Christmas 2006

Christmas Day

Our little shepherd boy


After returning from our trip, we spent the next several days getting ready for our Kenyan Christmas. Torsten and I baked some Christmas cookies and treats. We got a small artificial tree in Nairobi that we had fun decorating together. Torrie began walking on December 22! She was quite proud of her accomplishment. On Christmas Eve, one of the families here hosted an open house, during which they had a live nativity. There were no live animals, but the children dressed up as the various nativity characters and animals. Torsten dressed up like a shepherd, and was quite cute.

On Christmas morning we had a fun time watching the kids opening their Christmas stockings and presents. They wanted to play with each gift they got, so we spent a long time opening presents, so they could enjoy each thing. They were excited to receive gifts from their grandparents and cousins in the U.S. We were then invited to a brunch at the Morrison family's home, with several other families, where we had a nice time. Torsten really likes their children. We had Christmas dinner at home in the evening. I had bought a turkey around Thanksgiving, but didn't use it then, because we were invited out for Thanksgiving dinner. So we had a turkey dinner for Christmas day. Although we missed being with our families back home, Christmas here was really nice. There is much less commercialism here with Christmas, and the simplicity is kind of nice. I took down our Christmas decorations today, and it took all of about 5 minutes!