This is at an open house that we went to at one of the SIL centers before Christmas. There were many Christmas foods, or at least those that I seem to associate with Christmas, such as fruit cake, shortbread, gingerbread, various other sweets, and a cheese ball with crackers:-). There was also toast with real melted cheese, not processed cheese, and an Australian spread called Vegemite, which is a kind of yeast that provides many B vitamins. It's a little bitter, but it's supposed to be spread so thin that it actually tastes really good and everyone seemed to like it. Not only that, but there was a chocolate fondue (but the chocolate never hardened) with strawberries and marshmallows, homemade strawberry ice cream (or was it frozen yogurt?), a kind of dessert made with coconut milk, rice balls, sweet potatoes, bananas, and other good ingredients, pancit (I didn't eat any of it cause it's common enough that I can eat it any other day), tea, punch, coffee, Hershey's kisses, carrot sticks, hummus with pita bread, and some snack foods, and more. I ate and ate until my stomach was so full that I didn't want to eat any more:-).

There were also many nice people. Some of the missionaries are such kind and happy and positive people that you can't help but liking them. The woman standing beside me is from Russia, and, if I remember right, she said that part of her family lives in Spokane, and part in Seattle, and the other half is in Russia. She is in the Philippines teaching one of the classes at AGS. Afterwards, the host of the party drove us all the way home, which took about 45 minutes.