The Palace Museum

 Today Eli and I went to visit the Palace Museum here in Khartoum with our friends Brett and Cathy.
The museum is in an old Anglican church built by the British exactly 100 years ago.

 The President's Palace is directly behind the museum. We accidentally pulled into the driveway when we were looking for parking and were reprimanded 2 separate times!

 Encarved in the door of the church it says, "There is but one God."

 Eli, Brett, and Cathy stand in front of the beautiful stained glass windows and the weapons case.

 A beautiful elaborate coffee tray presented as a gift to the President when he visited Port Sudan.

 The first piano brought to Sudan by General Gordon

 The first organ brought to Sudan after Sudan finally got electricity

Our Christmas

 We began our morning with the final reading of our advent: the story of Jesus' birth and then the boys got to open their stockings.

 It was such an added joy to have gifts sent from family and friends in the States to open as well.
Somehow it made it feel like our family was sharing Christmas from afar.

 We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast

 My friend and I got henna done for the Christmas season. The dyed fingertips are a sign of a married woman.

 The BIG gifts this year were new bikes! The boys have been asking for bikes since we got here and this year their grandparents and great-grandma gave this wonderful gift!

 Joshua's first bike

 Trying it out - a little hard at first because of the sand

 Of course friends wanted to help and share in the excitement

What I haven't included here is that we had a very special service at our pastor's home. They have a lovely garden area and set up sound equipment so we could have a lovely Christmas service in their garden. Our church family consists of people from many nations and backgrounds so it was truly worshipful to join and sing and remind one another of God's indescribable gifts for us. After our advent candle lighting, carols, and a short message we fellowshipped and then enjoyed a fabulous potluck with dishes from many cultures. I took stuffed chicken with American style sage dressing.
    Another highlight of our Christmas happened in the evening. Around 5 pm we packed up loads of plates of Christmas cookies and wrapped 2012 calendars that have Bible verses in Arabic in them and went to visit our friends and neighbors to wish them a Merry Christmas and share a bit of our Christmas tradition with them. It was lovely to spread some Christmas cheer and the boys did great after 3 solid hours of being in peoples' homes.
    We will forever treasure this Khartoum Christmas knowing we may never have one like it again since we will most likely be in South Sudan next Christmas and the Christmases thereafter. Our hearts are brimming over...

Arabic Christmas Pageant

 Last night our Arabic Language School gave a presentation of the Christmas story, all in Arabic, to our teachers, staff, and our families. Each class prepared a part of the story to present in Arabic. Eli and my class did a small skit explaining the significance of each of the wise men's gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In the picture above Eli gave the introduction for our skit.

 This is part of the audience - other students, teachers, family, etc.

 It worked out perfectly that one of our school mates recently had a baby in November so his wife posed as Mary and their new son had his first acting debut as Baby Jesus! Our classmate, Beth, presented gold to baby Jesus, symbolizing the truth that he was King of all Kings.

 I presented burning incense as a symbol that Jesus would be the last and greatest High Priest

 Eli brought the myrrh. He went to the market here in Khartoum and found all the different minerals and perfumes they combine to prepare a dead body for burial. He brought them on a tray to give to Jesus to symbolize that Jesus would die for the sins of the whole world.

 After our dramas and speeches, we presented special gifts to each of the teachers to thank them for their patience with us over the months.

We also gave a gift of thanks to our director and his wife. They are the couple who run the school.
It was a very fun program followed by food from all of our unique countries: Switzerland, Germany, Brazil, the US, Uganda, etc.

International Carols

On Sunday evening we had a wonderful service, enjoying music from many nationalities represented in our church family.

 Eritrea

 Ethiopia

Holland

 New Zealand

 South Korea

 Sri Lanka

 Sudan

 Switzerland and Germany

Christmases over the years

 I thought it would be fun to look back at the past Christmases to remember where we were and to see how our family changed every year.

 Christmas with Isaac in 2005, Evan "in the oven"

 Christmas 2006 in Naperville, IL

 Yabus Christmas 2008

A special Christmas in Uganda - 2009

 Christmas in Washington State - 2010

2011: A Khartoum Christmas

The Christmas Bazaar

 Today we went to a fun Christmas Bazaar. There were vendors selling all kinds of wonderful things: jewelry, books, clothes, pictures, food, etc. There were also some fun carnival games for the children and Isaac and Evan chose to get their faces painted as Spiderman and Batman.

 Isaac went fishing

On the way home (with our teammates) Eli surprised us all by stopping for ice cream. Great end to the day!