They both took a minute to realize that there were presents in the stockings too.




On Christmas morning, we had their gifts all set up for them to walk out of their bedroom door and see first thing when they woke up.




After hunger finally tore them away from their gifts, we sat down to crepes with peaches and whipped creme. This is a tradition that Brad and I started the first year of our marriage.



After more playing, lots of cookings and even more eating, the kids were ready for a nap. Anna decided to start her nap at the table, while ELijah opted for the sofa. Both kids really wanted to have a birthday cake for Jesus, so we managed to get the candles lit and blown out before both of them went to bed.

Elijah's 4th birthday

It is hard to believe that we are parents to a 4 year old! this was the first year that Elijah really seemed to understand that birthdays mean presents and cake and the world revolving around you for one single but marvelous day. We started with the now traditional birthday meal of hotdogs, baked beans and french fries. A little more expensive these days since they have to be bought at the local import grocery store, but all well worth it.



No birthday is complete without cake. Elijah insisted that he wanted a pink cake, so I tried to make it really dark pink so that we can call it "red" when he is a teenager and looking at the picture.


Elijah got a spiderman costume and Anna got a princess costume (for her little sister gift)among other things. Both costumes were a huge hit and provided hours of quality pretending.

Christmas Decorations

We spent last night decorating the Christmas tree and playing Christmas music. Now all we need is to bake some Christmas goodies and we will be all set. Even in tropical heat, there is something so exciting about Christmas time! The kids loved decorating the tree, and trying on some reindeer ears that they had forgotten from last year. After their baths they suddenly turned into little exhibitionists and streaked around the house wearing only the reindeer ears! I cropped the picture to spare ourselves expensive therapy bills when they are older.

Wedding Festivities

If we have learned nothing else since arriving to our Island home, it is to expect everything to take longer than you think it will. This held true this weekend when we went to our friends younger brother's wedding. Usually at weddings here, you show up, shake everyone's hand as you walk through a receiving line, eat a plate of food and then go home. It is a quick "eat and run" type gathering. This past Sunday, we arrived to our friends house at 8:30am and realized that we might be in for a longer day. Normally guests only come to the reception and only a special chosen few go to the actual wedding, which is very formal. I guess we are special, because we arrived at the grooms house to have a formal meal with both sets of families. Then we traveled with 6 tiny ladies all squished in our car to the brides house, where we separated men and women and had a formal religious ceremony. After that, we all went outside and had another huge meal. My only question is how everyone here is so tiny but can eat so much. Our second full meal of the day (huge plate of rice, vegetables and spicy goat and chicken) was all before 11am. We arrived home hot, exhausted and not wanting to eat again for days, but thrilled to have a glimpse into the culture of our host country. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, so we only have a picture of us after we got home.