It's the most wonderful time of the year! That saying is just as true in St. Kitts as it is in America. The weather is cooler, school is out (or almost), people are busily shopping, Christmas music blares in the grocery stores, and it's birthday time. Can you believe it? Eden will be 1 year old on Friday. Boy has time disappeared.
Eden has yet again gone through a sort of transformation where she is a new person again. She has also decided to grow a good 4-6 inches in what seems like a week. This happy little child of ours thinks she is invincible and is happiest on her feet, though she puts up good competition racing on her hands and knees. Her walker is no longer for walking in, but for climbing on, as is everything else with a ledge to hold. I can't even begin to describe what a delight she is. Even she thinks she is funny and will laugh at herself.
We don't often go to the beach because it feels like so much work and is so dirty. I'd rather be in a pool. But, this week, I took Eden for a day and was delighted to find that she loved it. She really is growing up! Now that she is mobile, the sand was a blast. We looked for seashells on the beach for a good hour together, which was just the coolest thing. She had to show me EVERYTHING she found. What fun!
On Thursday, Eden and I got to go to class with Austin. He received an award for having a 96% or higher in Biochemistry at the time (which includes grades from 3 exams and 3 quizzes). There were only three people in his class that were awarded this "Certificate of Excellence." Truly, Austin could get this award in every class if it existed. I can count the number of questions he has missed in all his classes from both semesters combined on my hands and still have left over fingers. Needless to say, he has a near 100% in every class. It was a big deal and hard achievement; the dean was invited along with the professor to present the award. I think we got a good picture or two and were allowed to stay for part of class following. The professor was pleased to see that Eden was smiling and clapping for his teaching.
The only Christmas lights we have seen on the island are right across the street from us. Good ol' Yabba decorated his bush. And it even sings! Austin and I laughed, noting that even the recordings here are off tune, but it may just be that the batteries are dying. We are lucky that we get to experience the festivities first hand. Christmas lessons have begun at church likewise. I was in charge of teaching sharing time in Primary today- we talked about some of the Book of Mormon prophets who prophesied of Jesus Christ's birth. I'm loving Primary and these kids. We have a lot of fun, but I also feel like we are teaching them a lot and letting them feel the spirit some. It has been neat to me to teach because they are not as familiar with the Book of Mormon stories, so anything I say is fascinating and new! We acted out most of the stories today; the kids all got a change to be King Benjamin and stand on a "tower" and say something that he prophesied of Christ. How amazing that he knew our Savior's name would be "Jesus Christ" and that His mother would be "Mary" and that he would do such descriptive mighty miracles, including the Atonement. Next, we got to act out the story of Abinadi preaching to the people and King Noah and talked about how he gave his life as a testimony that Christ would be born on earth. Lastly, we sang about Samuel, the Lamanite. I LOVE that Primary song. It may be my favorite Christmas song. The words tell about the signs that Samuel prophesied would come and then shout Hosanna! It goes like this:
Once again, we were able to talk about how Samuel risked his life for people to know that Jesus Christ would be born. And then the kids got to "cast stones" at Samuel- one of the kids. So we had a good time.
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