different Christmas than usual

This Christmas was very different in many ways - not being home with family, having weather in the 70's, singing carols in spanish (well, attempting to) and not focusing on the gifts. Christmas snuck up on us because of all the other things going on so the last week before Christmas was a rush to get the cookies made, buy Christmas dinner, and get the presents that we needed to get.

We had Skarleth & Marisol over to make cookies one afternoon - and I assumed that of course they would know how to follow a recipe and use measuring cups - wrong! Hondurans don't measure anything - hence my problem in learning how to make tortillas - as it's all by feel and not by measuring so I can't get a recipe from anyone! Anyways, so Tristan walks past the counter where the girls were making the dough - and finds them scooping the ingredients in with the measuring cups and not measuring...oops - so after that we watched and explained much more carefully how to make a dough and all of that. The cookies turned out great and it was a lot of fun - turned into an afternoon/dinner/evening affair. I am also have resolved to have them over more often and teach them how to cook more!

Another event was our Christmas party for the Monday women & Children's Bible study. It went really well - we did a secret santa exchange, ate lots of food, had a pinata & gifts for the kids (not a party in Honduras without a Pinata!) and enjoyed each other's company. It went well and I think everyone was happy with the outcome. Unfortunately it was the coldest & rainiest day that we've had all year and the party was outside.

Stuffing the pinata that was as tall as Sigel! / Below: The women's group that comes every Monday for Bible Study / The kids group that comes each week / the kids enjoying their lunch!

Instead of going away for our anniversary (the 18th) we chose to stay home and send Sigel to Leonie's house for the weekend - because we were feeling stressed about being ready for Christmas etc. We had a great 2 days of Christmas shopping & wrapping and we ate at Tony Roma's ( a splurge for us) and enjoying the quiet and stress free-ness of just being us.

The 23rd we went to visit our friends that work at the orphanage in town and the kids that we've gotten to know in the orphanage. They had a kids program with singing and dancing and chimes and music specials and then a bonfire. It put us in the Christmas mood - there's just something about singing children...

Christmas Eve we had Seeds of Change ministry over to our house for a party. There was 18 of us and everyone brought appetizers and desserts for the food. We now have 7 orphan kids in our family/ministry and they all came dressed to the 9's contributing in the food and the gift exchange - so much more mature than only a few months ago. It was really neat to see how much they've grown and how they are more confident in a crowd whereas before they'd be quiet and hiding alone in a corner. The Honduran tradition is to get a new outfit of clothes for Christmas (no gifts) so we got Sigel a new outfit and he wore it proudly. The best gift given was from Tristan to Skarleth - a little white bunny and a homemade cage - Skarleth cried (she's always wanted a pet rabbit and having grown up at the orphanage was never able to - when we had a rabbit she would come over just to see and pet the rabbit.) Now she has her own and I'm sure that Lily is the best loved rabbit in the continent! As the evening wore on the 'old people' left and the kids (we're still with the kids!) stayed and watched movies - The Christmas Shoe and The Santa Clause. If you haven't seen the Christmas Shoe - it's a must see but watch it with a box of Kleenex! It was amazing for me to look around the living room and see 7 transformed/ing lives in front of us laughing and talking and being with here with us on Christmas. It's hard to explain, but the view of 7 'hopeless' lives now 'hopeful' and happy and maturing and me having the privilege to be a part of it brought tears to my eyes.

Sorry - no pictures of Christmas - I don't know what I was thinking :(

Christmas day was very relaxed. I spent most of the day cooking - first Cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then a strawberry trifle for Leonie's Christmas dessert (she ordered from me), and then we did a turkey and most of the fixin's with it. Tristan cooked a lot with me which was very fun. We had presents and a stocking for Sigel - which was pretty overwhelming for him as this was his first 'North American Christmas experience'. He was very grateful and we talked about how it's really not about the presents but it's fun to do so we do it. Christmas dinner turned out wonderful - it was just the 4 of us - Tristan, me, Sigel, and Jorge (who moved in this last week). A bit strange to have Christmas dinner with just 4 people but it was special and we enjoyed it.