A-G turns four years old!!! Amazing!!

She has been talking about her 4th birthday since her last birthday and had it all planned out for months in advance.

When she woke up in the morning she ran and jumped in our bed and said "Yea!! I am four today...and then soon I get to be five and have another birthday party!!!"

Butterfly cake!

Blowing out the candles

Presents!!!

Friends!

It was a fun party and she is already planning the next one in detail.

We also enjoyed celebrating Angelo's (Taban) birthday in December.

He and the other guys who are at school in Kenya spent the Christmas holidays with us in Kampala. It was great to see him again and he is doing really well!!

We took the guys for a fun day to swim and work out in the gym.

It was quite impressive as Saudi and Lino were able to do 440 pounds on the leg press...not bad!

Saudi in the pool

SANTA!!!

Acker family with SANTA (guess who??) at a friend's house

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!!

Angelo and "Santa"

Yes, Lino decided to be Santa for our girls and some friends!

It was really fun and he was a really amazing Santa!! Anyone need to hire a Santa for next year???

K-J wasn't thrilled about sitting on Santa's lap until she knew who it was.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had a nativity story play

AG insisted on being Mary and the rest did a variety of jobs including shepherds, wise men, angels, innkeepers and even a donkey...here is a photo of the award winning cast

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in a manger

Then we stayed up working on our big Christmas construction project... a doll house for the girls

Jade and Saudi built the house and several others worked on painting it. Jade was up putting on the finishing touches till nearly midnight Christmas Eve.

All ready for Christmas morning.

We modeled the doll house after one that Shelah's parents have in the States so when the girls ran in the living room the next morning, AG stopped and stared and said, "how did this get here from Alabama?"

K-J enjoying some of her gifts

What Kaelah-Joy really liked was the candy cane she found in her stocking. She enjoyed the candy cane so much she forgot about everything else and concentrated soley on consuming it until she was a sticky mess. There is still candy cane residue on most of the toys she got for Christmas...which brought out the ants in full force.

Thank you to Mimi, Paw-Paw, Nana, Papa, and all my Aunts and Uncles and cousins!!!

Once the candy cane was over and KJ realized there was a bicycle there, she was quite the fearless rider.

The GUYS

Having six Sudanese young men with us for the holidays made it a very eventful time with never a dull moment. For more on them, see our Refuge and Hope blog!!!

Here they are all dressed up and ready to go celebrate Christmas at the Sudanese church.

Lino looking quite grown up

Lino and Angelo, who has grown several inches since the last time we saw him in August

The guys opening their Christmas presents!! How fun!! Thank you to all who gave to help make this a special Christmas for them!!

They also drew names among themselves and bought each other presents, so it was fun seeing what they picked out for each other.

The girls got lots of attention and had endless people around to play games with them

One hundred percent mischief!

KJ will be celebrating her 2nd birthday next month!

Helping Josephine do the dishes

AG singing a duet in her end of school chapel service

Dancing in the school program

She has been taking a ballet class once a week which she really enjoys

Swimming!! Yes, we get to go swimming here even in the middle of December.

This was a big first for AG...head under the water and hands not touching the bottom! Can't help but wonder if this next year will be a year full of "firsts" for all of us...whatever is in store we are thankful for God's grace and guidance and promise to provide and sustain.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Cute Girls !!!

They get along nicely...most of the time!

Ballerina

Still a messy eater, but at least she enjoys herself while making the mess

AG and Lino

(AG is making her "hyena" imitation)

Jen did an afternoon photo shoot before she left, and it was like pulling teeth to get everyone to cooperate.

After probably over 100 pictures, this one turned out somewhat okay (besides the crooked smile on the far right :/ )

Jen and Harriet

AG's school Christmas program was this past Friday and

I have to say this was the most diverse Christmas program I have ever seen. There was everything from Hawaiian hula dancers to Stomp! performers-- and of course all kinds of nationalities. AG is sitting here with some of her classmates and one of her teachers.

Refuge and Hope Christmas Celebration

To see more photos and to read more about this, please click here and visit our

Refuge and Hope Blog

Refuge and Hope hosted a Refugee/International Christmas Celebration on December 5th for several different nationalities living in the Kampala area. The purpose was to celebrate unity in Christ...and also to have a good time!! It was a beautiful day of fellowship and fun.

Sudanese dancing and jumping.

This guy jumped without stopping for 20 minutes straight!! He would have continued if we hadn't put a time limit on the presentations :)

Food from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, USA and more!

YUM!

In the afternoon we played unity and team building games

It was really something to see people participating in the activities wearing their best clothes.

Clothes didn't seem to stop anyone from jumping right in and joining the fun.

The Association for Evangelicals in Africa

donated Christmas shoeboxes to be given out to all the children who were there.

These boxes were filled with toys by children in Holland and it was so wonderful to have the AEA donate them for this event.

Unloading the boxes

AG helping hand out shoe boxes

Watching the kids open the gifts was so fun. They were so excited!!

One little boy could not stop smiling as he played with a toy car that was inside his box and the girls loved the stickers and stuck them all over their faces and clothes.

*If you have never stuffed a shoe box for a child at Christmas time, we encourage you to do so!

Click here for more information