Preparing the Food

This past weekend, Allen and I dropped the kids off at Nana and Papa's, and we headed north to Lake Texoma for a quiet weekend. I asked him for a mini-vacation for Christmas and I really enjoyed the one I got a few days before Christmas. He and I enjoyed quiet time together, playing games, eating tasty food, watching a movie, getting a few last-minute gifts, and being away from the everyday stresses that wear me out after awhile. When we came home, we had two and a half days to get everything ready for Christmas day.

The kids pitched in and we all worked hard and got just about everything done on Monday. I headed to the grocery store while the kids helped Allen clean the house, and he helped them wrap the gifts they were giving. They got all the cleaning done while I was away! Allen took the boys for haircuts while Maddie and I worked on the Christmas morning casserole and I helped her wrap the gift she got for Allen. While I was cleaning up the kitchen a bit, Allen taught Will how to make twice-baked potatoes. I wrapped gifts while Allen made some cookies with some off-and-on help from the kids, then Allen did some wrapping while I worked on cookies. The house smelled great, and somehow the kitchen-cleaning was manageable.

By afternoon, the cooking was as done as it needed to be and we were done with a day to spare! We made the breakfast casserole, twice baked potatoes, and four kinds of cookies: Grandma Ruth's Christmas tree cookies (FINALLY tasting like hers did), ginger cookies, biscochitos, and Hello Dollies. By then, the kids had taken off to play at the park and we had surprise visitors. Allen went to get the kids, and all of us were thrilled to see Jeremy and Kerbi -- friends of ours who are missionaries in Costa Rica. Our kids have prayed for them every single night since they went to Costa Rica three years ago.

Preparing our Home

'Tis the time of year for Allen to make his bi-annual trip to the attic to get out the Christmas decorations. We always wait until after Will's birthday celebration and, this year, we finished those by his birthday on the second. However, our plans to decorate we derailed a couple times. The other day, Allen and the kids built the tree while I addressed cards and worked on school stuff. Another evening, Allen hung the lights and helped me get the ribbon on the boughs. Tonight, we finally had it ready to ornament (though this mama really only want to go to bed.) Allen snapped a few pictures while I helped the kids carefully unwrap several years of sweet memories to hang on the tree. My eyes teared up, as always, when I saw the photos in the "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments. The one of Will doesn't make my cry, but I had to fight tears with each of the others as I remembered the NICU tubes and wires that are in the photos. I reminisced about our first home, our first Christmas, our travels -- including the new angel ornament I got in Uganda this year.

This year, I even did something that was REALLY hard (at first.) I left all the ornaments where the kids put them, even though that meant that the bottom third of the right side of the tree was left ornament-less. Usually I move some around because I like it "balanced", but this year I dared myself to leave it alone and to learn to be okay with the perceived imperfection. It was Maddie' year to put the angel on top, but she screamed with terror every time Allen lifted her, so she surrendered the crocheted cherub to Jon.

Just about the time I was thinking about taking the kids to find an ornament for this year, they got some in the mail. Great Grammie Vail cross stitched them each an adorable snowman! (Getting all four to cooperate for a picture was evidently too much for me to ask. This is as good as it gets.)

"Once I Went"

To say that afternoons have been hectic, loud, and cranky is an understatement! Will and I just aren't getting along during homework time, and getting any work done seems to be a dreaded chore for both of us. Today, Will was assigned to write a free style poem that had to include at least two each of similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliteration. I promised if he could do all of it without complaining or whining, I would post it for the blog. Who knew that would be just the motivation he needed?

ONCE I WENT
by William Kaiser

Once I went to Mars
There were tons and tons of weird people

They were as green as pea soup
That's not what I expected

Once I went to Japan
There were lots and lots of weird people

They all sounded, to me, like squawking crows
That's not what I expected

Once I went to Antarctica
There weren't people

The penguins were words on a white page,
That's not what I expected

Once I went to the Kaiser's home
There was one sorting person,

one little wrestler, DING, DING goes the bell

one geeky gamer person, RATTLE, RATTLE go the dice

one crafty Picasso, BRUSH, BRUSH goes her paintbrush

one comical, crazy comedian, BMAHAHAHAHA! they all laugh

one knitter. TICKYTICKTANO

They were all weird,
nice technology,

and a mess.

That's TOTALLY what I expected.

Birds of Uganda

I am still a fan of birds even though it's been a long while since I've posted pictures. In fact, I've been painting one for our living room -- strange? maybe, but it makes me laugh.

