Our first Christmas in Uganda

We had a good first Christmas in Uganda!  Of course, we missed family and friends in America...but we still had a fun day!  We started our morning at home opening a few gifts and eating cinnamon rolls.  Yum!!

Then it was off to visit our friends from New Zealand!  What a fun afternoon we had!  There was no bundling up by the fire, drinking hot cocoa, and reading Christmas books.  It was more like cooking out on the grill, swimming, and having water balloon fights!  Oh...and eating yummy food!!


We are so thankful for our friends, the Gordons.  God brought our families together in such an amazing way!  We moved to Uganda in January and they moved here in February....so we got to go through the ups and downs of our first year together.  We actually met on facebook!  They have 6 kids the same ages as our kids (except their oldest is a boy....so Melissa hangs out with Danielle and me).  We can laugh together and cry together....they understand the frustrations of moving to a new country and culture...they miss family and friends...but they also know that God has called them to do His work in Uganda (so we can remind each other of that when the going gets tough!).  We've taught them some American phrases and we now call swim suits "togs"!!  Be sure to check out their blog for their stories about life in Uganda.

When we got home....after dark....we found out that we had left the key to our gate inside our house and our neighbors weren't home.  We thought we might have to go back to the Gordons for a sleepover but Scott was able to figure out how to get the gate open!

We had lots of fun making happy memories of our first Christmas here!  Hope you enjoy some pics of our Christmas day!!

Garrett playing with his new toys!

Laura and Nate reading Benji's new book about cars and Melissa's photography book.

Nate and Garrett got wooden animals!

Annie got a new African doll!  Her name is Teddy.

And a princess jump rope!

After opening gifts it was time for cinnamon rolls (Annie calls them "glorious cinnamon rolls").

We got to our friends house around noon and had snacks for lunch...veggies and sandwich makings.

Benji and Josiah had some screen time....

While the little boys went swimming.  Yes, this is Uganda!

Laura and Riana had fun on the tree swing!

Nate and Jed played a board game!

Annie and Charlotte had fun swinging...and staying away from the dogs!

The bigger boys left their screens to spend some time outside because it was such a beautiful day!

Then they headed back inside to play Risk.

The dads worked the barbeque grill!  The moms and Melissa worked in the kitchen and took pictures (of course!). 

And Princess Lily waited for food to be served!

Yay!  Dinner!  Barbeque chicken and sausages, sweet green beans, honey carrots, scalloped potatoes, and bread!

Of course, we thought about Katelyn and Josh and missed them all day!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas day...celebrating Jesus' birth!!  

As we look ahead to this weekend and starting a new year...there's still time to get in a year-end tax deductible gift to help our family.  Just go to the Every Nation website and click on the big red donate button.  We are listed as Suubi Family so be sure to mark your gift in the correct place.  You can also mail in a check to the address listed on the website (just be sure it's postmarked by 12/31).  

Thank you so much for your support this year.  We've been so blessed by your prayers, emails, facebook posts, comments and financial gifts!  We look forward to what God has in store for our family in 2012 and can't wait to share it with you on this blog!!

This weekend I'll be sharing about a new addition to our blog that will begin on January 1.  I'll also reveal our most popular blog post of 2011....   So be sure to follow our blog or like our Rackleys in Uganda page on facebook so you don't miss a single post!!