Saturday, December 31 (Chartwell Castle Maze and Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream)

     As a Christmas present, Nathan and Adrianne created a puzzle for us, drawing out a rebus (where pictures represent words or part of words) for us to solve.  It read: one trip to Chartwell Castle Maze on us.  Yesterday, we went to Chartwell Castle.  They had managed to get us in on a day when it would normally have been closed, so we had the maze to ourselves.
     Realizing that we love puzzles, and realizing that the maze would be easy because of this, they created another puzzle for us.  The goal: find all five bags of candy, take one piece, find Nathan and show them to him, solve his riddle, and run back and tell Adrianne the answer - whoever does this the fasted wins.
     Mom and Dad actually found them all first, and finished first, but the rest of us kids were running, so Teresa and Ivan finished fastest, Esther and I finished second fastest, and Jonathon and Becca finished third fastest.  It took about two hours, and it was a really fun Christmas present - Christmas presents that you have to work for always are, plus we got candy.
     Yesterday afternoon I made another batch of ice cream.  This time, per Dad's request, I made raspberry cheesecake ice cream, and it turned out really well.  Recipe:

For cheesecake ice cream:

8 oz. cream cheese

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups half and half

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For raspberry swirl:

12 oz. fresh or frozen raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

Let cream cheese soften slightly and beat with an electric mixer. Slowly add the sweetened condensed milk, while beating on low speed. Add the half and half, beating on lowest speed. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Cover the bowl and chill for about an hour, or until very cold.

In the meantime, place the raspberries in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar. Let sit until the raspberries release some of their juices. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Freeze the ice cream mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer directions. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-proof container. Remove the raspberries from the fridge. Pour the raspberries and any juice over the ice cream. Use the back of a wooden spoon or a blunt knife to swirl the raspberries throughout the ice cream. Cover tightly and freeze for several hours to harden.

Keeps well for about 2 weeks. Yield: 1 1/2 quarts. 
http://www.cafejohnsonia.com/2008/06/raspberry-cheesecake-ice-cream.html
We saw these chicks inside the Chartwell Castle Maze - there were two other broods as well.

This is a sparrow nest (one of the many) that we have hanging in the eaves.  The two chicks are fast asleep, heads propped up on the side of the nest.

Wednesday, December 28 (Christmas pictures, "Lunch", and the Science Museum)

As promised, here are a few of the pictures taken with Nathan and Adrianne's camera on Christmas day.

 Our Christmas tree, with our angel on top.  The angel is about 1/5 of the size of our Christmas tree.

 One of our several nativity scenes - my personal favorite.  

 I rarely wear printed t-shirts, but I think this one is very cute.  It's one of my Christmas presents from Mom.

 Another favorite Christmas present.  

Mom's Christmas present from the rest of the family.  The set of salt and pepper shakers we picked up at the Bryanston Organic & Natural Market, and they're hand carved from olive wood.

 Playing Wii with our guests whom we had over for dinner on Christmas.

The Christmas wreath hanging on our front door.











     On Monday, we went over to our friend's, the Stea's, house for lunch.  The Aguirres (ag-eer-ees) were there, too.  We just meant to stay an hour or two, maybe two and a half, but when we looked at the clock, it was 7pm.  The two families we were spending our afternoon with love puzzles and games - we played boggle, catchphrase, card games, wii, and tennis.  When we realized the time, the mom's threw together a big batch of spaghetti and we ended up staying until 9.  Talk about good friends!  If you can lose track of time with them, they're worth getting to know better.

     Today, we visited the Sci-Bono science Museum.  We were hoping to look into their Blindness exhibit, but no one was there, so we just finished exploring the museum from the last time we were there and then came home.  Now, we're Skyping our Grandma, back home in Maryland. 

Taylors

Check out Rob and Jen Taylor's blog, and consider supporting them as they work towards moving to Swaziland with their four kids as missionaries!
http://robandjennifer.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/christmas-at-the-taylors/

December 25, 2011 (Christmas!)

