Malou Fabiani Marchesi
49cm, 3,040 grams



A little angel named Malou made her entrance into the world , at 12.18 pm on December 27th in Copenhagen, Denmark. Our dear friends, Michela and Roberto, are her proud parents.

Sweet Malou, may your life be blessed and long. We quote an Irish blessing:

"As the sheep to the shepherd
As the branch to the vine
As the flower to the stem
As the bride to her groom

As the fish to the water
As the bird to the air
As the star to the sky
As the sun to the moon

As the plant to its seed
As the grass to the dew
As a babe to its mother
May God be near you."

And since God never changes or moves, is never any nearer or farther away (no matter how we may imagine it to be so), it is our prayer that you will simply know how close He is to you;
His presence in your every breath.

Santa loves you. Jesus too.
Part II:Silent Night





Christmas Eve with Kelly was extremely hyggeligt! (Yes, Matt, even with tacos and beans. Don't you get 'ham'd out' by the end of the season?)


Peaceful, quiet and reflective...



...with a viewing of Charlie Brown's Christmas. (Deep stuff.)


The next morning, Santa had left a few gifts!






...and we had a yummy breakfast...



Later, we went to the Probst house where some other kids we know were having a BALL playing with their new Wii. Some of us had more fun designing everyone's Mii and trying to make it look like the actual person. (Except for Mike's; his Mii icon looks suspiciously like Kim Jung Ill. This started at Matt & Denise's home.) Other kids watched the Laker's game. (Ah, America.)

Santa loves you. And Jesus loves you too.
Part 1


Ok, this headline was shamefully stolen from a 2nd grader at Placerville Christian School who created an over-the-top cool Christmas card for my aunt (the Principal), to take to Ghana when we were there. I wish we hadn't given it away and could scan it in because it was probably the funniest card ever. Designed on construction paper (what else?), there was a beautiful drawing of St. Nick and it said, 'SANTA LOVES YOU!' in large letters on the front cover. At the bottom, in smaller letters 'Jesus loves you too' was added; apparently, his teacher had reminded him of this fact. Then, inside Frosty the Snowman was pictured saying 'Frosty the Snowman wishes you a Merry Christmas!' At the very bottom in what was also clearly an addendum, a Bible verse from Proverbs was written. Hilarious. Ah, the age old battle between our jolly heathen friends, and the baby Savior. Actually, I don't think Jesus would want there to be any battle. While I'm pretty sure His main concern is that we remember how much love it took to give up all the luxury of heaven and enter our world in the humble mantle of infant, I also really don't think He minds children enjoying Frosty and Santa.

For us, this Christmas was wonderfully peaceful and relaxing. It was good to be home from travels and together with people we love. (Although we definitely missed quite a few of you...)

As they frequently say in Africa, 'God is SO GOOD.' 'All the time, God is GOOD.'
Sometimes, like during these nostalgic days, His goodness is very clear and easily felt. Other days, it is more difficult to see, but still true. As my dear friend, Denise and I are learning together, there is some incomprehensible power in declaring it out loud.

On that note, a few highlights from our holidays...


Time with Grandma and Grandpa who came bearing all kinds of fun things, including a beautiful red wagon!





...there's always lots of laughs with these two around.


Grandpa made Audrey homemade blocks--nice and chunky and smelling of real wood And they make a really cool sound when you throw them into a metal bin.


How big our little punkin' is getting...

Aunt Kelly came up and we headed to church...


On our way, we happened to see Santa and one of his elves, on a motorcycle.


...at church


...also at church


...IN church, getting very stir-crazy and needing constant covert-feeding of peanut-butter crackers in order to stay quiet.


This is a weird thing that we have never done before on Christmas: stopped to get coffee on the way home from church (6pm) so that we can stay awake and enjoy the evening. We must really be getting old (or very jet lagged still). In any case, here's to starting our own traditions!

Then, we came home and immediately changed into our pajamas and started preparing dinner--the very traditional dinner of tacos, beans and rice. Yummy!


...to be continued. Must run!

Baking with baby


Normally, we would have done more baking by now, so we needed to get on the stick. What kind of a Christmas would it be if we all didn't gain 15 pounds from having obscene amounts of sweets around?

Audrey is really getting into the idea of 'helping', so she and I made sugar cookies together...

The Kitchen Aid has been her favorite appliance since infancy...


Note to self for next time baking with very young child: buy twice as many sprinkles as needed since 95% will go inside said decorating child.

Green


At one point, while in Daboya village, I unknowingly engaged a 'color selection' mode. The result is that the only color appearing in these pictures is anything green. The results are interesting.




Before the flooding, these were corn fields. Now, there is almost nothing green to be seen. A critical source of food and income, gone.


Local farmers point out the extent of the damage.






In remote villages like this one, many people have never seen a white person before.


Not much green in this picture of me in front of a mosque, either...


We stopped for lunch on the way back, at a random place, on the dusty road in the middle of nowhere. Our lunches had been prepared for us from the hotel and brought in a cooler. One thing you can be sure of as a guest in Ghana, is that whatever you are being served, is the very best that they have to give. In this case, they had prepared sandwiches on white bread; but these weren't desirable to most of the group who tried to discretely discard the food. As we were about to get back into the vans, we noticed a bunch of children hiding some distance away, watching carefully and waiting for us to leave so that they could take whatever we left. Someone called to the kids, who timidly ran over to where we were. The leftover food and soda were given to the kids, who absolutely freaked out with joy, to be receiving our scraps.




Mike teaches the kids how to snap a bottle cap.






Doesn't this little guy just look like a character?







This baby is tasting her first Sprite. Never mind that she is only 5 months old.