bright eyes + blue eyes

day 25

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Merry Christmas!

It's been so nice to celebrate Christmas with all of my extended family--including my sister and her husband. We haven't been all together for Christmas since 2007. It's been absolutely wonderful.

Instead of buying gifts for each other, my sibs and I had a nice dinner out on the 23rd. What a lovely evening. I loved it. (photo above)

Pumpkin and Superboy have been having a ball with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Tonight, we played a dance game on Uncle Joe's xbox Kinect until LATE-thirty. 

Izzy (the puppy) has been a great little traveler. Thank goodness for a kennel that she loves. She seems to be very secure when she can sleep in "the same place" every night...no matter where we are.

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Ellie and I are taking a little blog break and will be back with more posts sometime in the new year.

Happy 2011! 

day 24

day 23

December 2010

My father-in-law loves to restore antique cars. Here's one of his masterpieces.

Where I Shopped: Market

Going to the market was pretty much a party every time. I didn’t take my camera to the market very often because it was a sort of chaotic environment. So I am not very happy with the pictures I have from the market, but I am putting them up here for posterity anyways. Nearly everyone is making funny faces – because they’re talking and joking, mostly, but also because some Tanzanians start acting really strange and serious when they see a camera.

The market is where I got fruit (mangoes, oranges, limes, coconuts, pineapples, bananas, papayas, watermelon, passion fruit – depending on season) and vegetables (onions, potatoes, spinach, cooking bananas, tomatoes & bell peppers were the standbys, and when I was lucky I could get carrots, eggplant, various types of squash, cabbage, and avocados). When you think about how many kinds of produce there are in your grocery store, this really is a meager assortment. But there’s a lot that you can make with these things.

After such vivacious shopping experiences at the market in Masasi, going to a Kroger or Tesco seems like such a dry and sterile way to shop…

 

Where I Shopped: Post / TTCL

The post office is right by the market, so I would usually stop by before I went to the Market. I’d check our postbox, of course. And I would usually need to buy some internet credit, too. Tanzanian TeleCommunications Limited had a little office in the back of the post office. We paid for internet by the megabyte, and used top-up vouchers. That was the only way you could access the internet for most of the time we were there.

When our phone line got hooked up, the technician came to our house in his Bajaji, which had a huge ladder affixed to the roof.

day 22

 

One of my favorite Scriptures.

He will surely do it.

day 21

Two more fun drawings.

Superboy - 2010

 
 

day 20

Here are two of my favorite drawings from this year. The first one is from the summer...the second one was just a few weeks ago. (Don't you just love the multicultural princess?)

Pumpkin - 2010

 
  

day 19

 

I was cleaning out an old box from the basement today. I came across this little packet of stamps. The stamp value is $0.05. I have vague memories of someone giving me this pacakge of stamps when I was a little girl....but I can't remember who it was.

Anyway, according to the internet, stamps cost 5 cents from 1963-1968. I like how stamps are little relics of a very specific timeframe.

day 18

 

I love Christmas music.

Related: Post about Christmas Music from Christmas '09

Unrelated: Clive & Ian's 12 Questions of Christmas (My kids enjoyed these little video clips.)