Fluffy Bug

Jared's best friend here in Luanda is Hana. She turns 5 years old in December and she is from Egypt. Her dad works for the same company as Kenny and they have another daughter that is 11 years old and a son that is Jacob's age, 8 years old. I could also say that the son, Adam, is Jacob's best friend. They live about 3 blocks from us and every weekend someone is spending the night with the other one. They all get along really well and are all a very good group of kids. The Amer kids are very well mannered and the parents are very nice as well. We knew this family but never really talked until Jacob's birthday party in October and then we found out they were going to cape town the same time we were. Since that trip I can say we have all became really good friends. We get together and play pictionary often and have a blast. We call Wael Lulu the cheater because he always ends up cheating some how or another during the game. There is a small language barrier between us and I think that is why it is so much fun to play with them. Shimo says she studied English for 6 years and my accent makes everything she learned not true. :-) I always tell her I do not have an accent but she disagrees. :-) Wael says he is going to get the Arabic version of the game since we have the advantage of it being in English. These nights are times I will remember when we leave Luanda. I told them in January, after break, we will have to get some more couples and teach them how to play Nertz like we play with friends in the US. So back to the reason I am writing this post....Jared aka Fluffy Bug and Hana. Last week, like many weeks, Jared road the bus home with Hana to play after school. When he came home he had his face painted. I got an email tonight from Hana's mom with some pictures of their play date. Looks like they had fun.

Christmas Party #1

Today I went to a Christmas party with the ladies from our company and it was a lot of fun. It was a lunch and then we played dirty Santa. I first opened a really nice casserole dish with a warmer and then it was taken away and I ended up with some salad spoons from South Africa and I love them!!!!

It was a great Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for in my life right now. My wonderful husband and my two great sons. I can not believe Jacob is 8 years old and loving school so much. Jared is 5 years old and already started school. Jacob is loving reading and writing and Jared loves learning altogether. We are getting to live in Angola and have been able to travel twice this year once to South Africa and once to London. We are getting to go back to the US in 14 days to see our family and friends. We are blessed to have made some really good friends here in Luanda and had them over tonight for Thanksgiving dinner. It was the first Thanksgiving dinner the Amer's have ever been to but they said the food was great. We also had the Horton family over and they are from the US so they said it made it feel more like Thanksgiving. This morning Kenny and I started cooking and we made pumpkin rolls, his great-aunt Jo's dressing, corn, salad, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, banana pudding, fried turkey and Katie brought green beans and homemade ice cream. We were stuffed afterwards so we knew it was a good dinner. We had 8 kids at the house and they all had so much fun together. The kids table was so loud but they were having so much fun it was hard to tell them to stop laughing so loud. I am so thankful the boys have made friends with such wonderful kids. I know they will be friendships that last long past our stay in Luanda. I was a little down on Thursday because it didn't feel like Thanksgiving at all but after tonight it definitely felt like Thanksgiving in Luanda. I was a little worried about all the food turning out good for our first attempt every at Thanksgiving but everything turned out delicious.

 The older kids table....they were having way to much fun.

 Molly, Max, Farrah, Adam, Jacob

 The little kids....Max, Hana and Jared

The really big kids table....Kenny and Shimo in the background.

It was either Hana's birthday party or the Turkey but these two couldn't stay awake very late tonight. 

Jared and Hana fast asleep.

Thanksgiving Skyping

Today did not feel like Thanksgiving at all. Everyone was at work and school and I was home alone. For dinner we had rotisserie chicken, croissants, and baked beans. During dinner we did have a pleasant surprise and was able to skype with my mom and family, the Finley's, and Kenny's dad's family. They all had to show us their turkeys and dressing and dumplings...but that is ok...it made it feel more like Thanksgiving talking to everyone and seeing the yummy food. It also makes us miss home a little more. :-) Only 16 more days and we leave for the US!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, Jared came home with a pilgrim hat on and he was walking around singing I have my
Pill-a-gram hat on, I have my Pill-a-gram. It was the cutest thing.

Thanksgiving in Africa

This is our first Thanksgiving away from family and our first Thanksgiving in Africa. Not really sure how I feel about it yet. It is kind of weird because it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here. No cool weather or fall colors, only hot and humid. I did find a turkey that weighs about 9lbs and cost me about $35 and it is from the US with English writing. Tonight at the compound some Americans got together and had Thanksgiving at the Club House but we chose to wait until this weekend. There is no holiday for Thanksgiving in Angola so we will be doing our regular routine of work and school tomorrow. Sunday we are going to have over 2 families that we have became friends with here. One is American and one is from Egypt. In Egypt do not celebrate Thanksgiving either but they said they would love to join in on our tradition. Kenny is going to fry a couple of Turkeys and I have one can of pumpkin, that I bought from a pantry sale, that I am going to make a pumpkin roll out of then have corn and green beans and crescent rolls. Definitely not your normal Thanksgiving meal but we will make due with what we have. No dumplings or pecan pie this year unfortunately. I guess at Christmas we will have to make up for what we missed. This summer when we come back I will come more prepared for Thanksgiving for sure.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all our friends and family. We miss you all lots and will see you in 17 days!!!!!!!!!

LIS International Day

Saturday we got home about 6am from London and I was able to take a nap for a couple of hours and then off to the school I went. I helped decorate the American booth and then went back home to pick up Kenny and the boys. Jacob marched in the parade with the boy scouts and performed the boot scoot boogie line dance with the USA kids. There was probably around 20 different country booths set up and there were about 15 performances from different countries. It lasted from about 2-5pm and was a lot of fun. Each booth had food and a little trinket from their country. The kids had a passport that they took to each booth and they the country would give them a sticker or stamp it or some wrote the child's name in their language. The boys had a lot of fun even though we were all very tired from flying all night.