Christmas in Lynchburg and Tiny Tim's Wooden Toys

 

William, Isaac, Paul, Ruth, Elisa, and Jane Anderson enjoyed their African aprons. Susan, the Highland Ward Relief Society president in Zimbabwe made all our family members African print aprons. I also had her make skirts for the girls and vests with bow ties for the grandsons. It was a fun homemade gift that helped employee her also. 2023.12.26

Merry Christmas from Lynchburg, Virginia! It was fun to participate in William and Elisa's organized Christmas Eve and Day. Elisa had planned activities throughout the day. She homeschools the children and is well-organized. We frosted sugar cookies in the afternoon. We had their traditional meal of cheese fondue for Christmas Eve and read the scriptures from Luke, Mathew, and 3 Nephi's accounts of the birth of the Christ child. They really tried to bring the true spirit of Jesus Christ's birth into the season. Every morning in December besides scripture study, they read from the scriptures and add a nativity figurine to their creche. You could feel the excitement of the children before going to bed. They each wrote a letter to Santa and left him a plate of cookies and carrots for his reindeer.  Bruce and I were exhausted since our time clocks kept getting us up at 3 and 4:00 a.m. We went to bed at 8:00 p.m. in perfect happiness and bliss to be among family again.

Six a.m. was the appointed time to meet in Jane's room upstairs before coming down to see what presents Santa had brought the night before. I was proud of myself for sleeping until 5:00 a.m. It's hard to reset your internal time clocks. Isaac and Ruth were both up so we played a little game Isaac had creatively made, even though we had no idea of the rules. Isaac kept us informed. William and Elisa held a family prayer and scripture study before beginning the festivities. Once again, we were impressed by the structure and spiritualism of this little family and the patience of the children with mom and dad. The children lined up from youngest to oldest as they descended the staircase to the magical scene of Christmas tree lights and gifts below. Santa even brought Bruce and me a stocking of treats! Santa always leaves a note for the children explaining how he's watched their every move during the year and his impressions for the year. Elisa has incorporated a lot of "Rawlins" family traditions from her childhood. I asked William if he had any "Anderson" traditions. He said, "No", we always went to Grandpa and Grandma Andersons. We did however have "breakfast burrittos" the next day, an Anderson tradition from our home. We did instill a lot of traditions as far as a formal china dinner, Santa piling up everyone's individual presents, and reading the birth of Christ from Luke 2. We loved going to Grandpa & Ma Anderson's every Christmas Eve and getting spoiled with gifts and a nice fancy meal. We continued this tradition for years even after William was married and on his own. The children were very good at watching each of us open a present one by one. William and Elisa thoughtfully gave us a large box we opened with unfinished wooden toy cars for Zimbabwean children. Bruce was brought to tears by the thoughtfulness of planning this service for the children of Africa, who virtually have nothing. I couldn't help but feel ashamed at all the gifts and overabundance of material possessions we all have compared to our newfound friends in Zimbabwe.

Our favorite thing we brought home was a handmade African axe from Persuade's auntie Tata's kamosa. It belonged to Persuade's father, Amos, and has his initials carved on the handle. We bought it from Auntie Tata when we went plowing with the oxen. William collects old axes and is elated with the gift.

Ruth got rollerblades so Grandpa took her outside and taught her some tricks. It's a bit chilly outside but nothing compared to Utah and there is no snow here. 2023.12.25

William worked hard and smoked an 11 lb. brisket all day and night. The next morning the Trager smoker fire went out. He was concerned about ruining the expensive piece of meat. We called our friend, Alistair Gibson, in Zimbabwe. Alistair smokes meat at the market and is an excellent chef. He gave William some good tips and saved the day for our Christmas meal. The brisket turned out perfect and was very tender. William was happy about the success of the smoked meat. We enjoyed calling the kids both days and got to talk to everyone but Hunter & Katie. We hope they all had a very Merry Christmas. We also texted a lot of our friends and temple site workers in Zimbabwe. The Muchenje's uncle died and they had a funeral on Christmas Day. To many of these Africans, it was just another day without celebration or any gifts. Persuade bought a new tuck shop and is sleeping in it every night to prevent theft. His shop was open on Christmas Day just like any other day. Recently we explained the story of the nativity and showed some church videos of Jesus Christ's birth. It was something new to Persuade, being raised without Christ in his life he wasn't familiar with the story.

