Christmas eve...yup, that was a while ago....

Christmas eve used to be one of tradition.  We (meaning I) tried to combine some of the traditions from my family and Eric's family to come up with our own traditional Christmas stuff.  That dream has long been abandoned.  Since moving oversees, it seems impossible to carry these things on.  Whether it is because we can't find the right ingredients for the food (and it could easily be that one day in July we might have the right stuff here but then a few months later it is no where to be found), we have ministry responsibilities or whatever, what is now traditional is not to not hold tightly to traditions.

In some ways that makes me quite sad but I am learning to flex.  I think traditions are important and they give the kids some stability and something familiar to anticipate, so where we can, we do what we can.  Other times, forget about it.

I thought our new tradition was going to be celebrating Christmas with Casa G on Christmas Eve.  That is what we did for two years.  Foolish me - thinking that would be the new normal.  The Ministry of Education here is taking delight in messing with schedules and important holidays, so they only allowed schools (save ours, thank the Lord) the 24, 25, 31 and 1st off.  That cut into the time the boys might normally have to visit family for a few days.  So, in order allow them time to do this, we switched to the 22nd.  That left Christmas Eve open.

We had a few invitations for different things but we finally settled on what I'm pretty sure was the best decision - because it was fabulous.

Our friends, the Reicherts, just had their third child almost a month early - although it sure seems that they had the date wrong because the baby, born a few days before Christmas eve, was pretty big and very healthy.  Anyway, they didn't want to go anywhere so a few of us headed to their house.  It was the perfect blend of friends, food, activity and inactivity.

They had set up a tent in their back yard a while ago for their ministry party.  They had some old Christmas classic movies playing when we arrived.

My kids were pretty happy to discover that they also had left over cookies to decorate, since we never got to doing ours.

After a while of hanging out, we gathered in the family room to sing some Christmas carols.  To me, this was the most perfect thing.  There seems to be a shortage of Christmas carol singing opportunities in Quito for some odd reason.

Jack, the Reicherts' oldest fell asleep while we were singing - it was so precious.

Why have we never had a child that would do something like that?.....

GREAT evening.  Great.

baby steps

Seven straight days on my back in bed.  Fun times.  I really did a number on my back, but all I really did was ride in a car for a few hours.  Sheesh.  Things have gotten better, however - Praise the Lord!  I can now walk to the bathroom with out much trouble at all; I took a shower all by myself (well, I did that before,,,,the actual shower part!), and can move around in my bed without too much pain.  Still need to get to the point of standing and sitting without pain - and I'm a long way off (it seems) from bending, crouching, reaching and that kind of stuff.  Baby steps.

Eric is amazingly patient and helpful.  This is true love - someone having to take care of their spouse and all the kids by themselves, work and do everything to keep a household running...all without complaining or being grumpy.  I am blessed.

Lucy has been taking good care of me too.  Everyday she comes home from school and gives me a nice long foot massage.  She uses about a cup of lotion to do it too, so I've pretty much got the softest )or slimiest) feet around!  She also left breakfast for me yesterday.

She sacrificed her own Nutella (each of the kids got a jar of it in their stockings) and left a nutella sandwich and a banana beside my bed for me in the morning (I was still sleeping and woke up a few hours later!  the bread was a little dry....).  She also had a glass of yogurt for me but Eric wisely made her keep it in the fridge (yogurt here is almost entirely for drinking - you can find very little of the thicker, spoonable kind).  She's a pretty sweet kid.  Of course she keeps forgetting the reason why I am bed-ridden and continually pounces on the bed or grabs my knees/legs to hug them, sending me into a fit of pain.  Well, we'll just focus on the foot massages......

I'm praying and praying that this will all be over soon.  There is a lot on my plate for this month and already things have had to be rescheduled.  All in God's time.  In the meantime, I am trying to enjoy the peace and quite that I have.

school stuff

The last week of school before Christmas break is always pretty much a write-off.  A fun write-off, but still not worth much in terms of formal education.  While I occasionally gripe and complain about these wasted days (I'd much rather the kids just not go to school), this year I had to help plan them.  Kinda ironic.  Fun, too.  The first week in December we had a spirit week.  My favorite day was pajama day - who wouldn't want to go to work in your pjs?  Well, I guess quite a few people as many don't wear pjs, but we'll forget about those individuals for the time being.....  I was delighted.  It sure does make a difference in motivation, though.  All I wanted to do all day was curl up on the couch beside my desk.  

