:..December Visitors..:

It's hard to believe that December has already come and gone along with 2009. We ended our year with a visit from Paul's family when his mom, dad, and little sister came to see what our lives were like in Africa. Although we were all delayed in our flights and missing some baggage, we finally met up in Spain to see some sights along with renewing our visas - and boy was it COLD! However, Paul and I have come to love Spain so we were glad to show them around as well as experience new things ourselves. One of my favorite things about it this time were all the Christmas lights and decor. It was a nice break from our Muslim country where our home was the only reminder that it was Christmas time!

We came back to our country a few days later with a few more clothes than we left with, our wonderful guests and all luggage accounted for. We spent the next week touring the city and attending some Christmas parties. I think we successfully wore them out but we enjoyed spending time with them!!!

Christmas Day was a bit different for all of us I think. We woke up around 8, shared gifts with each other and th

en made breakfast. We then went to tour an old pirate fort in our city since we still wanted to see it and we were quickly running out of time. Plus, it poured rain somedays so we took advantage of the blue skies (it rained as we headed back home). Bethany loved this place with it's half

blue walls and the maze of streets. After having traditional mint tea, we headed back home for a rest before preparing dinner. We had our neighbors up to our house for Christmas dinner...at 8:30. They didn't want to eat until then which is actually very early for this culture, believe it or not. We had turkey breasts, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and macaroni - what more could you ask for :)

We finished out our time with a round of henna before sending them back to America.

Thanks for coming Family! We enjoyed having you here!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!