The day after Christmas, we enjoyed breakfast burritos and leftovers for lunch. We started our craft service project and all the kids helped sand our "Tiny Tim's" wooden cars. We also all oiled them and made faces to make them special for each African child. We've participated in giving out these special wooden toy donations through "Eyes for Zimbabwe" and they always bring delight to African children. It will be fun to bring some wooden cars we actually helped to finish. What a thoughtful act of service William and Elisa thought of for their visiting missionary parents. We had some friends of William and Elisa's come over Tuesday and help us assemble and paint the cars. Everyone got involved and they turned out cute.

Everyone helped to sand, oil, and paint these wooden cars; then the wheels were assembled. 2023.12.26

God Bless America and A White Christmas: Ruth's Baptism

Grandchildren at last! In the arms of loved ones in Lynchburg, Virginia with William's family, 2023.12.23

After a very long 15+ hour flight, ambien twice, and three movies, we made it the the USA! It was great to be back on American soil. I couldn't hold back the tears as we walked through customs. I kept singing, "God Bless America" in my mind and the tears flowed! We got through passport control and customs just fine. We put our carry-on luggage on in Cape Town so we only had backpacks to carry. We were grateful to see all our luggage made it, including 10 lbs. of mopane worms and spices, Taona Nkala gave us to bring to his brother in Idaho.

God Bless America! We made it! Bruce was so excited to have some Phillip's crab cakes in Atlanta, 2023.12.22

We landed in Atlanta at 07:30 a.m. and unfortunately had a very long layover until 4:30 p.m. We just wanted to be done traveling but were very grateful to be in the U.S.A. We patiently waited for our hour-long flight to Roanoke, Virginia.

We landed in Roanoke a little before 6:00 p.m. eagerly awaiting to see William, our firstborn son.
We landed in Roanoke and waited for our luggage at the baggage claim. William sneaked up to us and gave us a big hug. It was great to see our son again. William and Elisa graciously offered to let us come stay and enjoy Christmas with them. Most importantly, Ruth, our granddaughter, had been waiting since November to have a Christmas baptism and have both sets of grandparents in attendance. It was so wonderful to love on these sweet grandchildren again. We haven't seen William's family since March 2022 when Isaac was baptized.

Practicing for the baptismal musical number by the Anderson family, "A Child's Prayer".

Ruth's baptism was Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at the Lynchburg Chapel. It's great to be eight! Ruth's Grandma Teresa Rawlins gave a talk on baptism, William baptized his daughter, and Grandpa Anderson (Bruce) gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Bruce was tearful as he shared personal and mission experiences and the Spirit was felt in the meeting. Ruth looked beautiful in her new white dress full of excitement, innocence, and faith. It was a special day.

After the baptism, we were treated to a Chik-fil-A lunch, Ruth's favorite. It had been a long time since I enjoyed some Chik-fil-A nuggets and special sauce. We woke up early Sunday morning trying to get used to the time change. We wake about 3:00 a.m. trying to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, both Ruth and Paul were both up vomiting. They had been sick back on Monday and luckily were well for the baptism but then the flu bug returned. Elisa stayed home with the kids while we attended a special hour  Christmas Eve Sacrament meeting of 3 wards. 

 

Cape Town: Table Mountain, Hiking and Sailing

Cape Town, Dec. 19-21: At last, we made it to Cape Town and stayed at the Victoria Waterfront at a Marriott Protea. On the way, we made sure to stop by the Cape Town Temple site and mission office. The groundbreaking and construction haven't started yet but it was fun to see where the future temple will be. Our project director, Anton Fourie, is also over this temple along with Harare, Zimbabwe, Lumbumbashi, DRC (Congo), Mozambique, and Cape Town. We talked to the office senior couples, who love serving in Cape Town. Our friends and neighbors, Craig and Janet Peterson, served in this mission and in Africa for 9 years.

Future site of the Cape Town L.D.S. temple, mission office, 2023.12.19

     We enjoyed walking around the waterfront with lots of fun shopping and restaurants. The food in Cape Town was especially delicious with lots of seafood and variety to choose from. A particular specialty in South Africa is the Cape Malaysian cuisine. 

