bright eyes + blue eyes

the nutcracker

Front row balcony seats.

Super fun.

We love our theater.

Then, at home, we can act out the ballet with our paper ballerinas. This is the coolest book--I don't have it in my hands right now, so I can't remember the name of it....will post it later. The book includes little paper versions of all of the characters.

Merry Christmas Eve!

 
 
 

cookies + christmas cookies

A couple of years ago, the children and I stumbled upon the sweetest little picture book.

The book is called Cookies, and it's written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

On each of the pages, a particular character trait or virtue is defined--but all of the definitions are written to relate to cookies.

We were so glad when AKR published a follow up book--Christmas Cookies!

 

 
 
 

cousin tradition

  

In 2003 we started a decorating tradition with the cousins.

We've decorated homeade houses.

(beware: it's lots of prep work to bake and assemble 6 of those houses....but the house sure does smell good!)

We've decorated store-bought houses. 

One year we made gingerbread trees to decorate. 

One year we made giant gingerbread men to decorate.

It's hard for me to believe that this will be our sixth year of decorating fun!
 

a frosty morning

Two little elves, still in pjs, wanted to go outside and feel the frosty leaves & grass.

 

{I'm hoping to post a picture plus a few sentences each day this week. Merry Christmas!}

Today we went to a brunch with Pumpkin & all of her kindergarten friends (plus moms & siblings.) Katie's mom & dad hosted the whole thing and just blew us all away with such gracious hospitality.

Also, Pumpkin received some little Christmas treats from her sweet friend....they were Ritz crackers covered with mint chocolate. Sounds sort of bizarre, right? Well, you've got to try them! They taste so much like Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. Yum! I'll post the recipe if I ever get my hands on it.
 

Stop spreading HIV – maintain the roads

I think I recall that Uganda had a big success story with their AIDS prevention campaign.  If I remember correctly, the social marketing campaign designers got the message exactly right, created really relevant campaign posters etc., and found just the right places to spread the word about preventing HIV/AIDS.  Their infection prevalence rate dropped, and HIV prevention and treatment began making good progress in Uganda.  [Somebody please correct me if I’ve gotten the story wrong or mixed up…]

Here’s some AIDS prevention messaging that I saw recently.

A roadside sign erected just before a bridge construction site:

The fine print:

I take the message to be: Next time you are tempted to engage in risky sexual behavior, please go and sweep the street instead.

Somehow, I don’t think team that designed the Uganda AIDS prevention campaign were involved in developing this slogan! 

Rather, I suspect that some donor money for HIV prevention got sidelined into a roads project, and this was the attempt to justify the creative funding…

Good Morning, Teacher!

This is what you’re bound to hear if you walk around in Mupudi [I decided to create a fake name for the place where we live. If you know me, I’ll gladly tell you where exactly I live. If you don’t know me, then I am fine with keeping it general…I’m sure you’re nice, but just in case…]

Anyway, back to Mupudi, the “town where I live”.

If you walk around Mupudi and you’re white, you stick out.  In a good way.  Most of the time. People notice you and generally want to know who you are and what you are doing. 

A few times a week we go for an afternoon walk, and we always pass by groups of children.  Usually, when the kids see us, they stop playing and look at us.  A brave child says, “Shikamo” in a quiet, sincere voice.  That’s the word to show respect to older/more important people.  We respond, “Marahaba”, meaning that we are pleased to accept the respect.  The rest of the children let loose a chorus of Shikamos. 

We continue with our walk, and then we hear a little voice behind us saying, “Good morning, teacher!”  That’s the cheeky, gutsy child, who is trying to live out his respect by greeting us in English.

“Good morning, teacher” or “Good morning, madam” -- That’s what kids in Mupudi associate with English greetings.  How cute is that?  At least we can guess pretty reliably the time of the school day when the English lesson takes place!  

Shelter in the Storm

We had a mega storm last night.  I want to tell you about it.

Our power was out, and after finishing two episodes of The Unit, it was late enough to allow ourselves to go to sleep.  As I was laying in bed, I kept seeing flickers outside the windows and thought it was our outside lights coming on.  (We have fluorescent light fixtures, and they flicker a few times when turned on.)  After about ten times of “the power trying to come back”, I realized that the flickering was actually lightening. It’s been miserably hot, so I assumed it was heat lightening.

I drifted off and woke up a bit later to gigantic, powerful thunderclaps.  The rain started slowly and then became an absolute torrent with unrelenting thunder and lightening.  It was the kind of storm that allows no space for sleep.  We got up for a while to look out the windows.  After getting back in bed, I laid there and listened to the storm and thought about all the people here who live under palm-thatched or grass roofs. 

Allegedly, palm thatching is pretty good at keeping the rain out, but I have no first-hand experience to support that idea.  I’m skeptical that it would keep things dry in a downpour.

The worst must be grass roofs.  The grass roofs are pretty much made by bundling dried grass and stacking the bundles on a roof frame made of sticks.  I’d say about 50% of my neighbors have grass roofs.  And we live in town. Villages are poorer, so there’s a greater proportion of grass roofs there.  A house with a grass roof gets completely soaked during a rain like we had last night. It’s many families’ ambition to save enough money to buy corrugated metal for a roof, but the metal sheets are relatively expensive, so it becomes an intergenerational family goal.  In the intervening years, people and their meager possessions get drenched in every storm.

