The Days of December 2014

With the nights cooling off to the high 60's, the days staying in the high 80's and the humidity showing veeerrrry low, it feels like Christmas season has arrived in Niger.  We are so thankful for these cooler days.  It's amazing how refreshing it is to us and how much more energy we have. 

In our home, the month of December always combines decorating for Christmas and celebrating Tom's birthday.  This year was the big 60!  His favorite cake made him happy ...  and he shared it with the rest of us.  

 With our big campus outreach coming up, we invited several of our student friends to help us make sugar cookies to give to our students and their guests a little "sweetness" at the end of the evening.  It was the first time for the girls to ever make/decorate cookies and they loved it and we enjoyed watching them painstakingly place the candied sugars on the cut-out shapes.  We did three large batches of cookies so we were glad to have their help.

 With only one apron in the house, we fashioned aprons out of my "pagnes" (wrap around skirts).

The "Soiree de Noel" was a great time.  Our invited guests seemed to appreciate the evening and quietly listened to a presentation of the meaning of Christmas and who Jesus was and why he came.

A couple of days later we invited all our national staff AND their children over for a Christmas party.  What a fun time we had!  The early birds got to do some coloring and once the whole crowd arrived, the games began. The children came dressed in their new Christmas clothes from head to foot.  They  looked lovely.

 We played numerous fun games and musical chairs was the favorite.

The youngest member of our team.

We took a picture of the entire staff team but I forgot to tell them to smile!  They DID have a good time, but smiling for pictures is not the popular thing to do.

Christmas Eve was spent with dear friends at our home.  We had a special visitor this year:  Max, the father of Kirk and Becca was here for 2 weeks and we enjoyed having him a part of our celebrations.  

 Rachel brought an array of appetizers like none other and we leisurely snacked and visited before going to the table for our Christmas meal.
 

Christmas Day was spent in our little church and as usual, "Jeunesse 2", the name of our English choir, sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."  The service was followed by a heaping plate of rice and goat meat and an ice cold pop.

Yes, we were given delightful purple shirts for Christmas from some dedicated K-State alums.  Tom took off his KU hat for the picture...and because he wasn't allowed into the house with it on!

 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

The Big Move

Just one more post about our summer.  One more chance to remember September, 2014:  the month we moved Mom off the Dorsch Family Farm. The end of an era.  

Tom and I were due to return to Africa at the beginning of September, but we extended our stay in the USA for a month in order to help with the big move.   

For Tom, it was a month of remembering childhood memories:  building fence with his dad; feeding cattle, mowing, playing countless games of football and baseball on the big buffalo grass front yard with his brothers, friends and neighbors, burning thistles, etc.  

He loved the cooler, fall weather, the wide open spaces, being out of doors, and working in the yard he'd mowed so many times as a boy.

He sorted through several tool sheds and organized a myriad of tools to be divided between the brothers. 

Tonka trucks.  Piles of them.  So well used by a couple of generations of happy boys building dams and farms in the ditches.   The trucks were a bit rusty, some paint peeled off, a few dents and scratches, but the levers still lifted the truck beds and the wheels still turned.  Amazing.  Good for another generation.  Stashed away in the loft of an old garage was the old rocking horse that gave countless hours of "bucking" to four little guys.  (Sorry, no picture.)

There was yard work to do, piles of trees to be burned...  My "Pyro" was happy.

The Newlyweds came up to help for a day. 

 And taking time for a Sunday afternoon game of Scrabble.

While Tom worked outside, I cleaned out closets and drawers and cupboards inside the house and garage.   I brought the "piles" to Mom to sort through--she had the hard job:  what to keep, what to give away.

We discovered fun keepsakes:   she insisted this was one of her favorite hats "back then" and she had looked so stylish with a coat that matched.

I preferred the saucy little red one!

 I loved hearing the stories about dishes and doilies and other delightful treasures we found.  

We got to eat a couple of times in the Bird City Diner.

Great food and in true small town fashion, our lunch time conversation included everyone else who happened to be eating there!  Mom's move off the farm was big news in Bird City.

We worshiped at Mom's church in the neighboring town of McDonald.

Then the big weekend came.  The "keep or get rid of"  decisions had been made and the boxes were packed.   Tom's 2 brothers and a sister-in-law arrived for The Move.

Everyone was exhausted by the move, but the weekend wouldn't have been quite complete without a game of pinochle between mom and her boys.

 

 The furniture in place, the beds made and a new chapter begins.

Thanks,  Cousin Sarah, for the great visit.  Come again!