Holiday Hike

Early morning picnic with the girls. How early? Well, the village church bell rings at 5am. Then the dog starts to bark. So after some dozing, it is time to get up for 6am devotions with the girls. Yep, these girls have devotions together every morning. That is part of the Christian culture in Nigeria. When the lesson has been taught and prayers have been said, the girls come and curtsy in front of me and whatever other leader is present and say "Good morning, Aunty". That is the point when I start to wake up :) I will never tire of being called Aunty. Love it.

So Nicky has this fantastic idea to pack our bags with food and take the girls hiking. Now, Aunty Erin loves this kind of thing, but my lungs have not been in top shape recently. But I said, if 5 year old Faith is going, I am going. Plus I miss wearing pants and this was a great excuse to wear them! (Have to wear skirts all the time otherwise).


Faith insisted on carrying this backpack, for about ten minutes. Check
out the diva pose. The crocs (shoes) were a great gift to the kids by a visiting team.

Yeah, this picture is pretty cool. We are in dry season now, obviously.

Faith and I decided to stick together during this
hike. I ended up carrying her quite a bit. Funny
how Nicky, whose great idea it was to do this,
never carried her... hmm....

So we get to the top and are eating our snacks and I said to Nicky, "That was great! Halfway done." She died laughing and said, "Oh no! We still have lots more ahead!"Folks, I had a great time and these pics to boot, but dang I was feeling old.

Farmland - handmade borders dug by the owners.

The green trees that look like are painted in are Mango trees.

I just get a kick out of the beauty and vividness of God's creations. And I love how the bottom of the leaves and branches go across in a straight line.

Other News - Dee and Tilly arrived from Chicago today! They will be staying with me until they leave on the 1st. I am so blessed to have friends who love me and the kids so much to spend Christmas with us!

Merry Christmas from Nigeria !!!!!