CHRISTMAS

Christmas was such fun, one of our best ever.
We hosted, so everyone came over to the house.
It was a full house full of food, folks, and fun!
Some were watching Nigerian movies (the adults),
others were playing board games (Taboo rules),
others watched American football (there are always
American football games and sometimes basketball
games to watch on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day,
and New Year's Day), others played with children, others just ate and ate and ate. My cousin made quite professional sweets -- brownies, cookies, and some type of chocolate mini-tarts. I made lots of food and starches--sweet potato banana casserole and sweet potato sausage casserole (along with mashed potatoes). We had two animals--turkey and ham (Haley ordered and mailed a wonderfully cooked ham cooled by dry ice). It was great! We ate well. And we laughed and laughed and laughed as normal. It was good to be home to see it all. I especially loved seeing wives who were married and kids who were born while I've been gone. So that was sooo good!

New Years was more of the same somewhat. I went to the watchnight service at my father’s church. No one came outside the family. So we just had a service just us, about 10 of us. The youngest, Itoro, said it was SO good. He made me laugh. We did have a good time with the music. And everyone had to go forward and say what we were thankful about in the previous year and what we looked forward to happening in 2009. It made you feel good to be home to reconnect.