        The next day, we bought tickets to ride the "Hop on, Hop off" double-decker city sightseeing bus. I shopped at a local street African crafts fair and found a fun reversible skirt and bamboo knit sweater. Besides the saleswoman wouldn't take no for an answer!  We took an audio-guided ride to the center of town and took a walking tour to Bo Kaap, a bright-colored neighborhood of homes. Our tour guide, Jennifer, was a local from South Africa and knew a lot of history she shared with us. This neighborhood was settled by former slaves from Malaysia, Madagascar, India, etc. with a majority of Islamic populations. There were 3 mosques in the area. We loved the brightly painted homes and streets. Perfect photo opportunities. 

At the end of the tour, we tipped Jennifer and she mentioned we could shop or eat lunch. Bruce felt the Holy Ghost tell him, "Get out of here NOW!" You can read the signs painted on some of the shops and we felt the unrest. Being an American citizen with the war against Gaza and Palestine felt like the situation could end up volatile. We left the neighborhood block at a brisk pace to where we felt safer.

Lunch at Mozart's cafe; I had a traditional Cape Malaysian fare and Bruce enjoyed mussels with Cajun sauce. The apple crisp with fresh whipped cream was the most delicious treat!

After lunch at a sidewalk cafe, we rode the bus to "Table Mountain" to ride the cable car to the top. It was very crowded with a lot of vacationers but the line moved quickly and we reached the top in about 45 minutes. We met a friendly family from South Africa in line and the twelve-year-old girl was particularly chatty and loved our American accents (and we thought they had accents!) The views of the ocean bay of Cape Town from the top were spectacular. Lots of people posing for photos on top of rocks looking at the cliffs below.

The top of Table Mountain with views of Cape Town and Bay below, 2023.12.19

    We wandered around the top trails and went to take the cable car down. There was a huge line and we figured we could walk down in about 1 hour. The line was probably a 45-minute wait. The workers said it was about a 2-hour hike down but heck, we are in great shape and much faster than the average Joe (or so we thought!) It took us a while to even find the trail down and we had to backtrack on the upper trails we had already been on. There were no signs. We had a hard time finding anyone who knew where the trailhead started. Finally, we found it and started our descent down. Little did we know it was the "hike from hell!" as Elder Anderson stated. Bruce's Fitbit recorded 130 flights of stairs on the way down. The trail was basically large rock steps of various shapes and sizes. Every step was a painful lunge down a rocky staircase. After 2 hours our legs felt like rubber. I thought, "This is worse than a marathon!" When we finally got near the bottom there was a sign pointing to the lower cable car trailhead. It read it was only 720 meters; it felt like another 5 km. We decided, "This will be shorter than going down to the street and having to walk back up." After reascending and descending about 45 minutes later we finally made it. It took over 2.5 hours and over 20,000 steps. We were exhausted! Next time we'll wait in line. We paid the price for the next few days with very sore muscles. It was so hard to take any flights of stairs!

We are smiling in this photo but they are fake smiles! Almost down from the top! 2023.12.20

After our legs felt like noodles, we made it back to our hotel for a short rest. We walked to the waterfront for a fun dinner of Indian poochkas after having lemon gelato as a before-dinner treat. Wow, they're delicious, especially the chocolate dessert! This harbor town is alive and hopping with delicious food, music, and lots of shopping. 

     Our flight wasn't until 11:00 p.m. and the Marriott was nice enough to give us late check out at 4:00 p.m. and keep all our luggage until our flight. On our last day in Cape Town, we took the double-decker tour bus to the Camp Beach area. We enjoyed the bright and warm sunshine but the ocean water was freezing! Our legs were very sore from our hike the day before. Bruce even endured shopping at a mall so we could buy an extra gym bag to carry on the plane for the extra gifts we purchased. We anticipated a very long flight back to America; it's a good thing we got all those steps in!
"We're on "top of the world!" but really on the "bottom of the world", we spotted 2 penguins on our sailing tour. "I sail!"  Table Mountain in the distance that we hiked down from the top. 2023.12.21

        At the last minute with a few hours to kill, we boarded a sale boat for a fun hour ride in Table Bay. We were entertained by a family reunion, who enjoyed a few too many drinks and were quite lively. The crew went from 3 sails to 1 sail and began to tack with the spinnaker. As we turned everyone screamed thinking we were all going overboard! Everyone was laughing as we all got sprayed. We also saw some dolphins and seals in the bay along with 2 penguins swimming out to sea. It was a fun pastime to end our time in Cape Town. We arrived at the airport bright and early and awaited our long 15+ hour flight!

Cape Town Airport, last-minute African shopping, Bruce's spirit animal! 2023.12.21