Christmas Day

Because we had already done a lot of celebrating, we had a quiet, restful Christmas day here at home. Normally Ifrane has snow on the ground at Christmas, but not this year - sad. But it was a lovely day anyway. We slept in, had Russian pancakes, then went out to the cedar forest to collect kindling for our fire (first picture). There was a whole group of monkeys just ahead of us on the path for much of the time. As we tried hard to sneak up on them through the trees, we kept spotting one here and one there, but never got close to any one monkey. So I guess you could say this was our first Christmas chasing monkeys. Later we just lay on the forest floor and looked up at all the magnificent trees reminding me of the song my parents used to sing, "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree..." (second picture)

With the help of Skype, we have now talked to almost all the family for almost nothing. It's not as perfect as being together, but it helps us feel close to those we love.

That night we opened gifts and lit the last advent candle (third picture) after which we watched the J film's account of the birth.

After the girls were in bed, I found our two manger scenes rearranged by Katrina. The characters, instead of being at aesthetically pleasing distances from the manger were all crowded around the baby, rubbing shoulders with each other in a tiny space, gazing down at God - come to earth.