A West African Christmas with our International Bible Study



Our friend :) with Jackson in the corner.

. 


Before the rest of the people arrived.
It was the day before the day before Christmas Eve, and our International Bible Study had planned a two day Christmas.... thing. One was at Ms. Polly's house; a potluck meal, Secret Santa, and the children's Bible verse recitation. Yay! All the kids worked so hard on all four (long) verses. The reason you don't see Christianna or Daddy in this post is because Christianna was sick and Daddy stayed home with her. We missed you both!



Lois.


Lael.


Danna (Jackson's mom) and Coco, who is part of their mission organisation.

Jackson on the left making himself at home,



FOOD!


We had our potluck dinner, then Ms. Polly (below)


(Ms. Polly...she's British)


explained the Secret Santa rules:

Everyone is given a number. #1 takes a present from under the tree and unwraps it, making sure everyone sees it; #2 can either steal #1's gift, or open another from under the tree. If #2 takes one from the tree, and #3 steals from #1, then #1 can either take from #2 or open one from under the tree. FUN!

Mom enjoying the fun!





My gift, reindeer ears with jingle bells, was opened by Lael.


The gift Mommy brought to put under the tree was a roll of 'I Love London' toilet paper. Lois, Ms. Polly's daughter was the one who opened it, but in the end Ms. Polly stole it from her. And the game was this loud the entire time!

Fin, Lois' brother, and the half poodle, half chihuahua doggy.


My favorite part of their Christmas decorations!
  The next day was the real stuff! We drove out to a beach where a bunch of mud had been placed by a dredge and where hundreds of shark teeth were dumped - and then the fun part- O Lodge!



We had a lot of fun waiting for everyone to show up at the rendezvous point! 



Jackson, Aidan, Tristan.


If you can see Jackson's face, we hit a not-so-rare pothole and he slammed his head into the van door! Ow.


When we got there a tour guide hopped in Ms. Polly's car and led us here:
Lois on site, with thousands of little rocks, and hundreds of shark teeth! 
We searched around for about an hour in the hot sun, bending over and keeping our eyes peeled. There's no trick to it, you just LOOK. Which can take a while.

Tristan





The sun was very bright, and I forgot my sunglasses!


Us in the background, with Jackson coming towards Mom. He doesn't like cameras, can you tell?
Jackson's shark teeth







Once the adults could fairly say that we had gotten the educational part of the day fit in, we backed up a few miles to O Lodge!


This is a bird's eye view of O Lodge. It has two water slides, five pools, a restaurant, a lakeside complete with yachts, a motor boat, kayaks, and paddle boats, a restaurant, a kiddie castle, and the coolest legless fiberglass chairs.  It's owned by a French man who runs a fiberglass company, so a lot of stuff there-like the slides-are made out of fiberglass. It's our little haven in the jungle. :)


Ms. Polly and Lois in the pool, Ms. Liz and Lael closest to the kiddie slide. You can see part of the waterslide on the top left corner.


Yes, he can fit his mouth around it.

They had some great food! 

Have you ever tried to smile with your mouth full? Tristan and Aidan don't bother!
Jackson has my camera (JACKSON!) for the next 30 or so pictures.

We had been going on the water slide a lot (a lot, a lot) in these pictures, and were taking a turn on the lake.



JACKSON, if you DARE drop the camera..... :)
The paddle boats were foot powered, and Mom and I kicked around the lake with Jackson and Aidan.



Jackson has no shame, no shame.  



Tristan was kayaking. 

Mr. Julian (Ms. Polly's husband) out yachting. Thanks, Jackson!
Mom, you HAVE to try out the slide..... :)

When you make all 69 stairs up to the top!

We're going faster than you think, my camera's shutter speed is just quick. 
Wee!


Thank you for the pictures Mrs. Lauren!


Aidan after a dunk :)





The view from the top was breathtaking, you can't capture it from a camera video!


Tristan

The slides....
We got so much sand on our feet! 


The amazing legless fiberglass chairs!!







 On the drive home,  I got a picture of the sunset. 





It was great! But those 69 stairs are getting to me. ;)

Comments

  1. GranAnnieDecember 26, 2015 at 10:20 AM

    Loved reading about your Christmas. The details and photographs were superb. I felt like I was there with you, your family and your friends. Keep blogging.

    ReplyDelete

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