La Buena Noche

In Guatemala, Christmas Eve is known as "La Buena Noche" which translated literally means the good night. We started the day by heading to the market to get me a haircut. On the way, we crossed paths with a tourist van with pinatas on top being driven by Santa. When it passed, he threw us a ball. Luis hasn't stopped talking about it since. At the barberia, I paid 20Q (about $2.50), including a big tip, and got the best hair cut of my life. The barber uses a straight razor for the sideburns, around the ear and the back of the neck. He also took care of trimming my wild eyebrows. If I were a rock star and had my own personal barber, he would have the job.

While I was getting my haircut, Jenny and the boys (Care stayed with me) braved La Bodagona to get a couple of things. Then we all went to the Bagel Barn to get some bagels for lunch today and breakfast tomorrow. After Bagel Barn, it was back to the apartment where we ate lunch and then played some games. Luis liked learning to play Old Maid and Crazy Eights. We had an early dinner of home made hamburgers and french fries (breaking the Guatemalan tradition of tamales on La Buena Noche) and got ready for Christmas Eve service. Here is a picture of us before leaving for church.




When we arrived for the 6pm service at 5:50, we were about the third family to arrive. It was pretty full by the time the service actually started around 6:20. Instead of the typical Christmas Eve sermon, the church had three members get up and share their testimony. The theme of the service was the difference the gift of Christ has made in people's lives. Then we had communion and sang O Holy Night by candlelight. Here is a shot of Caroline holding her candle.



After the service, we walked to the Central Park to check out the lights. It was hopping. There were people and vendors everywhere and fireworks were going off. I tripped cutting across the street and now my knee that was bothering me is really killing me. We had to hobble me over to a cab to get a ride back to the apartment. Here is a photo of the Cathedral in the Central Park tonight.



When we got back to the apartment, Christopher was insisting he was ging to stay up all night and take some pictures of Santa. When Jenny told him he needed to get some sleep or Santa might skip our apartment, Luis jumped right in and told Christopher in no uncertain terms that he better go to sleep. Now they are all asleep and Jenny has prepped everything for tomorrow so I could write the blog and avoid the stairs until tomorrow. Merry Christmas!!

A Visit to Casa

Today our main activity was visiting Casa to take Maria and Jennifer out to lunch and give them Christmas gifts. We left the house at 10:15 and took about 15 minutes to get to Casa. We started by meeting with Walter for a few minutes and then headed over to see Jack and Carolyn. We are so happy that they are getting very close to being getting their visa for Olga to come back to the States. Jenny spent some time with Jack going through the rest of the process and got a lot of needed clarification that should help us save time when we are working with the US Embassy at the end of the process.

While they were talking, I enjoyed watching the kids have fun with Maria and Jennifer on the swings and the playground. By the time Jenny was done, we were all ready for lunch and headed to Pollo Campero in San Lucas for lunch. It was great watching Luis and Maria play together in the play set and watching him give her gifts and his reaction as she opened them. They have a great bond and we will need to work to continue their bond after we go home. After lunch we returned to Casa and dropped of Maria and Jennifer and delivered gifts to our parents' sponsor children. Here are some pictures of the kids playing and enjoying their ice cream.






Then it was time to return the car to the rental company. We got that done and stopped at the tienda on the way home to get a few things we did not get at Hiper Piaz. After arriving home, we spent a couple of hours playing outside on the swings. All the kids wanted me to twist them up and give them a “Loco Columpio.” I even gave one to one of the other kids in the apartments before coming in for dinner.

Now the kids are asleep and we finished wrapping gifts and preparing for Christmas. I think the presents are ready and now all we have to do is pick up a few things at Epicure tomorrow for Christmas dinner. The excitement is building in the kids and I can’t wait for Friday.

Driving in Guatemala

Yesterday we spent the morning around the apartment. We opened our gifts from the gift exchange, played with Luis' new toys and had some free time. After lunch we headed to the artisans market to pick up a few gifts and things for the house. Christopher bargained for three packs of Pokemon cards for Q15 (about $2). Then it was off to pick up the rental car and head to Hiper Paiz (Super Wal-mart Latin America style). I got my first experience driving in Guatemala and it was easier than I thought it would be. The main differences are you always have to watch your mirrors for "Motos" (aka motorcycles), the mountain roads are very twisty and there is lots of traffic so you never really get going very fast (which is good for me). Here is a picture of the kids in the car.




