Approaching Christmas...Although Not Egyptian Christmas

Here I am...once again a very absentee blogger. I do believe that this is the busiest year of my life. I'm constantly going going going...I'm putting everything I am into the preschool this year. When I'm not preschooling or preparing for the upcoming day or week, usually there's another engagement that I'm invited to, or someone asks me to accompany them somewhere. It makes for a very interesting year, but also one that doesn't have a lot of extra time. That's ok, it just sometimes makes it hard to get everything done that I need to.

I'm so excited that Christmas is approaching! But in Egypt, they celebrate Christmas in January, during the Muslim New Year (I believe). So January 7 is Christmas here, but I'll still be celebrating December Christmas. We're going to have a preschool party too. I can't wait, it's gonna be really fun!

I'll fill you in on some of the things that have been happening lately. In the middle of November I went to visit my sister Ali in Tanzania during a holiday I had. It was so amazing and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go! We were able to go to a national park and see some wildlife, as well as visit a game park, a pool at a hotel lodge, and the site where 2 fellow Southerners are working as student missionaries. It was a really great trip and I will never forget it. It was also awesome to see my amazing sister again!

After I arrived back in Cairo, I was invited by some of the conference office missionaries to go to a Thanksgiving meal in Maadi, a rich area of town where a lot of foreigners live. It was so nice to go and eat a North American Thanksgiving meal with fellow Westerners! The lady who hosted the dinner is American but her job has taken her to Cairo. It was actually quite interesting...she knew my high school teacher Mr. Brock and sent him a message that I was at her house for Thanksgiving. The meal was so tasty and extravagant and we just had a really nice time. She also had a really nice apartment with an entire glass wall that looked out over the Nile River. It was a beautiful night view.

In December we celebrated the 4th birthday of my preschool student Kimo. His mom went all out and brought McDonald's Happy Meals for all the kids, pizza for us teachers, and a really nice and tasty Mickey Mouse birthday cake. We had a really great time and took lots of pictures.

Last week I got to babysit my preschool student Cindy and her older brother Abdiel, who live in the apartment below me. Their parents were out at a meeting so Manal and I got to spend some quality time with 2 of our favorite kids in Cairo. We took them out for fool and taomaya sandwiches (fava beans and falafel...they are so incredibly good here in Egypt)! Anyways, we had a lot of fun with them, as usual.

Last week I also made sugar cookies with my students. I made the dough the night before, and then in the morning the kids cut the dough into shapes with cookie cutters that Karin (a fellow missionary) loaned to us. They had the time of their lives! During lunchtime I came upstairs and baked the cookies in the oven. Then in the afternoon we decorated the cookies with green and pink icing (the red food coloring turned out more pink than red, but they were as Christmassy as we could make them). It was one of the funnest things I've ever done with the kids, and they enjoyed it immensely!

On Thursday I was invited to go to a Christmas party with my friend Anita (Cindy and Abdiel's mom) and her family. It was a party for the foreigners who take Arabic classes with the company that she studies with. It was really cool to go. I brought my violin and Anita brought her guitar and we played Christmas songs while the people sang and clapped along. It was really nice to be in the company of some fellow Westerners, as well as people from other parts of the world too. Then we played some fun games, ate, and visited before heading on home.

On Sabbath night I went to a movie night at the house of a missionary couple. It was a really fun time fellowshipping with some church people, and the movie was pretty great too.

This week I'm going to be preparing for Ali's arrival. She's coming to visit me during her Christmas break! I'm really excited to see her again and to show her around Cairo and let her experience some of the awesome Egyptian food that I love so much! I can't wait to see her. I'm really glad that I'll be able to spend my first Christmas away from home with one of my family members.

All in all I'm doing good and the preschool is full to the brim with lots of students! Recently we accepted 3 more children to bring our limit to 15, so needless to say, we're pretty busy. But I'm having the time of my life.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and have a great holiday season. I wish you the best Christmas ever!