Christmas Day

Brooke and Chad came downstairs on Christmas morning

and were amazed to see the pile of presents under the Christmas tree.

Breakfast at Aunt Jenny's - all the grandkids are blowing out candles on our traditional 'St. Lucia's Crown' after singing 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus.

Now the Morad clan has a huge row of stockings:

Steve (aka Dad/Guka), Sandy (aka Mom/Shosho)

Sharon

Stephen, Leigh, Ethan, Liz

Suzanne, Joey, Brooke, Chad and ?

Stephanie, Aaron, Keira

Christmas Eve

Chad, Liz and Brooke went to great effort to be sure that I understood what was happening as we watched 'Cars' together.

After the Christmas Eve service at church, the whole Chicago-area clan gathered for supper. The universal favourite was the chocolate fountain for dessert.

Brooke and Chad love raspberries - they can stick their fingers in the hole!

10 more minutes of playtime before Brooke needs to go to bed.

Keira's ready to sleep in her mommy's arms.

more photos

Melissa and Kaitlyn Leigh making candy

Christmas is always more fun with children - and we had a lot underfoot.

Brooke, Rachael, Kaitlyn, Keira, Chad, Aunt Beth

Playing with Shosho.
Chad is following in the footsteps of his big sister.

Kaitlyn and Brooke

Exhausted adults.

Aaron, Stephen, Leigh, Kevin

Family time

This is the first time in 5 years that my whole family has been together, and we certainly made the most of it.

Playing in the snow.

Guka and Brooke making a gingerbread house.

Decorating Christmas Cookies.

Brooke, Stephanie, Liz, Aaron

Ethan

Keira & Brooke

Grandma's birthday

All of the Jorden kids were able to be there for Grandma's 80th birthday.

Here are my grandparents with the 'Precious 9'.

From left to right (back row) there is Beth, Kris, Sandy (my mom) Debbie, Judy, Sue

(front row) Jenny, Jim, Grandma (Janet), Grandpa (Paul) and Paul.

Grandma received a scrapbook with pages of memories and photos put together by her family and friends.

We shared a lot of laughter as people shared memories of my grandmother.

My grandfather lead us in devotions each day we were all together; and the family also took time to pray together.

Back home

So I’m back in Kenya after my visit to America. Here have been the highlights of the last three weeks (pictures will have to come next week since most of them are on my sister’s camera and she’ll be sending out a CD of them with my parents):

1) Just before I left we had a ward Christmas party. The staff enjoyed a nice meal catered by a local restaurant and were especially impressed by the decorated sugar cookies.
2) On the way back to the states I stopped in London for about 24 hours to visit my friend David. It was nice to be back in the UK even for a short time.
3) The first week in America revolved around extended celebrations for my grandmother’s 80th birthday. Over 30 member of my extended family gathered, including my mother’s 6 sisters and 2 brothers. It was lovely to see so many of my relatives.
4) A visit from Melissa and Caleb (close friends from my university days at Northwestern) and their daughter Kaitlyn.
5) Shopping for the ward – I managed to obtain fetal dopplers, a cardiotocograph machine, some pulse oximeters, and most importantly – an ultrasound transducer to replace the one that was stolen.
6) Christmas celebrations – my brother, two sisters and their families gathered for nearly a week – the first time we’ve all been together in the last 5 years. It was fun to see the youngest generation of cousins getting to know one another.

I had safe travel (with no delays despite snow in Chicago and increased security in London following the antisocial behavior of a certain gentleman on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day) and am glad to be back in Kenya now. The next few weeks will undoubtedly be busy and exciting – I’ll try to keep you updated.