First Christmas in Zambia

We feel it such a blessing to be serving the Lord as we celebrate His birth.  We wanted to have a little western feeling for Christmas so we bought a little artificial tree and some decorations and put lights on it for our flat.  We had purchased this African nativity earlier in the mission and were excited to have a under our Christmas tree.
       
It's hard being away from the family at Christmas, so we decided to bring them a little closer to us.  I made these Danish hearts and put a picture of each of the nine grandchildren on them and then strung them on garland in our living room.  It makes me so happy to see their beautiful faces looking at me
   

   
Christmas is Zambia is spent with family and lots of food--similar to home.  But they don't do much in terms of gifts.  The stores are very commercial with all the Santas and Christmas trees, but we didn't see another Christmas tree in any of the homes.  We didn't even have one at the church.  This is a Christian country and the grocery stores play religious Christmas music.  Perhaps they know more about how to celebrate Christmas appropriately than we think we do!  Anyway, it was a great Christmas and we only missed our family about every day!  But, still, we are happy to be here!