Christmas Day

Christmas Eve the kids opened their traditional gift of new pajamas.

Here they are, Christmas morning in the lineup waiting to see what Santa has brought.  This line up has been on stairs for the last seven years, in order of age.  Being on the same level this year, Thomas had to peek around the side of Savannah to be seen. :)

The kids have loved these "hideaway pets" for a while so I'm glad Santa finally brought them!  They roll up in a ball and snap shut with a button.  The kids love them.

Pretty dresses from Grandma M. that the girls love because they're fancy like princesses.  :)

Bri taking a minute to relax by playing some Christmas songs in the background with his Irish whistle. 

 After opening presents, we made muffins for the marine (and all other marines that stopped by the embassy) that was on duty.  The kids wrote notes and drew pictures for them to thank them for being here in Angola to help protect us.  Unfortunately, there is always someone on duty, even on Christmas.  So we wanted to let them know that we thought of them and appreciate their service far from home.  It was fun to see what each of the kids wrote, thanking the marines in their own way.  We walked the muffins up to the embassy, a 30 minute walk, visited with the marine, and then walked home.

The sidewalks and streets were empty of cars and people.  We thoroughly enjoyed the absolute peace and quiet that is uncharacteristic of Luanda.  With everyone indoors celebrating, it was the kind of quiet walk, minus the beautiful landscape and suburban neighborhood, that we could easily find back home.  Here, you have to have a holiday like Christmas or New Year's to have a quiet walk around your neighborhood.  We felt free of safety threats as well, thus all of the picture taking.  :)

 Passing by our first apartment, called the "Sky."  They're working on adding small shops and salons to the building on the street level underneath the apartments.  Should be nice if they can get rid of the disco tech that kept us awake all night!  The building is currently dealing with a lot of unhappy residents that are complaining about the music and are pulling out of their leases.  Glad to know that we weren't the only ones experiencing the music induced insomnia!

 This is an eye-sore for me.  We walk by it every day to the embassy.  Sadly I have thought about doing a clean-up project, but Briant and I have talked about it, and we think that if we did it, it could actually offend them because we would be giving the message that they're messy and we're not, so we're cleaning up after them.  And if we did clean it, it would become messy again.  There are too many Angolans that don't have enough pride to care about the cleanliness of their developing city yet.  Some day hopefully.

Back home in the elevator with our freaky "flash" eyes.  :)

 About a week after we moved in the apartment, we decided that we had to have two kids in one bedroom because we have no storage space for our luggage, winter clothes, Christmas tree and decorations, etc.  We still have 6,000 more pounds of our things coming (mostly books :) ).  So Thomas and Rhea wanted to share a room.  Then I woke up one morning to all three kids begging to be put in the same room.  So we did the move, knowing that at some point, Savvy would probably want her own space again.  We're entertaining the idea for now.  :)  For Christmas they received wall stickers to help decorate the VERY white walls we have everywhere.

 The kids playing with Dad's Christmas present he bought for himself (he always seems to get what he wants for Christmas :) ).  An arcade console to play all of the old atari and commodor 64 games that we grew up with.

Building Thomas' present--a model of the Titanic.  He has always been interested and fascinated by the story of the Titanic so we thought it would be appropriate for him.

Rhea loving her new gifts from G-ma and G-pa B.

Rhea, the little mom that begs to wear my high-heels every day to "play mom."  We have banned her from walking around the whole house because of the noise of the heels clicking the tile floor.  She has to stay in her bedroom.  :)

At 2pm, we went a few floors up to almost the top floor of our building where Simone and Marcus live, to get together with other embassy families for food and visiting.

This is the view from their deck--a beautiful, summer Christmas day!

We left Simone's house to run up the street to borrow the internet of an embassy family that was out of town, to Skype our families that were available to talk.  It's a 9 hour difference to Pacific time, so it gets tricky trying to hook up.  We did though and we were grateful to be able to talk and see some of our family members!  We hurried home from there to make dinner for the missionaries that were coming.  They were going to come over earlier and use our internet to Skype home for Christmas, but obviously plans changed when our internet didn't get hooked up in time.  The Elders went to the mission president's house instead to Skype and then they came for dinner.  The kids were excited to show them all their presents.  The Elders are very patient with the energy level of our children and decibel level at which they talk and interact. :)

On our deck:

Briant, the masochist, putting the last of the Titanic together after Thomas went to bed.  He was determined to get it finished.  

And that he did!  "Museum quality" wouldn't you say as the packaging on the box said.  :)

Every year, we get a picture of the whole family in front of our Christmas tree and have the kids hold a present they like.  This year, our tree is a sorry little tree that can barely hold its ornaments and we're miles away from our family, friends, and country.  Nevertheless, we're all happy and healthy and we have the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ, and for that we are grateful.  We are grateful for Him who atoned for us so that we might not suffer as He did, but that we can live lives of peace and happiness through following Him and using his grace.  I keep telling Briant--it's bad enough that I have weaknesses.  But what's worse is that my weaknesses have followed me to Angola in Africa.  :)  I'm grateful that the power and blessings of the atonement can be accessed anytime, ANYWHERE!  Even in Angola in 2015 if I keep my heart soft.  Alma, a prophet from the Book of Mormon says, "Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.  For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." (Alma 34:31)  That's my 2015 goal--repenting more and keeping my heart soft; soft enough to replace my pride with humility to say sorry more, soft enough to forgive more quickly, soft to make room for more acceptance and less judgement, and soft to be willing to do His will more, and less of mine.  Right now, here in Angola.  My dear friend Janna recently quoted Ezra T. Benson, an LDS prophet:  "You do change human nature, your own human nature, if you surrender it to Christ.  Human nature can be changed here and now.  Human nature has been changed in the past.  Human nature must be changed on an enormous scale in the future, unless the world is to be drowned in its own blood.  And only Christ can change it."