Christmas 2010 in Burundi

Our second mission Christmas was definitely not a traditional Christmas. It was filled with things that were far from our usual Christmas activities, but most interesting. This is my favorite Christmas tree. It was made of bamboo supports with branches of a non-evergreen tree layered over them and then decorated. They had to change the branches every few days as they wilted quickly in this warm climate. But it was the prettiest tree we saw this year. There were more trees here than in Lubumbashi. We saw a half a dozen in the stores around town and some young men selling them on the streets.

Two days before Christmas the ladies had a fun morning making spiced nuts the African way with the help of Sister Malabi. They taste a lot like our usual spiced nuts, but the process is very different. I threw in a little cinnamon to make them taste more like the traditional ones at home. I also made a batch of English toffee and fudge for our Christmas celebration. Some things just have to be done. I brought the nuts and marshmallow cream from the US just so we could have them for each Christmas. Yum!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Frogleys. Their tradition is to have Israeli food on Christmas Eve. So, we had a great adventure in new food. I made a soup, something like minestrone, flat bread and coconut cookies, like macaroons. I threw in a little apple pie just to keep Brent happy.

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The Frogleys made tabbouleh salad (tomatoes, onions, parsley, avocado and quinoa, a kind of grain) and harrosette salad (apples, raisins, pomegranates, dried apricots, coconut, nuts and yogurt) It was interesting to try these different foods.

Then we watched a presentation on the Holy Land by Elder Frogley.

Christmas day we had all the missionaries over for dinner and a little party. It was fun to share part of the day with them. We gave little gifts to the elders and played the white elephant game. They're such serious guys that it took awhile for them to get in the swing of the game, but eventually they did and they had fun with it. We also gave them each a DVD of all the pictures we had of each missionary. Since almost none of them has a camera, we thought they would like to have pictures. The missionaries were also able to make a 10 minute call home. For most of them this was their first contact with family during their missions. I think it was a very special time for them. The Frogleys gave them each a DVD of church hymns. Then the elders surprised each couple with a beautiful drawing made by Elder Kizimbou (on the far left) and signed by all the missionaries. It shows the Title of Liberty being raised in Burundi. It will be a treasure by which we will always remember our mission.

We spent the evening talking to our children on Skype and it was wonderful. On Christmas Eve we were able to read the nativity from the scriptures in French as Ryan and Linsey's family acted it out. On Christmas Day we saw some of the grandchildren open gifts and play with their toys and it was an enormous blessing to talk to each family.

We did miss our wonderful Christmas traditions, but we had a good Christmas and felt grateful to be full-time servants of Him whose birth we celebrated.