Merry Early Early Christmas!

 

We had planned to celebrate Christmas with Uncle Nate mid December because we planned to head home to North America around Christmas. BUT Uncle Nate was needed in the capital city a few months sooner than expected to start a ministry as the NTM Government Representative. So we helped him pack up his house in a week and celebrated Christmas Nov 29th, the day after we celebrated Thanksgiving!! It was very fun! Yet very crazy!

I was thankful that the few presents I ordered for my family had arrived early! Warm clothes and travel games for our trip to the cold cold country!

Fun books for the 32 hours of flying around the world from Uncle Nate!

Hidden present... a missing ladle from a set reappears!

The camera angle is very deceiving. 

Father and Son, their sweatshirts fit them well!

And it always snows on Christmas in the Devine house! :)

One last tickle, laughing and screaming time with Uncle Nate. So fun!

He is hooked on the books!

When we celebrated Christmas we enjoyed the Thanksgiving leftover from the day before! And then I enjoyed the last of the gluten free, all naturally sweetened pumpkin pie and pear pie with coconut cream. So good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Naomi and I had fun making a gluten free, all naturally sweetened Pumpkin Pie!

Nate and I had fun cooking up a storm for everyone for Thanksgiving!

Preparations for THE Airplane Ride

 

The day after our flights had been rebooked with a different airline going the other way around the world, I read this to Naomi during preschool. And I thought, if only it was this easy!! We will fly out of the capital city on Dec 24th, spending 3 hours in the airplane and most of the day in the airport. Then we head to Boston, departure time 10:00 pm on Christmas Eve, arrival time in Boston 2 pm on Christmas Day. Technically only14 hours have pasted. But we have lived 29 hours instead of 14 hours... the longest Christmas Day ever, a child's dream, eh?

Going to the village to pick up Tracey, the lady who will replace us at the guesthouse.

Practicing the art of staying warm... in preparation of our long long trip to America in the winter!

Food, Friends & Puzzles

 

My "brother", Nate, grew some asparagus and gave some to me... delicious!! My first time cooking fresh from the garden asparagus!

In packing mode... making sure all the puzzles have their pieces before packing them or giving them away. :)

This puzzle was a doozy, so hard and took a long time! But it is done!

Eating Sushi at Uncle Nates... and they liked it! :)

Guesthouse Work & Play

 

Naomi loves helping Fiona, Georgie and Rumbi at the guesthouse!

She also loves to help dad, especially with water and a hose!

Naomi's friend, Joya, visiting from Wewak.

Dinner with friends from Wewak area.

Joya and Naomi enjoy playing together... they are just 2 weeks apart in age!

Meals ready for 37 people returning from their home countries and heading into a 2 week quarantine... We were working so fast to get it all ready and in their houses before they arrived that the pictures is blurry. :) This is only the food for half of the 17 homes being used for quarantine.