Christmas Eve & Christmas at New Day!

We had a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebration at New Day!  This is definitely the hottest Christmas I ever remember here, with not a drop of rain and just sunny skies all day!  This week's power outage schedule is brutal...12pm to midnight is rough!  We've only run out of water 2 days so that's been a relief!  We will leave this struggle behind in 6 days, but I feel for those who will be here longer, because it's not easy!  That being said, we all put on smiles and tried to help everyone at New Day have a very Merry Christmas!  

Emma loved her new sunglasses and water bottle!  (This is Cambree's very special Easter dress from our first Easter at New Day...!)

Blu & Malilwe..who has gotten SO tall!

Hanging out in the shelter having cokes and snacks donated from Dr. Jain (the Indian doctor in Choma who we miss SO much!  He's the best!)

Nothing like a cold glass bottled Coke!

The older girls learned the Nutcracker ballet dance from Sydney and did great!  They looked so elegant!

Nighttime walks back to the house, led by flashlights!

And nighttime trips to the borehole to get more water!

Mulenga found a leak, so Blu and some of the middle girls worked on that.  I told him, "I feel like your life ALWAYS consists of plumbing!"

A little cheer stunt teaching from Cambree!

Christmas Eve or not...the food relief program goes on!

Agness and Gilly

What else to do on Christmas Eve but chase goats!?

Cambree has been in her element with all these babies to love on!

An Indian Leg Wrestling Tournament!

Joseph is an INCREDIBLE artist and is doing an animal mural around the old shelter!

More babies!

Everybody loves Uncle Blu!

Some Limbo practice for the New Year's Eve party!

Kefbert is the reigning champion!

On Christmas Eve, the Americans headed over to Carolyn's for a feast, a White Elephant, and a Christmas game!

This picture was BEFORE the ants invaded and were absolutely everywhere...all over the food, the counter, the dishes...and we had no water.  It was kinda a nightmare, but we survived!

The ladies - Laurie, Carolyn, me, & Sydney

Oops, we forgot Cambree!

The guys - can you tell Wes is a little outnumbered with Blu gone?!

White Elephant - Cason got deodorant and mints!

Blu got a "Simon" game!

Lots of laughter!

Guess what this is....Blu's traditional cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning!

I brought our stockings from home and surprised our kids with stocking stuffers...after telling them they weren't going to have Christmas this year!

They got personalized Visa gift cards!

Chris, Mama Liz, and CJ (Machila was getting ready for the ballet!)

Melvin and his new wife Gertrude

Papa & Mama Tembo

Blu led some Christmas carols at the party!

More ballet!

The little girls also did a ballet!

Papa Wes & Mama Lala sharing the Christmas Story with the little ones

Uncle Blu and sweet Luyando!

Caedmon helped CJ open his presents!

Christmas Cokes!

We also had the December Monthly Birthday Party on Christmas Day (it was a busy day!)  Cambree has been spending a bunch of time with sweet Machila!

Caedmon pouring water on Cynthia!

Run, Francis!

We have played a ton of games of Settlers!  Aunt Chipo plays, and Blu taught the older girls how to play!

Blu is carving out an hour of each day to work on the February Youth Retreat  - it's going to be awesome!

I worked some on prep for the New Year's Eve party!

Cambree has been a champ this trip - constantly playing soccer and basketball even in this heat!

Cason has been SO good with these babies!  They love him!

Everybody loves little Luke!

That smile... :)

Cason playing some Knockout!

More Settlers - this time with Aunt Chipo!

Using some evening time to beat the heat - sitting on the porch working on One Act Play lines!

We are headed to Choma today to meet a few friends and buy a few supplies for the New Year's party!  Tomorrow is Kids Club, church on Sunday, Hildah arrives Monday night, Tuesday is the New Year's party, Wednesday will be NDO pictures and our goodbyes, and we leave Thursday morning!