Happy New Year!

Happy 2012! The last few weeks have been a bit busy since we just returned from Bangui, Michelle's dad was visiting and we had Christmas and the New Year to celebrate. And now we are busy getting ready for two teams coming this month. Whew! There is a lot to do.

We just wanted to say "happy new year" and share a few photos from our Christmas celebration. It is always strange to celebrate Christmas and New Year in this climate...but we did our best to make it "feel" like Christmas. We grilled hamburgers and made onion rings for Christmas Eve dinner and opened gifts. Hannah does not understand what gifts are or what Christmas is, but we did have a few gifts for her (most of which were gifts people sent us before she was born and we just hadn't given to her, yet). She at least enjoyed the colorful wrapping.

On Christmas morning we went to our local church for their Christmas service. We decided to wear our new African clothes for the celebration.

We spent the rest of Christmas day with the Smiths and Ekstrands, 4 other missionaries who live in the area. We ate a delicious dinner, sang Christmas carols and did a White Elephant gift exchange. We both ended up getting candy which is always a rare treat. We also brought in the New Year with the Smiths and Ekstrands. We even ate pizza on New Year's Eve!

It is hard to be so far away from family during the holidays...especially now that we have a baby. But we did our best to make the holidays special and we really look forward to being with our families again next year.

Now we are back to work. A lot of planning goes into welcoming and hosting a team. We will also be giving the Hospitality Team more responsibilities while the teams are here this month.

Please pray for all the details we must settle in the next week or so. We will be hosting these teams for three weeks and even though it is fun to have teams come from the states, the work can be exhausting!