Laughin' around the Christmas Tree

On the Monday after Christmas our family had a Christmas party. It was originally planned for two Mondays before Christmas, but Patty contacted her first case of malaria since arriving in Ghana, so that delayed things.

Though the party was after Christmas, it was great! We invited a few missionaries, a national pastor and his family, that are our good friends, and our upstairs neighbors.

The whole focus of the the party is to have a good time of fellowship and try to mix the two cultures. So often we are invited to parties and either they are totally Ghanaian, which makes sense living in Ghana (this does not bother us), or they are totally full of foreigners (which does bother us). In this party we really try to mix everything. The food is half Ghanaian and half foreign. We had spaghetti (which we locally call- italiana) and bread. The sauce is made very thick so that it is closer to local stews. Then we have white rice on the side, so that people can mix the noodles, rice, and sauce, (this is a little more the way in which people eat food here). Also my wife fried chicken. Everybody loved the food.

Another goal for the party was to get to know our upstairs neighbors better. They are very friendly people, but not very open to spiritual things. Both of them have lived outside of Ghana, and are highly educated. They are very nice people, and we have tried to build a good relationship with them.

Over all the party was wonderful. Everyone eat until stuffed. While the adults talked the kids went outside and played. After some time, we played group games. The first game that we played was, Decorate the Christmas Tree. One person was chosen to be a tree and everyone else had to decorate them. Then we played Unwrap the gift. This is played while wearing oven mitts. Each person tries to throw a dice and get a preset number. While they are throwing the dice, the person in front of them is trying to unwrap the gift wearing oven mitts. The person that gets to the bottom of the boxes and paper gets the gift. Patty and I, where happy that our neighbor's wife won. She really liked the gift.
After the kids ate the whole ginger bread house, this is the one I wrote about last week, the adults feasted on Christmas snacks. Overall it was a great time. It is such a blessing to build relationships with people, and show unbelievers that it is fun and enjoyable to be a Christian.

After everyone went home and the house was picked up. Patty and I sat back and savored a hot cup of coca and enjoyed a holiday movie. The Holidays are wonderful!