Christmas Chronicles: Part Three

It seems like this is the Christmas that doesn't end. Not only did Cameron, Malone and I celebrate Christmas twice, but my blogging of those times goes on and on.....

So to wrap up our series, here is Christmas Chronicles: Part Three

Christmas night, our dear friends, the Engelbrecht's came to visit with us for a few days. Let me tell you why they are so special. My parents and their parents (Oom Johan and Tannie Karin) knew one another since the dawn of time. They moved to America together in 1980 while our dads attended Fuller Theological Seminary. They had a newborn baby, J.D and my parents had a newborn baby, my oldest sister, Lydia. Then a few years went by, all went back to the homeland (South Africa) and my parents had me and the Engelbrechts had Inus a few months later. Growing up, we always loved visiting with one another. Then, a few years ago, the whole Engelbrecht clan moved to Atlanta, Inus married a Southern Belle, Laura and they had a little girl Anna, the summer I got pregnant with Malone. It seems that our lives will forever be intertwined.

Anyways, they came, ate with us, visited with us, laughed with us, philosophized with us and we all enjoyed every minute of it. Malone and Anna became friends, sharing toys and reading together. Then Friday night we had a little gift exchange known as "Dirty Santa". I must say the name of the game brings disgusting images to mind, therefore I will continue and call it White Elephant. Basically, we each opened a gift in a sequential order. When its your turn to open a gift, you have a choice to steal someone else's gift or open a new one. I don't think I have laughed this hard in a long time. I'm not quite sure if you will find the pictures as hilarious as they were in the moment. But please try, because they really were!!

My dad with his "Alabama Survival Kit"- get it? Hunting vest and Alabama Univ. pom-poms.

Joel with his "Shaft- in Africa" DVD. How appropriate for our family. This was a hot commodity!
JD with a beautiful flowery notebook.
Tannie Karin with the princess wig and wand...hot item of the night!
Joel loved his soda flavored lip-gloss set.
The funniest of them all, my dad with the fairy wand & wig, trying to convince someone to steal it. Somehow, he didn't want it.
Here's a few more pics. These aren't meant to be as funny.

Did I mention that we ate. Here's my beautiful Ouma making traditional "vetkoek".
Malone discovered my mom's Tupperware cupboard.
Malone's first ever haircut. I realize it doesn't look too straight, but it was. Sometimes it was so straight that she looked a little reminiscent of Dumb & Dumber.
Here's Malone and I at the famous, DREAMLAND BBQ. All they have is BBQ Ribs, white wonder bread, and bbq sauce. That's their whole menu. Many of you know that I hate BBQ, but this is the only kind I like. Malone clearly was impressed too.And that's it. We came home. We were sad. We loved our time with my family and can't wait to go to the beach with them this summer!!!

PS: To my family, if you're reading this: We love you and miss you terribly. We soooo enjoyed our time with you. My writing seems inadequate to say how much we love you and how much we enjoyed our time with you.