When I was visiting with a friend who had been to Uganda, I asked her about the birds. She said she didn't remember any except a few at the hotel. When the Uganda kids were here in Texas, they acted as if they had never seen bugs, so I started wondering if there really weren't birds there. Once I got there, though, I realized they are everywhere as long as I kept looking.

The first couple days, I went to the courtyard in the morning and saw many, though the photos didn't always come out as well as I hoped. Some of the biggest birds I've ever seen were around the lake -- Marabou storks! They reminded me of grandpa's with the pocked pink faces with grayish white whisps on their heads. They stood at least as tall as me, though I didn't want to get quite close enough to compare... they didn't want me getting that close either. Check out the photo of my foot next to one of their feathers on the ground.

Marabou stork

There were also some interesting nests in the trees on the lake shore. One morning I actually captured a picture of the pretty yellow weavers that were living in them.

Each morning I was searching for birds at our hotel, I found at least one new type. I had to wait until I got home to identify them all though.

Sacred ibis

Gray heron

Hadada ibis

African openbill

African thrush

Pied crow

African pied wagtail

Woodland kingfisher

Glossy starling (Cape or Principe?)

We saw birds at the schools, but not too often. Usually, we were at the schools in the middle of the day when the birds weren't as active. Other times, we were just too busy for me to notice the birds when I was surrounded by children who made me even happier! (The dove nesting in the rafters of a schoolroom kept us hopping all day. We had to keep moving boxes as she kept pooping on them.)

Heuglin's weavers

Laughing dove ... (and it likely WAS laughing at US)

Nearly every day began and ended at Pastor Emmy's home. Almost every time we stopped there, this beauty greeted us - the Gray-crowned crane is the Uganda national bird. One day I decided to see how close I could get to the bird that is around four feet tall. Another time, I got really brave and got the camera in its face as it perched on top of a minivan. It wasn't thrilled that I got so close and it tried to wave me away with a wingspan of probably six or seven feet. That's how I got some of my favorite bird pictures in Uganda.

This is the one that inspired my painting

The day we went on safari is the day I felt like I struck jackpot with my bird list. I was beyond thrilled that the nature guide at Queen Elizabeth National Park was excited to have someone to share her knowledge with. Though my new friends teased me about my love for taking bird pictures throughout the week, they all soon realized how neat it could be to spot the brilliant flashes of color in flight, and it ended up being a contagious excitement to spot another bird.

Pied kingfisher

Pied kingfisher

Egyptian geese

Spur-winged lapwing

Water thick-knees

Yellow-billed stork with cape buffalo

Sacred ibis

Hadada ibises

Hammerkop

Gray headed kingfisher

Malachite kingfisher

Reed cormorant

Hadada ibis

White-breasted cormorant

Barn swallows

Lesser masked weaver

African dusky flycatcher

Olive bee-eater

Pink-backed pelican

African fish-eagle

African Pygmy kingfisher

Yellow-billed stork

African jacana

African jacana

When I got home, I spent quite a bit of time going through the African wildlife book I bought at the airport. I compared the pictures in the book to my photographs, and even had to rely on the internet to help me identify a few I took pictures of that didn't make it to the wildlife guide. In the end, not all my pictures were nice enough to bother sharing. To the best of my knowledge, these are the birds I saw in Uganda:

1. Great white pelican
2. Pink-backed pelican
3. White-breasted cormorant
4. Reed cormorant
5. Gray heron
6. Goliath heron
7. Purple heron
8. Yellow-billed egret
9. Cattle egret
10. Little egret
11. Hammerkop
12. Yellow-billed stork
13. Marabou stork
14. African openbill
15. Sacred ibis
16. Hahada ibis
17. Egyptian goose
18. African fish-eagle
19. Gray-crowned crane
20. African jacana
21. Black-capped avocet
22. Water thick-knee
23. Speckled moosebird
24. Malachite kingfisher
25. African pygmy kingfisher
26. Gray headed kingfisher
27. Woodland kingfisher
28. Shining blue kingfisher
29. African dusky flycatcher
30. Olive bee-eater
31. African pied wagtail
32. African thrush
33. Red-billed firefinch
34. Heuglin’s weaver
35. Lesser masked weaver
36. Pied crow
37. Glossy starling (either Cape or Principe variety)
38. Laughing dove
39. Barn swallows
40. Spur-winged lapwing