Merry Christmas from the Allens!

Merry Christmas from Swaziland! It is officially Christmas on our side
of the world and yes, we are still up! :) We just finished playing
Santa for the kids and put the turkey in the fridge. This is the first
year the kids will have the opportunity to open presents on Christmas
Day from so many family because of our crate arriving earlier this
year, Steven's visit to the USA and packages sent to us. Thank you for
thinking of our family!

Today, we were able to hang at home spending time together baking
cookes and other goodies, watch Santa Clause 2 and enjoy a rare
Saturday with Steve not out in the rural area. The weather has been
quite hot as it was 102 degrees on Wednesday at one of our Christmas
parties out at one of our churches. It was a long day but a great day,
too. We showed the Jesus film and two people accepted Jesus
Christ...what a great Christmas present! Yesterday, the weather turned
rainy and cool so it has been a nice break from the heat. We went to a
Christmas Eve candlelight service at one of the churches in town and
had a few friends over for dessert/finger foods afterwards. These were
most of our close friends outside of our mission team so we also
exchanged presents with these two families. We wish so much we could
be home with our own families but we are very thankful and blessed by
our mission community here in Swaziland.

If the weather stays rainy, we are not sure if we will make it to one
of our rural churches so plan B will happen. However, plan is to be at
one of our rural churches that does not have a pastor so Steve can
preach/encourage them. We will also be giving out handmade dolls a
church in the USA brought to us a few months ago. Our family plans to
be home after church for the rest of the day doing our own Christmas
meal. We had offers to join others but decided to hang home with just
our family. We plan to have a turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce,
rolls, butternut and pumpkin pie.
Our mission team will be together on Monday for a cookout at our team
leader's house since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.

Last week, our mission team went to Durban, South Africa, for our
annual team retreat. It was a great time to get away from Swaziland
for a few days. We were able to do some shopping in the largest mall
we have seen in Africa, go to the ocean, swim at the pool, visit
uShaka Marine World and Water Park (kinda like a smaller version of
Sea World) and time with our mission team. The kids were able to see
Father Christmas as Santa Claus is called here so attaching the photo
of them. We will send out some Christmas photos soon.

We pray everyone has a great Christmas and a chance to remember the
real reason why we celebrate Christmas.