Christmas in Salone...

I cannot believe it's just over a week till Christmas! However, having said that, I do realize that I have been playing Christmas music almost everyday since just after Thanksgiving. I guess part of the reason is because life is just SO busy. Work is crazy- today we again worked from 8am-7pm and still had to turn children away at the gate. My 'to do' list just keeps growing everyday and it looks like some of that may just need to wait until the Christmas break. In the midst of the craziness, last night we spent the evening decorating our team house living room, which was a lot of fun! To the rhythm of Christmas carols we assembled our Christmas tree, strung the lights and ordained it with ornaments. We filled the room with candles, strung some more lights, placed our snowman climbing up a chandelier type thing and decorated the fan with crazy ornaments which fly around as the fan spins. A bit of a bizarre combination of things really, however, it REALLY does look like Christmas.

The previous weekend I decorated my own room small small; cutting out stars from yellow construction papers and taping them to my window and wall. Many candles are now scattered throughout my room. And of course I had to blow up my inflatable Christmas tree which stands about a foot tall!!! You can't beat that.

As far as spreading the Christmas cheer goes: we had a football team at our gate today singing carols! And tomorrow night some kids from the children's home are coming to carol. I also hope to be able to reach out to others during this season too- that's my favorite part. I am hoping to bring some gifts to the malnourished kids in the feeding center this coming Friday and go to an orphanage for some Christmas fun on Sunday. I am hoping to be able to spend some time with Joshua and his foster family as well.



All in all- it's still my favorite season and I am sure it will be a great Christmas. I am just a little sad because it will be the FIRST Christmas that I am not with any of my family : ( For the past 31 years I have always spent my brother with either my entire family, just my parents, or my brother. This year, it's just me, which is a bit sad. Especially hard since my parents just left and I know my little nephew is celebrating his first Christmas and Í haven't been able to meet him yet. At least I have my Salone friends to celebrate with...