     Merry Christmas everyone!  I'm going to keep this short, since I don't have photos yet (I used Nathan and Adrianne Penner's camera again), but Christmas today was a lot of fun.  Of course, all the kids were up before 6AM, waiting for our parents to let us out of the secure bedroom area into the living room.  Per tradition, we started with stockings and then took turns opening presents one at a time, taking breaks for cinnamon rolls.
     Putting on our new Christmas Clothes, we headed off to church.  Around here, the Christmas services are short and sweet, allowing families to get back home to prepare Christmas lunch/dinner.  It was our first time actually listening to our new pastor, Justin, since he's been away on vacation, and we enjoyed hearing his sermon on God's Christmas Gift to Us.
     After a little fellowshipping after the service, we did head home to prepare to host four families: two of Dad's co-workers and their families, Nathan and Adrianne, and our neighbors.  We had a large lunch/dinner (we really only had two meals today), and then we spent time talking and listening to stories.  One of Dad's co-workers, Faith, is Zimbabwean, and she was able to talk about her life there as the economy dropped, inflation took hold, and government lost control.  I say the government lost control, but the people didn't.  People survived by bartering, by selling Zim dollars for American dollars/South African rand, by become self-employed entrepreneurs.  70% of the population of Zim is self employed.
     Nathan and Adrianne also shared their story with our other guests, about Adrianne's brain surgery, and their marriage, and how the church came together.  We had heard it before, but we picked up more details this time.
     Once our guests left, we skyped the Taylor's back home in Gig Harbor, catching them about 15 minutes before they headed off to church.  They'll call us back after church, cause Christmas just isn't the same without talking to the Taylor family!
     Hopefully I'll have the pictures by Wednesday, at which point I can post them!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 (Christmas This Year)

As fall rides off in the sunset

I sweep the snow from my doorstep

I just can't help but stop and grin

It's like I'm ten years old again

And everywhere I go I can feel it

Some say it moves like a spirit

It falls on us once a year

Like it came on a midnight clear

It's all love

The season is a gift

When love came down to let us live

Let's open up and let our hearts embrace this moment

                                                                                                                         ~ Christmas This Year, by TobyMac

     Today's the first day of winter back home... the first day of summer in Johannesburg.  While I love this song by TobyMac, it just isn't quite true.  Instead of snow (or Washington Style Rain) covering the doorstep, we have sunshine, warm temperatures, and thunderstorms.  It's interesting how we stereotype Christmas to include twinkling lights and evergreen trees, snow and cold weather, short days and long nights, hot cocoa and cookies, etc.  Yet here, in South Africa, there aren't evergreen trees, the weather is hot, the days are long, and almost NO one puts up lights.  Come to think of it, Jesus wasn't welcomed into a snow covered world either.  I'm pretty sure his weather was much hotter than how we northerners think of Christmas being now.  

     Our church is about the only one I've seen with lights up around here.  And that may be because there are a lot of Americans in the church.  Perhaps more people would put up lights... if they stayed in town.  Johannesburg has emptied quickly, meaning less traffic.  Somehow, though, that doesn't mean less crowded malls.  

   We were in the Drakensberg until the 16th, so our tree wasn't put up until the 17th, but our ornaments are not toddler-proof.  Only the non-breakable ornaments went on the tree, and we planned on hanging the breakable ornaments on garlands strung around the room.  That was the plan - until we discovered we left the garlands at home and brought lots of extra wreaths instead.  So now the breakable ornaments are hanging from wreaths hanging in our window.  Esther thinks our home looks even more Christmas-y than it did in America.  Perhaps that's because we only focused on the main room, decorating no where else, and brought enough decorations (although not everything we own) that we don't have enough room to put everything someplace in our smaller home.  

     At home, the youngers would always sleep under the Christmas tree in the playroom, but that's now our main tree, and it's in our main room, which we can't sleep in because it isn't behind security gates.  On Christmas Eve, Chapel Hill has five evening services: 4, 5:30, 7, 8:30, and 10, which all of us participated in.  But no one here does Christmas Eve services (except the Anglican church Mom played handbells at), so our Christmas Eve's won't be nearly as busy.  Christmas Day will be quiet as well, with a church service in the morning and a couple of families over for dinner.   

     Even with all of the differences between a Washingtonian Christmas and a South African Christmas, the real meaning is the same.  One night, a couple thousand years ago, the Son of God, Jesus, Emmanuel was born to the virgin, Mary in the little town of Bethlehem.  Shepherds and Kings alike bowed down to the newborn baby, and angels sang their praises over the small stable.  30-odd years later, Jesus was crucified, a perfect man, the Son of God, for the sins of all of us.  None of us can ever be perfect, but His grace covers us.  He is the bridge that spans the wide gap between humanity and our loving Father in Heaven.  Without Jesus, the world would be a dark and forsaken place, but with Him we have hope.  