The other thing you will notice drving in Guatemala is the Chicken Buses. You never know what you will see with them. Here are a couple of pictures of a man putting his stuff on top of the bus and getting back in while the bus is headed up the mountain.





Going to Hiper Paiz three days before Christmas was just short of insanity, but the trip was successful. The store was packed and it took about as long to get through the check out line as it did to do our shopping. We got supplies for two months and hope it is the last time we have to make the trip there. Here is a picture of Hiper Paiz.


After we got home, we watched Luis' new Barney Christmas Star movie and made the kids dinner. It was an early night for them as Jenny was hosting a date night. Jenny found a new store called Epicure that has a lot of good food for date nights. We started with some Gouda and Edam Cheeses on Triscuits. They were both delicious. Then she made Salmon and scalloped potatoes. Here is a photo of the awesome dinner.



After dinner we watched Christmas Vacation (our personal favorite Christmas movie) and shared some great coconut desserts that. Today we are headed to Casa Aleluya to take Maria and Jennifer to lunch at Pollo Campero and give them Christmas gifts. We are so proud of Luis for wanting to go back and see his friend and give her a gift.

Feliz Cumpleanos Luis!!!!

Since it was raining all day yesterday, we decided it would be a good night to do the annual sleep under the tree tradition. About 6pm I started Polar Express while Jenny made spaghetti aand garlic bread for dinner. We all ate on the matteresses I took off the beds and put on the floor. After dinner we had hot chocolate and popcorn balls. By the end of the movie the kids were all sugared up and we could barely get them to hold still long enough for the all important picture. Here it is.....



Here is another of us being a little loco....



It took a good while to get everyone settled down and resting, but the kids were all asleep by 9:30.

Sleeping on the couch was not bad, but I could hear every noise the kids made (yes, I am a light sleeper). This morning Luis was up at 5:30 needing the bathroom and was so excited about his birthday that he could not get back to sleep. I kept him relatively quiet until about 6:15, when Caroline and Christopher started waking up. Then it was all over.

For breakfast Luis requested bacon and eggs and Jenny did a great job making them. Luis especially enjoyed the eggs and Jenny and I made ours into breakfast tacos. Delicious!

After breakfast the kids rediscovered LEGO star wars on the computer. Christopher had complained that it was not working and I had fixed it after they went to sleep last night. We played around the apartment until about 10 am when it was time to run some errands before heading to McDonalds for Luis preferred lunch. By the way, Christopher has ranked Chicken McNugget's second on his list of favorite chicken nuggets, behind Pollo Campero. We ran to the bank and changed money, then went to Nim Pot so we could get some gifts for the gift exchange at the apartment's Christmas party tonight. McDonalds was fun and we met another family that adopted from Guatemala 3 years ago and was back for a vacation. On the way home we stopped at the Alamo Rental car to see about getting a car for tomorrow and the next day to drive to Hiper Piaz and Casa to visit Maria and Jennifer.

When we arrived back at the apartment the gifts were out on the table (Jenny had handled that before we left). Luis' eyes were huge and he asked "Por quien?" (for who?). He could hardly belive they were for him. Watching him open the gifts was awesome. He gets so excited and jumps around and yells. Christmas is going to be wild. Here is a picture of Luis with the gifts before the frenzy of opening....



After the presents it was time for cake. Here is a picture of Luis with his strawberry birthday cake. The cake was delicious and we saved some for tomorrow.



The kids spent the afternoon playing with the new toys while I went back over the the rental car store and finalized the contract and Jenny baked cookies and Buckeye Balls for the holiday party tonight.

The party started at six o'clock and featured a Santa Claus Pinata, Guatemalan tamales, potche (a hot Guatemalan fruit punch) and of course the gift exchange. Here is a picture of the pinata before it was dismembered by the kids.



