Christmas in Kenya

We just celebrated our second Christmas in Kenya and it was wonderful.  Eli didn't have to work the entire Christmas weekend and the actual holiday was a quiet and joyous occasion with our boys.  We began the festivities the night before with our tradition of giving them new jammies on Christmas Eve, so they can wake up wearing them on Christmas Day.  So after bath time, it was present time.  They were very excited!

We're so thankful for people who visited us in Kenya this year and brought over these jammies I'd ordered on Amazon.  It would have been more of a challenge to get the boys new pajamas otherwise (since wearing pjs to bed isn't exactly a thing here).

For Caleb, who loves the Force almost as much as he loves animals, it was Star Wars.

For Kai, who digs in the dirt at every possible opportunity, it was construction machines.

For Asa, the tractor-lovin' boy, it was a tractor.

And they were very happy :)  Once we got them in bed, it was time to wrap presents, since of course I hadn't made the time to do it ahead of time!  The power had gone out (which happens fairly frequently this time of year), so Eli and I wrapped presents by candlelight.  Then the power came back on just as we were finishing, so we enjoyed seeing them under the lit tree.  We continued our newfound tradition of chopping down a random tree branch to serve as a Christmas tree, and we were quite happy with the results!

Caleb was the first to wake up, and he ran into our bedroom and declared, "Mom, I saw there were presents under the tree!  And the stockings are so fat!"  He was giddy as giddy as can be, and he was also very patient as he waited for brothers to wake up, and then everyone had to wake up Daddy Horn who slept the latest of all.  It was a wonderfully fun morning.  Being with kids on Christmas morning is one of the best experiences in the world!

And Eli made coffee that had been sent from the States, and I made hot chocolate that had also been sent from the States.  Merry Christmas to us!

Later that day we were busy baking and cooking a Christmas meal to share with friends.  The Benacs are an incredible family who lived below us for the past four months, who also had two little boys, and who we came to love very dearly.  They left Tenwek the day after Christmas (much to our chagrin and not without tears on our part), so enjoying a last meal together was the perfect way to spend the holiday.  All of the boys (minus Kai) were still in their jammies by dinner time and had so much fun playing together as usual.  We adore this family and are missing them greatly.

We also had the joy of the Cowles joining us for dinner.  They also live in our building and lived at Tenwek about 25 years ago (and had three little boys here just like we do now), and now they've been back for over two years.  We had a truly delicious meal (think ham, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, sweet potatoes...) and joyful fellowship.  I laughed so much and it was so good for my soul!

We are so thankful for Christmas in Kenya.  This next year will be amazing as well for entirely different reasons (since we'll be back in the States), but we are so thankful for how the Lord blessed this Christmas season for us!