Christmas…!

 This Christmas was way different from past Christmases,
 in a good way.

This Christmas I wasn't in the States, I was here in Haiti.
In the States, everywhere you went there was Christmas,
in the mall, in the car, in your house, on the road, etc.
So this year it was only in our house and a couple ( not many)
of stores that you could actually see and feel Christmasy.

But it felt good not being flooded with Christmas everywhere,
and it really gave me a chance to think about the true meaning
of Christmas, Jesus's birth.

I wasn't spoiled with tons of presents this year because I didn't want to be.
I look around everyday and see poverty and sickness, then suddenly,
I'm not thinking of myself, I'm thinking of how I can help others.

And I was perfectly thankful and satisfied with the things I got for
Christmas, I wasn't groaning and complaining about the things I didn't
get.


We wanted to help others this Christmas, so we went with our friends the
Grosses and delivered presents to grateful children of an orphanage.

Then we went with the Grosses to a pastor's Christmas party that he held for
the kids in his community.
We sang songs, told jokes, helped pass the kids food that the pastor
prepared, and just loved on the kids.
I felt really good this Christmas for not making Christmas about me,
I made it about Him.

In my last blog I talked about how Ella, a dog here at the seminary,
died. Well the guard dog here, Boone, got depressed and sad when
Ella died because he had no one to play with.
I have a love for dogs and have always kinda wanted one.
We were already gonna buy another dog to be Boone's friend,
and we hoped that it would pull Boone out of depression.
My parents decided that instead of being a seminary dog, it could be
my dog.

They gave me a just weaned, four week-old puppy, that I decided to
name Pepper, due to the black speckles all over his back.

We had to bathe him right after I got him (which he
did not appreciate).

(Lily and Sofie Ayars, Hannah Gross, and I all had to work hard to get
Pepper clean!)


We made him a house out of a rubbermaid container and
a work towel.

At first he was shy, but eventually he started to trust us.

Pepper is so small he can sleep in my dad's hand!

Pepper only does things if he sees them happen.
I wanted to teach Pepper how to play fetch, so I grabbed a brand new
tennis ball out of a box in the closet.
Then I threw the ball, chased after it, picked it up with my mouth,
and brought it back to Pepper.
After that I threw the ball away from me, and Pepper did exactly what I did!
Ever since I have been playing fetch with Pepper!


Boone and Pepper have been getting along great so far,
and I'm hoping that they will continue being friends!

Pepper and I wrestle around and usually he wins.
He may be small, but his bite is sharp and strong, due
to his puppy teeth!


This has nothing to do with anything I just said, but I wanted
to know if you liked the picture I'm gonna put up.
I have been working on photography as my hobby lately.
I've been working on getting good shots with lighting and positioning things
to make a picture better. I've been meaning to put this picture up for about
two months, but I never got to it. Hope you enjoy it!

I hope you enjoyed this post even though it was short!



I am hoping to blog more often, it's just these past couple weeks
have been crazy with Christmas and everything!


Stayed tuned!