How We Did Christmas Celebrations

Yes, it felt like Christmas around these parts, with the tree, the lights, and the treats, but we still felt like we were missing out on the joyful celebrations with friends and family back home. Thankfully, we did attend one party with our good friends here in Antsirabe. It was a "White Elephant" Christmas and we drew names for gifts. We also all pitched in for a positively, scrumptious Christmas dinner: chicken, noodles, stuffing, pie, cookies, corn, green bean casserole..., and mashed potatoes. Delish!

Our Christmas Eve and Day celebrations were a bit more tame... :) We were able to Skype with family while we opened gifts, which (almost) made it seem like we were all together! 

Best part of the day: opening gifts with family via Skype!

Her most favorite gift was from her daddy and me: a Doc McStuffins doctor kit!

The second best part of the day was playing with all of our great gifts!
It's amazing what our families can fit in a USPS flat rate box! They're the best! 

So, needless to say, Christmas was great, but different. While we missed family so much, we owned Christmas for ourselves, starting new traditions and redefining what the holiday will be for our little family. We loved the simplicity and near-absence of secular Christmas advertising, we enjoyed Christmas Eve service at a local church and at 2:00am with our church family back in the States, and we cherished the time we spent with our extended families thousands of miles away. God is so good.

How We Did Christmas Decorations

I've written and re-written this post in an effort to explain our Christmas this year, but I'm at a loss for flowery words, so let's just cut to the chase: we owned Christmas. Being so far from family, we had to take the celebration into our own hands this year.

Everything we personally own, besides all of that which was sold before we left and whatever we fit into our 11 pieces of luggage when we came, is on a crate somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic... or it might just be sitting in the States waiting for the "o.k." to be shipped. We don't know. Anyway, "everything" also includes all of our Christmas decorations; the tree, the lights, the ornaments, the handmade stockings, all of it. Then, we landed in Madagascar for two weeks and were flown to west Africa for a month of training. By the time we got back, it was two weeks until Thanksgiving and we hadn't even considered what the holidays would be like for us. 

It wasn't until after Thanksgiving that we even really talked about decorating or celebrating. Then, we set out in search of the perfect stand-in Christmas tree: a hand-carved, one-of-a-kind baobab, which we decorated with white lights (Chandler's request) that we found in a local shop...

and handmade, hand-painted, salt dough ornaments forged in the oven by yours truly and decorated by the little one.

We also got creative with our very own "Merry Christmas" bunting. Designed and assembled by yours truly, painted by the little one.

We also bought that little nativity in a small town known for it's crafts; the same town where we purchased our baobab. We discovered later that our angel is missing a wing, Mary is missing something, and Joseph is just plain missing... unless he brought gifts to baby Jesus because we do have, what seems to be, four wise men. Ahh, Africa. 

Oh, and Chandler made sugar cookies sans cookie cutters. Not too shabby.

Then, just a few days before Christmas, we received a package in the mail containing more decorations: a Christmas tree which went in Waverly's room, three stockings, and more cookie mixes, cake mixes, candy-making supplies, lots of sprinkles, and a gingerbread house kit!

Gingerbread cookies for our language teacher.

A carrot cake, apple pie, and cooler weather later, it definitely felt like Christmas!

Mirary Krismasy Sambatra!

First Play Date in Madagascar

Our language tutor lives just down our street and has a daughter, Niriko, who is 3-years-old. She speaks no English, Waverly speaks very, very little Malagasy, so they didn't play together much except to dance. 

More Milestones.

I am realizing as Waverly gets older and can speak for herself that I have less to say on her behalf; photos and videos provide a far clearer description of her than I could say in words. She speaks on a level above that of the average 2-year-old which I attribute to her spending a majority of her day with adults who speak to her like adults, she's sassy, she's independent, she still takes a long nap in the afternoon, she still enjoys food, she loves to brush her teeth, but doesn't like to use soap in the shower. I imagine she hasn't gained any weight from the 32 pounds she was before we left the States, but she hasn't really lost any either; unlike her mother, her appetite does not wane under stress. She still sleeps with her "boppy" (pacifier) at nap time and bed time because we couldn't bear the thought of changing one more thing in her life while the whole rest of the world was being turned upside down. She's an encourager, exclaiming,  "I knew you could do it!" when we get home from language school and reassuring us with the words, "I'm here for you" when she thinks we're sad. She still wears diapers at night, but we're getting closer to making the night time underwear transition. She loves to help do chores and cook, declaring that when she's a "big girl" she can do it all herself. She loves to cuddle, unlike in the early days and she loves to watch movies. She still loves Mickey Mouse and all of his friends, but is now into Doc McStuffins and playing "Mommy" and "Doctor". As of Friday, she sleeps in a big girl bed. Oh, and she's cute as ever.

Tent and a movie with Daddy!