I am left with a lot of complicated thoughts and feelings when I consider how many kind, generous, hardworking people have such inferior roofs over their heads.  I really don’t think that their homes give a real sense of providing shelter from the storm.

Spend a minute today to thank God for the shelter you have. And pray for wisdom about how to help those who have inadequate shelter.

Stille Nacht

We’ve had a lot of silent nights around here lately.  Not even a fan stirring [to our great dismay!] Something’s wrong with our town’s generator again, so we’re on extremely erratic, low-use energy consumption.  Today I made the freezer-fridge flip in my mind.  If our power supply is bad enough, then our freezer basically takes on the function of the fridge, and keeps a few essential things “cool enough”, which is never ideal in terms of food safety.  The fridge basically becomes an extra cabinet.

I’m tagging on to Abbie’s post about Christmas music.  I love Christmas music, too, but this year and last, I’ve not listened to much.  Celebrating Christmas season in the tropics is kind of strange. This year, I decided I needed to sort through my Christmas music and take out all of the songs referencing winter wonderlands, snowmen, or cozy fireplaces.  Believe me, sitting in front of a crackling fire would be pretty torturous in this heat.  So with my “winter songs removed” playlist, I can use music to help me reflect on Jesus' birth without the ridiculous weather juxtapositions.

I just got the Red Mountain Music Christmas CD, Silent Night, which is great in my current circumstance, because it’s religious songs only.

Another song that I’ve had on repeat is “Bist du bei mir”. I don’t think it’s exactly a Christmas song [and Wikipedia agrees], but I first encountered the song in a Christmas movie.  If you have never seen Joyeux Noël, you should watch it.  It’s not exactly lighthearted, but it’s a beautiful story.

Actually, now that I think about it, that’s something I miss: artsy / foreign films.  With our power problems, I watch plenty of DVDs, but they’re almost all mainstream blockbusters.  That’s nice enough, but I’ll have so many complex, subtitled films to catch up on some day!

twelve songs of christmas

We bought our Christmas tree today and will decorate it tomorrow. After we got the tree situated in the tree stand, Pumpkin ran off to draw a picture. She emerged shortely thereafter with this drawing, which she presented to her Daddy:

That's Hunter, down under the tree, with his hand turning one of the screws on the tree stand. The rest of us are holding the tree steady while he works.

It cracks me up because Hunter, in this drawing, is about a fourth of the size of the rest of us. (And can you tell that he's on his stomach, holding himself up with one hand while he uses the other hand to adjust the stand? That's exactly how he was positioned--I loved her attention to that detail.)

When we were bringing the tree in, I had made some comment about how thankful I was for our big, strong Daddy who could get the tree down off the top of the car & bring it in to set it up. I think that after hearing me say that, Pumpkin thought that a little thanks was in order. She really made me smile.

* * * *

I'm so, so happy to be in Christmas music mode at the moment. I enjoy Christmas music so much and force myself to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to begin listening.

Here are twelve of our favorite Christmas songs:

(Not necessarily our very, very favorites, but definitely ones that we listen to a lot.)

(Links direct you to iTunes)

(1) In The Bleak Midwinter, James Taylor: Fond memories of singing this with my family.

(2) Emmanuel, God With Us, Amy Grant: When my brother Joe was one year old, I was 16 yrs old. We started an annual tradition with this song. We would dance to this song together in the living room, and I would spin him around every time she sings "Emmanuel."

(3) The 12 Days of Christmas, Straight No Chaser: Discovered this song last Christmas and was amazed by their talent. And by their sense of humor.

(4) All I Want for Christmas is You, Mariah Carey: Fun to dance to. 

(5) Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming, Sufjan Stevens: Soft & slow...great for reflection. The incarnation is so shocking when I really stop to think about it. "Isaiah t'was foretold it."

(6) Sleigh Ride, Squirrel Nut Zippers: Peppy & fun. This might be my favorite version of Sleigh Ride ever. 

(7)  Baby It's Cold Outside, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors: We love their Christmas CD so much & this is one of our favorite tracks. They just released a video for this song--woo hoo! Love it, Drew & Ellie!

(8) For Unto Us a Child is Born, Handel's Messiah: A Christmas necessity. Gorgeous. (best part: "And His name shalle be call-ed" wait for it...."Wonderful! Counselor!....")

(9) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Bing Crosby & Ella Fitzgerald: Old school. We have so much fun listening to this one. (best part: "Is it Herman? No! Is it Sherman? Is it Eddie? Is it Freddie? No, no, no no!) 

(10) Song For a Winter's Night, Sarah McLachlan: This entire CD is really beautiful, but this is my favorite song on it. The children and I first listened to this song on a snowy night when we were drinking hot chocolate and watching the snow fall. (great lyrics for a cozy moment like that.) I always remember that night fondly, thanks to this song.

(11) Silent Night, Johnny Cash: What a great voice. This rendition of Silent Night is so peaceful--it's like a lullaby.

(12) White is in the Winter Night, Enya: I love Enya & I am fascinated by her. (All of the vocals are sung by Enya and then layered together--isn't that interesting?) This song is so festive. Perfect background music for decorating the Christmas tree.

* * * *

I'd love for you to leave me a comment with the names of one or two of your favorite Christmas songs. (I'm serious--we love to add some fresh, new songs to our collection each year.)

If you're bashful, as some of you tens of readers are, feel free to leave an anonymous comment. Bashful people have great song recommendations too, right? 

 

moon over china

Just a quick picture post.

Will be back tomorrow with a "real" post.

Happy weekend!