Friday, December 16, 2011 (Drakensberg Mountains)

     We got back today from our week long stay in the Drakensberg Mountains, and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it.   

The thatched roof cottage we stayed in.  Four bedroom, two bathroom, and perfect for our week-long stay.

     The rickety bridge leading from the cottages to the pool and park.

      During the week, we all got to try out tennis, a sport Mom and Dad both played when they were younger.  I really enjoyed it, and we're going to look into buying rackets and balls and maybe using either the school courts or the church courts.

     The ants ruled the cottage, and I was fascinated.  It took them around ten minutes to find a piece of dropped food, and after that it took them a couple of hours to transport it back to their nest, but they didn't give up.  There were a couple of "mutant" ants with big heads which would bite off bigger pieces than the rest of the ants could, and then they would pass the pieces to the other ants to carry.  

      The strength of these little sugar ants is astonishing.  They carried this piece of cheese across the countertop, but it didn't fit in their hole, so they held it vertically in order to fit it in.  They held it that way for at least 15 minutes, with the extra ants still hanging on to the cheese and not helping at all. 

     On Tuesday we took a four-hour, circular-route hike out to Nandis Falls.  It wasn't an extremely powerful falls, but it was loud and cold and beautiful.  We were able to hike up behind it and stand behind the waterfall, too.

This is the view off of the top of one of the ridges we hiked.  I love how the sun and the clouds mist around the tops of the mountains.  The evergreen trees and mountain backdrop helped to remind us of Washington, but we missed our snow capped peaks towering in the distance.

     Lots of relaxing happened at the pool; this isn't actually the pool at Mount Champagne, where we stayed - it's the one in Dragon's Peaks Campground, which is just next door.  They had two diving boards, a couple of slides, and really nice water.In the 41st book of the Bible, in the 6th chapter, in the 31st verse (ok, fine, Mark 6:31), it says: "Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat." Jesus and his disciples needed a break from all the crowds, and so did we (although perhaps we needed a break from the traffic more than the crowds, but they go hand in hand).  

      Up in the Drakensberg, the road was full of potholes, people sold fruit and baskets on the side of the road, and it was possible to walk for a few minutes and sit down among the ducks and listen to the river.   Definitely a quiet, restful, relaxing atmosphere.  We bought local crafts, listened to the Drakensberg Boys sing, and had fun.

     We were warned multiple times about closing doors and windows and not leaving food out because the monkeys would come and steal it!

     It rained a few times while we were there - these are the kayaks out on the dam during a rainstorm. 

     The river flowing over the dam 

     On Wednesday we got to go on the Canopy Zipline tour, featuring both the longest and the highest ziplines in South Africa.  Mom and I both have ziplined before, in Costa Rica, and this was just as fun. It took about two hours and it was the kid's big Christmas present.

    Thursday, we watched a bird demonstration of hawks, eagles, and owls native to South Africa, and afterwards we were able to hold the peregrine falcon.

     After the bird demonstration, we all went down to the river.  Dad and my siblings slid along the rocks and waded for a ways, while I drove the car (!!! finally, another chance to drive !!!) and Mom took pictures along the way.  I've missed being allowed to drive.  

Although it's somewhat hard to see it in this picture, these are blackberries.  I had been told that blackberries don't grow in South Africa, so what a pleasant surprise to find them in the backyard of the cottage!  They aren't as sweet or as big as the wild ones in Washington, but they're still blackberries :)

      As the perfect ending to our trip, we met a family living five minutes away from us in Johannesburg, a pastor and his five kids, and had dinner with them.  They were homeschoolers, and the parents were from America, so they all sounded American, and their grandparents from Texas were visiting with their Southern drawl.  No doubt, we'll get to know this family much better, and I can't wait.

Thursday, December 8 (Extra post: animals)

Today was the World Vision summer/end of year/christmas party, and it was held at a crocodile farm.  We got lectured on crocodiles, snakes, and bearded dragons, and got to hold all of them!  The crocodile was a baby, of course; the adult crocs can weigh 400kg and upwards.  On the way home, we saw our first giraffe while being here.