Christmas Festivities and Friends

We had a full weekend of Christmas festivities and friends. This year it has been a lot of fun for Caleb to begin grasping holidays and their meaning. In the evenings, we read the boys a Bible story, and we have been reading about baby Jesus recently. When you ask Caleb what Christmas is about, he says Baby Jesus. He also thinks about Santa Claus, presents, and candy canes too, but we are thankful that he does know, though not understand yet, the meaning of Christmas. This weekend, we had a Christmas service at church. We sang carols, and then re-enacted the story of Jesus's birth. I was Mary and Ben was Baby Jesus…and it was a plan B performance!

Ben was great sitting through the songs and service, until about 30 seconds before it was time for us to go up. What you do not see is him whaling at the top of his lungs, for literally 5 minutes straight. If you know Ben, you know this is not characteristic of him at all. People laughed and thought it was funny, and eventually during the song, Mary Did You Know, he stopped crying. Turned out it was a dirty diaper that was bothering him. Even with all the crying, it was a nice depiction of Jesus's birth, who has come to save all who believe in Him, from all of our sins. I am so thankful for the church community we have, for the ability to worship in a place that is not free, and for the wonderful people that we have met here from around the world.

That afternoon, our friend Abeer and her two boys came over to play.  Caleb and Firas were like two peas in a pod and played so nicely together. When we first met them, shortly after arriving in Kuwait, Benjamin and Faris were only 5 and 7 months old, and Caleb and Firas were barely 2 & 3. Now they run around, laugh, and play together so well. It's amazing to see how much they boys are growing an changing. 

We had a pizza party at the house, then went to our neighborhood park to play. One thing I love about living here, is the beautiful sunsets just about every night!

Faris is a fun and handsome little two year old.

The boys traded a plasma car for a scooter for the week:)

Double trouble on the swings!

                                      

Abeer is such a loving and sweet mom. I love watching her with her boys. It was a fun day, and we are going to enjoy the remaining time we have with them before moving this summer.

Tes was up before the sun came up this morning to prepare a Christmas meal of Pancit, a traditional Philipino dish, for run-away Philipino women that live in a safe house close by. Tes has such a big heart, and it was so kind of her to prepare the special meal for these women who are in great need.

 Next, we went to a friend's 5th Batman birthday party at one of our big malls. This place was a kids paradise of games, toys, and candy. Caleb was asleep the first half of the party, but that didn't stop us from getting his face painted in his sleep after Ben was done :).

 Ben was cute and enjoyed some of the games. When the sang happy birthday, he must have gotten scared and began crying. But a ballon will always cheer him up.

 There was a monstrous ball pit and climbing structure that the boys…and mom enjoyed.

 And Caleb found a rocket ship to take him to outer space.

 After the Batman party, we did a quick change and headed to the Embassy for the Christmas party and visit with Santa. The boys did such a nice job practicing their Santa smiles.

I'm not sure what happened because there were no smiles for Santa, but there were also no tears, so it was a success!

 Bye, bye Santa.

 It was potluck, so we had lots of great food, time to enjoy with friends, a big bouncy castle and field for kids to run around.

True buddies :).

 It was a full, fun festive weekend for us all!