We had a good time talking to the neighbors and enjoying the food. After the party we were all tired and it was right to the showers and bed for the kids. They are all asleep and soon I will be too.

Wecome to the Winter Wonderland!!!

I arrived in Guatemala yesterday. It was a long trip, the flight was late, then the baggage took forever to arrive, then the area in front of the airport was packed with locals. I found the shuttle and we headed to Antigua, but the driver said that there was an issue on the road between San Lucas and Antigua, so we went past Casa toward Chimaltenango and took the back road into Antigua after picking up the driver's boss. That detour took an extra 30 minutes. I don't think there was any problem on the road, I think he had just been told to pick up the boss.

The whole family was at the gate awaiting my arrival and it was an awesome welcome. Then I was ushered into the apartment, with Caroline saying "Welcome to our Winter Wonderland". Here is a picture....



We spent the last few hours of the day watching a show and having tamales for dinner. After getting the kids to bed, Jenny and I unpacked the suitcases filled with toys for the good little boys and girl. I had packed a few surprises for Jenny and she was excited too since I had picked up Christmas Vacation for us to watch without the kids one night.

Today it has been raining, but we went to Church and to Pollo Campero for lunch (I know you are all shocked). Tonight was our planning to have our "Sleep under the Tree" night which includes watching Polar Express. Getting here and having the kids has really gotten me into the Christmas spirit. Can't wait for Luis' birthday tomorrow. He is very excited.

Hada De Diente

Hada De Diente is a literal translation of Tooth Fairy, who came for a visit Thursday night. Caroline had been wiggling a loose tooth for several days. When the kids were playing outside, Luis landed on Chris, who landed on Caroline, and POP! Out came the tooth. Thank goodness for my new red washcloth from Nurse Paula!! After a few minutes, Care stopped crying and got very excited about having a Tooth Fairy visit here in Guatemala. The Tooth Fairy gave her 10Q, roughly $1.25.

Luis' reaction was interesting. He hasn't lost any baby teeth yet (an answered prayer of mine) and was very curious to why Caroline would put her tooth in a little bag under her pillow. In the morning, however, he seemed somewhat impressed that she had 10Q instead, and checked to see if any of his teeth wiggle.

Poor Caroline, she is missing three top teeth, but we're getting some cute photos. Here she is, proudly displaying her newest smile:



We are still having a ton of fun with our geology unit in science. It is the favorite subject for all of us. We got to do some cool stuff with rocks (I didn't know you can create sparks with two tumbled quartz rocks), and we have rocks soaking in vinegar and creating crystals. One of the cool things we did this week was "Crack Open Geodes." Each kiddo, I mean student, got to try to crack their geode with a hammer. Smiles all around as they each opened their geode. Extra special thanks to Victor to bringing my "classroom rock collection" all the way from Texas.





And a highlight from Luis tonight, he was our prayer leader at dinner and sang the "God Our Father" grace correctly all the way through!! That was awesome!!

Have a great night!

Rebecca's Visit

My dear sweet friend, Rebecca, arrived on Thursday. We were so happy to see her! I was thrilled that she was finally able to meet her godson, Luis, after years of faithfully praying for him and the adoption!!

Luis was still feeling icky from the lip/mouth injury so we hung out close to home. It didn't take long, however, for Chris and Care to ask Rebecca to play soccer:



After awhile, Luis perked up (I ended up getting antibiotics for him) and he and Caroline just mauled her. She made it look fun:




We absolutely had to take Rebecca to Marco Polo for ice cream, although she and I enjoyed delicious iced coffee.



Here we are at one of Antigua's landmarks, the Arch. We'd had our picture taken by the Arch on our mission trip in 2005.



Rebecca and Luis frosted my birthday cake, and had a tremendously good time getting a little messy. Luis was falling in love with his "Miss Rebecca."



My birthday was wonderful - my first birthday with all three of my children!!!!



Luis and Rebecca:


It was AWESOME to be silly with BFF Rebecca!



Thank you, Rebecca, for coming to visit us!!! I can't wait to see you in the USA!!!!!