On Sunday, Dec. 28th,  we had Ashebir's family over for dinner, since they treated us and Jon and Emily to a special meal the Sunday they were here visiting us.  Cute Nebyat (4) and Grant (10) loved the "smashed potatoes" and chicken gravy and the strawberry/ banana jello!

After dinner, we went to a birthday party for 

Wongelawit Efrem who turned 3.

Wongie in her birthday mask...

and after she took it off.

Edelawit, Nebyat and Wongelawit

Three buddies ~ Euale and twins,  Feraol and Naol

Efrem with his birthday girl

The birthday cake and goodies

Melkam Ledet Wongelawit Efrem

(When the candle flower was lit, it opened up!)

Friends at the party

We celebrated Christmas Day on Monday, Dec. 22nd, our elders' P-day.  That was the instruction from our mission president.    We also had them over for a quick waffle breakfast on Christmas morning to welcome Elder Napier, as we do each transfer for our new elder.

I found this picture of an African Christmas tree made with bananas.

Our Christmas corner with nativities from Ethiopia,

Uganda and Rwanda 

Christmas dinner with our elders 

I FORGOT to take pictures when the elders opened their presents,

etc… but here they are watching THE LEGO MOVIE after

Christmas dinner on P-day (Dec. 22).

Breakfast Christmas morning before we started our regular

missionary work that day.  The elders LOVE to take "selfless"

with my iPad!! : /

A common sight…. Elder Wold sharing great things he finds

online with the elders in our office….

On Tuesday, Dec. 23rd, our Seminary girls (M-F class)

had a surprise birthday party for me before class!

That night, Awetash, the elders' landlady, had us all over

for dinner at her house for Christmas.

The cake cracked us up!

Dinner with Awetash

At about 4:00 a.m. Christmas morning a big bus 

and a "red terror" truck hit head-on and 6 people were killed!

It happened right in front of the driveway to our church. 

The high school students at lunchtime in front of the church,

taken from our upstairs window.

Our cute elders gave us a gift (from Santa they said)

on Dec. 26th with things from their OWN Christmas packages! 

On Friday, Dec. 26th, Belaynesh showed me how 

to make enjera at her home.

My first one had a few holes….

But my second one came our pretty good!

The enjera oven

On Thursday, we drove two more hours to see the tree-climbing lions….

We saw baboons….

more kob….

and MORE job...

There we were out in the middle of nowhere going to

a game drive…. and there is a Coke Zero truck in 

front of us!?!

The scenery was GORGEOUS!!

Hartebeests

One of MANY thorny acacia trees

Our guides for the tree-climbing lions

We had four hardbody trucks and a van 

transporting us.

The Elders ~ Moses, Liebel, Wold, Hannan, Squire, Wallace, 

Johnson, Chabra, Palmer, Eklund, Story and Hansen with our guides

Bad photo of us but behind us across the creek

is the DR Congo!!

The Sisters ~ Squire, Moses, Chatfield, Wold, Chabra, Hannan, Wallace, 

Story, Palmer, Johnson, Eklund and Hansen

Tree-climbing lions

Three lions in one tree!

We got the following photos from Elder Wallace, who had a SUPER

good camera and got some GREAT close-up shots!!

This is "George" the elephant.  He came RIGHT UP 

to the cabins where we were staying and was shaking

the trees in the parking lot!!

At our Christmas Party at Mweya the last night, we did a live nativity and sang Christmas carols

together with ALL the senior couples.  It was AWESOME!!  There was a VERY special spirit 

in the room and all the employees came in to listen to us.  Many had tears and so did I!

More baboons

One night at dinner at the lodge,

these mongoose were all around our tables!

On our way out of the park, this elephant was right

by the road, eating something…. We drove up behind

him and didn't think he saw us, but he turned around

suddenly and started toward MY open window!! 

( I got it on video!!)

On the way back to Kampala, we crossed over

the equator!  Had to get a picture!

SO GREEN!

We got home and went to the mission home for dinner and

watched the mission DVD for 2014.

On Saturday, for our anniversary lunch, the Hannans

took us to KFC in Kampala.  YUM!!  It was the 

BEST chicken we've had in 16 1/2 months!

The friendly girls who waited on us

Two sisters eating next to us

A life-size dancing, sax playing Santa was in the mall

Also a real LIVE Santa…. but what's wrong

with his beard!?

After our photo with Santa and the Hannans, Sis. Hannan

showed him how the beard is really supposed to be! Haha!

We picked up the Johnsons at the mission office

Here is Sis. Chatfield at her desk….

Good-bye Kampala for the last time…..