Merry Christmas!

So I have begun so many post in last month but none of them have really been what I have wanted to post. I still don't know if this will be exactly what I want to say but here it is . . .

It is December 27th which means it is 2 days after Christmas. In the past week I have gone though every emotion I have ever had. I have been extremely happy, sad, nervous, and grateful. There really didn't seem to be an in between on my emotions in the past week. I was warned before we came to Kenya that Christmas would be the hardest time here in Kenya. I guess I didn't really believe that it would effect me so much but it really did. To be honest I still don't really feel like Christmas has passed. I guess that is good in it's own sense. I tried really hard to get into the Christmas spirit but it is quite hard here in Kenya and most of the Yavs here would agree. It was the first time in my life I really wished Christmas would just pass by without me knowing.

You might ask well why would that be? For me Christmas isn't about the presents but about the people I get to spend my time with. It is spending Christmas eve with my Dad, sisters, Step-family and the Booths. It is waking up on Christmas morning and eating breakfast with my family and then heading to my moms house. Its spending the rest of the day with all of my aunts and uncles. That is my Christmas. Its never really been about about the Christmas music or the decorations. While I missed both of those things, I missed my Christmas most.

While it was not the Christmas I love, it was a decent Christmas. I had been working for 3 weeks to put together a Christmas pageant for a Lutheran Church here in Nairobi. I have really begun to love the church so much. They are a group of amazing Christian and a great group of youth that I get to work with. The pageant went up with great success. We had live animals too. We had a cow, 2 sheep and 2 CAMELS!!! Never in my life did I think I would have camels in the Christmas pageant. It was awesome. Unfortunately, I found out that my phone had been stolen out of my bag at church so that put a damper on the day. But after church, Rev. Sam and his wife Cindy invited us over to their home for some food. We all had the best time. They are such great people. I can say that was one of the few times it really felt like Christmas. We then left to go eat dinner as a YAV family. What a wonderful Yav family I have! God truly blessed me with these 5 wonderful people that I get to share this experience with.

Christmas morning was spent going to church and getting on the Internet with Grace. The afternoon was spent at our site coordinator, Phyllis', house. She cooked us a fantastic meal and we sang Christmas carols. All in all a pretty good day.

Now that Christmas is over I hope that the rest of the time goes by much more quickly. I have quite a bit to look forward to like going back to school, my birthday, Ben coming to Kenya and my dad and sister coming in April. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and may your new year be filled with soo much Joy and Love!