Unique Tree Decorating Tips

Baylor has enjoyed having the Christmas tree up immensely.  The bottom third of our tree has only unbreakable ornaments so that she can take them on and off as she pleases.  She has even taken part in the decorating herself.  I have found a bell pepper and a jar of puffs in the tree.  My personal favorite though, was a game of cribbage.

More Birthday Fun

For my birthday this year, I got the best present ever.  My friend RaDora came to see me for 2 whole weeks.  She brought loads of goodies for birthdays and Christmas, but mostly I was just happy she brought herself.  RaDora and I were interns together in Jinja, Uganda almost 10 years ago during college and this was her first time to revisit the continent since then.  

While Brett made blueberry waffles for breakfast, RaDora made me a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing.  So delicious.  We went out to the gold mine for lunch where we were joined by our whole team.  

How wonderful it is to know that it takes fewer candles to write out the age you are than to just put that many on the cake.  

After lunch we spent the afternoon playing squash and lounging by the pool.  For dinner we ate homemade pizza and then played a game.  I love my birthday.  

Baylor's 1st Birthday

Yesterday was Baylor's first birthday.  It's crazy how fast it's gone by.  Baylor is full of life.  She's adventurous, loud, and has unending energy.  She doesn't like to stop for anything, including sleep.  Her laugh is infectious (though to be fair, so is her grumpiness) and her smile just makes me happy.  

Baylor continues to love to eat and is finally starting to gain a little bit of the weight that all that food consumed should bring.  She's still pretty small though.  She started wearing her 9-12 month clothes a month ago.  She loves being outside.  I look forward to the day when our yard is something other than dirt and mud so she can go play anytime she wants, instead of it being a special treat.  Baylor walks all the time now and has started trying to run, which generally means she ends up face down on the ground and crying.  But babies are resilient so she just gets up and does it again.  Her hobbies these days include taking items out of larger items and putting them back in and bringing things to me and taking them back and bringing them to me again.  I've had a lot of Christmas tree ornaments in my lap lately.  Baylor also loves to swim so we try to get her in the water as often as we can.  Bath time's fun, but it's just not the same.

Yesterday we went to Mwanza to pick up one of my best friends, RaDora, for her two week visit and then headed back to Geita for Baylor's birthday party.  We asked our teammates to come over a little early and get the grill started with some hamburgers since we would be on the road, and they went above and beyond.  We arrived to a house decorated and sparkly.  It was great.

I made a cake for the occasion, completely from scratch (though only because I couldn't find any cake mix anywhere in Geita, Mwanza, or Kigali) and even decorated it.  Baylor was super excited anticipating it's deliciousness, though I think ended up being exhausted by her efforts to consume as much sugar as possible in the largest bites that could possibly fit in her mouth.  

The birthday t-shirt was a present from RaDora -- very cute.  Baylor also got some other great presents and enjoyed opening them once she realized how to do it.  

All in all, it was a great day and we're so thankful that God put Baylor in our lives!