All dressed up for a walk around the house!

Washing dishes African-style because I wouldn't let her wash clothes.

So excited about her "big girl bed"!

Sounds of Home

Mom and Frank went to the UK game last night. She recorded the UK fight song. #almamater #gobigblue #home (Yeah, that's right, I just hashtagged a blog post)

Our Reading Girl

It's not worth mentioning we've read this book many, many times.

Totally African Day

Let me tell you something we've learned about Africa: You never know what the day holds. Everything could be smooth sailing one minute and the very next minute you're unexpectedly riding in a pousse-pousse getting rained on because your husband told you to not worry about grabbing the rain jackets before heading out to find your daughter, you follow?

Such was the case just two days ago on our "totally Africa day".

We drove off for language school leaving Waverly crying in her bed and giving Andrine permission to take Waverly to the park after her nap. We'll come back to that in a minute.

We stopped at the store to grab some meat for dinner, run into fellow friends, chat for a bit, and scoot out to language school.

We arrive at language school to find the gate locked. At that very same moment that I got back in the car, Chandler received a text from other fellow friends saying that their class had been cancelled that morning and our class was cancelled for the afternoon. Cool.

We had a few hours to burn and decided to go on a drive outside of town. We drove straight into oncoming rain and turned around, figuring we'd go find the park (no, we had no idea where it was), then head home before Waverly got up from her nap.

Well, we didn't find the park and when we pulled into our compound our day guard told us that Andrine had left. My heart dropped pretty quickly at the thought of our nanny leaving Waverly alone inside the house. The terror in my heart probably showed on my face because he was quick to clarify that they went to the park. It was 3:00. Waverly should still have been asleep.

For whatever reason, we decided to go find the park again and, hopefully, find Waverly and Andrine. What an adventure we thought it would be to take a pousse-pousse! A pousse-pousse is a man-powered rickshaw and we have many pousse-pousse drivers that hang around the entrance of our street. One, in particular, Chandler has gotten to "know" in his very limited Malagasy, so we flagged him down.

About halfway through our ride to the park, which we found out is across town, it began to rain. Before we headed out I asked Chandler if we needed to grab our rain jackets. His response: we're dedicated now! And I went with it because, truly, it's a pain in the you-know-what to get back into our house once it's locked up. Anyway, so we're on this rickety pousse-pousse in the rain, when he pulls over to attach pieces of plastic to shield us from the rain. Unfortunately, it didn't keep us from the rain dripping in through the roof. Eventually, we make it to the "park" and all we see are basketball courts, no playground. Thinking we may be in the wrong place, I call our nanny who says that she and Waverly are back at the house... it's raining and the house is locked up. Cool.

So, we load up in the pousse-pousse and I'm pretty sure I told him, "We need the house" instead of, "we need to go back to the house." Whatev. Halfway through our ride back to the house, the pousse starts jerking and we realize that he has a flat tire. Fortunately, he realized it as well, pulled over and hailed another pousse for us.

First pousse-pousse ride!
Chandler lost the privileges to his hat when it began to rain and we didn't have our rain jackets per his negligence.

Our second driver getting us home!

Our dilemma now: How do we tell the driver where to go? The first driver came from our street, so to our street he was going; however, this guy had no clue where we lived and we had no clue how to tell him except, "tsy lavitra" - not far, and "azafady" - excuse me, then pointing which way he needed to turn.

FINALLY, we made it home and I was so happy to see our girl standing with Andrine under the porch overhang! Chandler parked and decided that he would offer to take Nirina home, instead of him riding his bike in the pouring rain. This also helps us know where Nirina lives in case we have a need to visit him; i.e., family is sick or something like that.

Off they go and while he is gone, Andrine and I have some time to talk and get to know each other better. She speaks fairly good English, as her mother was an English teacher, but she also taught me some Malagasy. She also offered the information that she used to cook for another American family she worked for. Yes, please!

Meanwhile, as Chandler is driving Nirina home, Nirina sees one of his daughters walking on the side of the road. Hop in! Then, conveniently, it was time for his other two daughters to be leaving school, so Chandler picked them up too! - BTW, this was absolutely African for Nirina to request that Chandler pick his daughters up from school while heading home. Not a big deal, but just characteristic of the African culture.

It wasn't until Chandler got back home that he realized that Nirina still had the gate keys, so he drove back to get the keys. All the while, Andrine, Njacka (our night guard), and I are having conversations (and by conversations I mean, I say things in Malagasy like a small child, Andrine restates it probably more like it should have been said, and Njacka uses simple phrases and words to respond. Bless him).

So, the next day, we rewarded ourselves and our adventurous spirits by spending a few hours a a nearby hotel pool. Don't be misled by the beauty of the pool; the walls around it are high enough to not be able to see what was going on around us. It was a good escape for a few hours. :)