Christmas 2011

The past few weeks have been busy to say the least! End of the year activities, Christmas, and a newborn have been a lot, but a lot of fun too!
Since I've been extra tired lately, I had resigned to the fact that I probably wouldn't get around to making Christmas cookies this year. Then, my good Brazilian friend, Vanessa, said she wanted to learn how to make them. Well you know how Christmas cookies go...I was going to make only 2 -3 kinds, but the list just kept expanding and we wound up making 7! It was a really fun day and we had enough cookies for Vanessa to take about 1/3 home, 7 boxes to bring to neighbors, and an overflowing cookie tray to bring to the Braun's for Christmas. (And quite a few that disappeared during the baking processs!)
Then, Saturday the 24th, we headed over the Jeyson's parents' home.

Everything was all ready for Christmas and we had the best gift of all this year :)

Jeyson's sister, her husband, and son came over too. Lucas is super active these days! He will be one on Jan 2nd and is always moving around.

Lots of hanging out on the 24th,

And Elijah had his first nap on an Ecuadorian llama pillow since there was "no crib for a bed" haha!

Sweet newly hatched humming birds in one of the trees
Elijah with his Aunt Lika

And my mother-in-law getting the turkey ready for the oven. Little did we know that a few hours later, the power would go out. We wound up cooking the rest of the meal by candle/flashlight! Poor Jeyson's mom who had to carve this bird with a head flashlight! Following Brazilian traditions, late at night we had our meal and opened presents.

The next morning, three couples from our mission joined us at the Braun's farm for the day. I made a big Christmas breakfast to share a little from American culture. Everyone enjoyed it but were moaning from having eaten too much since Brazilians normally just drink coffee and eat bread for breakfast.

Vanessa and her husband Fabio were among those who come over

It was super fun just spending time with family and friends away from the city.

The guys did some rip boarding

And were in charge of grilling the Brazilian style barbecue of meat, meat, and more meat.

The ladies...

And hours and hours of chatting, relaxing, etc.

At night we went to a cantata at Jeyson's parents' church, which was the prefect ending to a nice, relaxing Christmas.

Cookie Making is Back

I'm so excited that our twin neighbors who moved away are back in town for summer break (it's summer here anyway!). They will be here until Feb and came by our house the first day they arrived to come see us. They are staying only a block away from us and have already come by 3 times! It's so neat to know that my relationship with them was meaningful and that I have two months now to continue pouring into their lives. They also brought along their brother and cousin (who lives in the house they are staying at over the break).

It's such great timing because there isn't much extra I can do ministry-wise that requires living the house these days. The girls coming over to spend time together can easily fit in around feeding, naps, and diaper changes.

The girls loved holding Elijah

And making more cookies! We already are planning to make some cut out ones in the next few days and Jeyson and I are planning to have them over also for dinner and to watch The Nativity Story since it's perfect around Christmas time.

I'm so excited to see what God has planned for the next few weeks!

Expat Thanksgiving

While Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, that didn't stop the Americans that live here in Anapolis from getting together. The Saturday before Thanksgiving we all had a big potluck at the Wycliffe missions headquarters. There were missionaries from Asas, Wycliffe, New Tribes, and other Americans who live in the city. Since turkey is very pricey here, we had chickens and all the traditional side dishes. All you can eat American food...yum!!! Some of the most prized items were "delicacies" from the States that families had brought down and saved for a special moment. Canned cranberry sauce and blueberry pie filling (made into a pie) might not sound special to you, but bringing them to share on Thanksgiving rather than hoarding them for your family is a huge act of sacrifice around here :) It really fit the Thanksgiving spirit of sharing. You should have seen how many slivers the blueberry pie was divided into so as many people as possible could have a taste of home!

We had so much to be thankful for this year, especially for Elijah. We brought him along even though we was only 4 days old. Are we crazy for bringing him? Perhaps a little, but we just couldn't bare to miss out on one of the best days of the year!
Me with some of the other American missionaries in town that I'm good friends with. We also get together once a week for Bible study in English. Such a treat!

Then, this past Sunday Jeyson's family came over for another Thanksgiving celebration. Even though they are Brazilian and don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving here, we all agreed we had so much to be thankful for that we decided to have a special meal. It was so nice to celebrate also with family at home, just the way Thanksgivings are normally celebrated.
Everything was so wonderful I forgot to take a picture of the meal! It was a wonderful time...and now on to Christmas!