Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas from Mexico City! We've had a great Christmas. The best part has been having some of the kids here. We miss the rest of our family!

Christmas Party

We had our annual Christmas party for church this friday. The entire ward was involved in the preparations. They really know how to party!

First, one of the missionaries played Christmas carrols on his sax - including Ryan's favorite - "Let it snow."

Next was the Pastorale, or Nativity - Mary and Joseph along with angels , shepherds and plenty of animals.

Here are the animals making their entrance -

and a very pensive pastore (shepherd) . . .

then reyes magos (three kings) huddled with a little oveja (sheep).

The young women performed a Thai Christmas dance . . .

and the kids broke open the biggest piñata I've ever seen!

We had a blast!

Question

What do the following items have in common?
elbow macaroni
canned tuna
bottle of rum
bottle of tequila
bottle of wine
bottle of vodka
bottle of brandy
can of peaches

There is a prize for the correct answer to this one.

Institute

Our last day to teach Institute was this week. We had a great semester with some outstanding students:

To celebrate we had dinner at Tacos Leo. Fabulous tacos!

We're going to miss the students.

So cute!

I think everyone has to agree that this picture would win a photo contest. Unfortunately, I don't know of one.

for Bex . . .

more pictures of snow in Texas . . .

Remember how much fun we had using our trash can lids for snow saucers?

Anyone know what year this was?

Is it me . . .?

Today dad-the-bad brought home a gift box for me from one of his clients - fancy moisturizing creams and soaps from Guinot. Does it say something about me that I was more excited about the giant gum balls in the bottom of the crate than the designer contents?

First Day

Today was my first day riding in the "clinica movil" or mobile clinic for those who are linguistically challenged. Professionally speaking, it has to rank as one of the the best days I've had in Mexico City. We drive a huge bus equipped with two exam rooms and a dentist chair to very poor sections of the city. There we park the bus and see patients all day - and most of them are little kids. They stand out in the cold waiting for hours to be seen.

Not right or wrong - just different

This weekend was the long-anticipated Stake High Priest dinner dance for which we (through our assignment on the High Council ) were responsible. It highlighted some of the cultural differences that I have discovered since moving here.

Some of the highlights:

• When I stopped at Costco to pick up my cakes that I had ordered, they were not decorated. I had written instructions on the form to write "Feliz Navidad" in green and red, which I thought was pretty simple (and I wrote it in spanish) They explained that I had to pick a number of an example they had in their book and write the number in the little box. Apparently, they don't think outside that little box.
• No refrigerator in the kitchen at the Stake Center - making it a little tricky to prepare dinner for 200 people.
• We were told to expect 200 people - approximately 50-60 showed up.
• The event was scheduled to start at 7pm, with a short fireside by the Stake Presidency, then dinner at 8pm.
• Since the Stake President didn't arrive until 9pm, and we were the only ones there at 7, we finally started at about 8:30 and dad-the-bad conducted, gave an impromptu talk, and led the music.
• The tacos we ordered (700 of them) arrived 2 hours late.
• Trying to track down the tacos, dad-the-bad called probably twenty times and was always told they were "very close" and had left more than an hour or two ago. Apparently they came by way of Acapulco.
• In spite of the chaos, everyone had a GREAT time!
• They taught me some line dances, and I actually can do them.
• When it was over (midnight) everyone stayed to clean up - they mopped, boxed, swept, and even insisted on following me home to help me unload.
• And nobody complained. (not even me - well maybe a little about the tacos not showing up on time)

Thanksgiving Fun

Since I was forced to leave Mexico early, I got a headstart on the Thanksgiving festivities. We had a great time!

First on the agenda - shopping!

I went shopping with everyone but Shawn and Brandon. We got some great deals - from jammies to cribs.

Next was the long-awaited trip to the zoo!

- complete with a ride on the train!

Next was a trip to Brazos Bend, our favorite State park.

We wore out Devin and Annie

I enjoyed making gingerbread houses with the girls - even if they didn't

And Devin's birthday party was a slam dunk!

He even let Ashley bust open his piñata.

A wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanks, everyone!