#7 Merry Christmas

On Christmas Eve Alemu, Israel and I went over to Philipa’s house and spent the night. We went to the store so I could buy more stocking stuffers and Corn Flakes for Philipa’s kids – they get to eat Corn Flakes twice a week so I bought them each their own box. Dinner was so good…we had pasta in a homemade alfredo sauce. Hannah, who is twelve, helped me wrap presents until it was her bed time. We checked the movies I had gotten for her brothers. One worked the other didn’t. So we checked some other movies that I had gotten…finally one worked. I wrapped all the gifts and then put the boy’s stocking at the foot of the bed with nametags beside. They woke me up at 7:15am saying, “Merry Christmas!” I asked them if they opened up their stocking and they said no. So we went back to their room and opened up our stockings. Israel immediately tore open some chips and candy. Alemu started to yell at him but I told him it was ok and to eat what ever they wanted. Philipa had given us apples in our stockings…they were the most coveted present in our stockings so we took pictures with them. Philipa and her children soon appeared and so we went to make breakfast. Hannah was in charge of the pancakes and I had brought blueberry muffin mix so I was in charge of that. Philipa started on the preparations for lunch. Philipa’s husband, Ray, said that the kids couldn’t open presents until after breakfast so the boys were rushing us to finish. After breakfast Ray said that we needed to be dressed. Aaron, the ten year old said, “Emily would you go get dressed now…Hannah you too.” So we went to get dressed out of our pajamas.
Alemu and Israel were the first to open a present it was from our parents and to both of them. You should have seen their faces when they opened up the Spiderman movie trilogy. Alemu was trying to convince Israel that movies one and two were his and that the thrid was Israel’s. They didn’t want to watch anyone else open presents. Israel is getting more comfortable around me and he is also getting into everything. I have started calling him Curious George. They loved the Spiderman pajamas that they got from our parents. They each got a flashlight from Philipa and Ray…which they used last night during the power outage. I gave Alemu an Arsenal soccer ball and soccer socks and I gave Israel a Liverpool ball and soccer socks (I couldn’t find a Man. U. ball so I had to settle for Liverpool). They were excited about the soccer balls but they were ecstatic about the movies. After presents were over we played cricket…it’s actually a very fun game and similar to baseball. Israel was the best at batting but after two innings he lost interest and preferred the scooter. Alemu was the best at catching the ball and got Aaron out all three times. I didn’t do too bad myself. Lunch was so good. We had roasted chicken, stuffing, roasted carrots and potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled green beans and carrots, fruit salad and soda. Hannah and I had gotten Ray a coffee set and Philipa had gotten him raw coffee beans. After lunch we tried to roast the coffee beans ourselves and make coffee like the Ethiopians do. We tried. It was so gross and watery. We had to leave after coffee to make it back to the house for a coffee ceremony. The ladies wanted to do something nice for Ilie and for me since it was our Christmas. When we arrived home there was a feast of snacks. They made popcorn, special bread, deep fried dough (kind of like a biscuit), some other type of dough snack, oranges and bananas. They even splurged and bought sodas for everyone. They had spent hours making everything but the celebration was cut short when Dereje and Alizare came to take Ilie to the airport. That night I called my parents and woke Israel and Alemu up so that they could talk to them. Well I tried to wake Alemu up but he just wanted to sleep. Israel on the other hand bounced out of bed and took the phone from me and said, “Hi Dad” That took me by surprise and I’m sure it shocked my dad as well.