ah, Christmas!!

Theo did his Mountain Dew routine for us at the end of the day... and we 4 sang the Mississippi Squirrel Revival!




Mom and Dad got an awesome Congolese painting from the Stones... Colleen got some socks from Theo...twice! But that was just a joke... We gave Todd this fish tray, and as you can see... he liked it!








Christmas Times...
these were all taken on Christmas day, i think they're the best!!
(we had a really good christmas!!)

I'm trying to learn how to take pics at night. Without a tripod. Dang my shaky hands!!!



But here are a few. The moon of course looked so much better IN PERSON! ...meh, i'm still learnin!

another New Years in the Congo

My Christmas was AWESOME....and then I had a really quiet New Years. Not bad, just really different! We just wanted to do a family thing, so we had a few close friends so there were about 9 of us to make up our New Years BASH. No fireworks either... which is always the highlight of my new years, but it was ok! I'm thankful for the quietness of it though. Gave me a chance to just be thankful and look back at the year. We had a prayer time even, and prayed especially for this country that the new leaders won't bend to corruption. That was a really good part of the night...realizing if this country didn't change for the better, my family might be pulled out and not get to come back! Which is a weird thought since this is where they feel they're supposed to be. We pray that the election and the new president that it brought will actually bring good changes to this country. We know we can't change this country, or do anything to change anyone, but we pray that with God's help something will change and people will know that God's hand is on this nation.
We heard out in the streets people counting down to the New Year. And then a bit of cheering, and some firecrackers! We couldn't see the ball drop, we just had to imagine in our minds that in 6 hours people would be watching the ball go down, and the confetti would fall everywhere... people would cheer, kiss, hug, it was 2007!!! Time to make resolutions and do something to make this year better than the last .. or as good as the last (whichever way you see it)! I myself don't have too many big resolutions, because i've never gotten into that.
I just thought of a few small things that really i do need to do.
But mainly, it was thankfulness I felt last night. It's a new year, and God's brought my whole family through another one. I can let go of all of the regrets and mistakes i made this last year...just forget, and move on. And I've learned a lot from 2006. Learned things that will definitely help me in the future, and which have helped me to mature in my faith a whole bunch. I'm on my way to college this year and think that this year will definitely be an awesome one! Not only awesome, but life-changing.
And if you wondering...my new years ended a bit sadly, because... my sister left tonight, and I couldn't stop crying! She couldn't either. I had an awesome time with her but it was wayyy too short. Amazing seeing her again, and i'm sure i will see her in the summer which isn't TOO far away, ...but it does seem far away, and since she's all the way in the states in college, it's really tough seeing her go. And it also hit me that I'll be doing that next year. Coming to visit my parents and then having to leave. That's gonna be seriously tough!!!! I just love my family....

SO, anyway, from this Congo where it may be hard to celebrate and hard for me to feel like it's actually the holiday season, I sit here and say HAPPY NEW YEAR to you ALL!!.