It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas!

Finally! The Christmas spirit has entered my world! It took a while given I'm missing all of the trappings that have signaled the holiday for the past several years. Namely, enjoying marathon holiday baking with my friend Allie Bitter, feeling the crisp cool winter weather taking hold in DC, finding time either in DC or PC to create one of my signature gingerbread houses, or holiday shopping with my dear friend Eveline, who is the best bargain hunter I know (maybe tied with my mom for top honors!).

So what did it take to kick the holiday spirit into gear here in warm & sunny Kampala? It was last night's visit to Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC) for their 22nd annual Christmas Cantata! The performance was electric with a choir of 190 adults, 12 musicians, 11 actors and 11 dancers. And Beyonce and Usher better be thankful there aren't talent scouts running around these parts because so many of the signers were top-of-the-charts material!

The opening act was sensational too -- it was the children's choir from KPC which consists of about 75 kids, all who are orphans due to both parents dying of AIDS. And they are so talented! In fact, the children's choir from KPC has a bit of fame, and regularly tours the globe giving choral performances.

So thank you to KPC for hitting all the right notes to bring me into Christmas 2006, and for doing so with more authenticity for the "reason for the season" than my baking, gingerbread houses and shopping trips have ever done!

Merry Christmas!
Mere