Another day was super hero day.  Yes, I am Wonder Woman.  A very well covered, conservative Wonder Woman, but I am she, nonetheless!  Flash, Superman and Catwoman (some students in my study hall) posed with me for a photo.  Intimidating lot, aren't we?

And.... the unconquerable force in the chaplain's office: Batman and Wonder Woman.  Don't mess with us, people....I've got my lasso of truth handy.

December 6th not only is St. Nicholas Day, but is, even more importantly, Quito Day.  We celebrated it on the 5th during spirit week.  While it is usually a day planned by the Spanish department, the chaplain's office and StuCo were asked to help.  It was a wacky day with different groups of students going on double decker tour buses and different times throughout the day.  That meant many different activities that we needed to plan for different groups at different times.  A little bit of madness.....

We did pull together some games that are typically played here in Ecuador - many very similar to what we would also do in North America.  The first game was the Baile de Los Tomates - Tomato Dance (sounds a little like VeggieTales...).  Couples are supposed to dance while keeping a tomato between their foreheads.  We just made it a race instead....

Then the was the lemon in the spoon race - same as the typical egg in the spoon type thing.

And an overly long and difficult obstacle course - complete with the spinning around with your head on a bat portion.  I hate that game.  One spin and I'm toast.

My favorite and the most uniquely Ecuadorian was the Polo Engrasado.  This is a fantastically fabulous game - although it seems just a teensy bit dangerous.  They have this twenty foot pole (at least that tall) that they smear completely with this thick, nasty grease.  Then they dig a hole in the ground and put the pole in the hole.  At the top of the pole is a board and on the board are a bunch of prizes.  The point is to climb the pole and grab a price.  Sounds simple but it sure isn't!

We provided mechanic's jumpers so the kids wouldn't get themselves full of grease..... well, other than their hands, faces and hair.

They started cooperating together and building human ladders so that people could grab a bunch of prizes and throw them down.  It was hilarious to watch but we were all chewing on our nails with nervousness.  Games like this would never fly back at home - the legalities would be crazy!  It was pretty fun, though, seeing the kids work together and struggle to get the stuff down.

Yes, being involved with Student Council has me doing all kinds of wacky things.
Another wacky thing is making enough hot chocolate powder mix to feed the masses.  There probably was enough powder in there to make almost 400 cups of hot chocolate.  I over-shot by just a little.....

The hot chocolate, as well as, chocolate peppermint cupcakes (they were to die for, I must say) and marshmallows on a stick, were my contribution for our Student Council fundraiser - a concession for a community sing-along Christmas concert.

It was a pretty fun event - lots of carols - and we even made some much needed cash.

On an aside, Maddy had to make a mask for a masquerade party that they were having in English class.  Thankfully, in this very busy season of the year, she found a fancy mask at a party store, so she had a good start.  They had to decorate their masks in a way that represented them.  I helped her stretch the symbolism....  The orange and pink stuff at the bottom was left over trim from her soccer teams poster back when she was maybe 10 (yes, I did keep that trim and take it with me to a foreign country - sometimes it pays to hold on to seemingly ridiculous things!).  On the sides of he nose is two small pieces from an bracelet made in Ecuador - in colors of the Ecuadorian flag, and having three pieces of this stick type material - to represent the almost three years we've been here.  Googly eyes on the sides of the eye holes represent goofiness, the crystal star in the middle represents her faith, the buttons are for her whimsical side and who knows what else she put on there...  Gotta love seemingly useless English assignments....

The last day of school, the elementary kids were supposed to dress up in something Christmas themed.  Well, I had no time and little warning to come up with something, plus that morning I had to be at school by 7:00 to set up for other activities.... so they were on their own.  Lucy, with Mia's help, decided to be an angel.  She wore a white shirt, Mia's white skirt, tied silver ribbon around her waist and made an aluminum foil halo.  I was impressed with the creativity and resourcefulness.  She reminded me somewhat of Ramona Quimby in the movie - where she dresses up and makes her own tiara to try out to be the next peanut butter princess.

Cade was Joseph in a bed sheet and pillow case.  Love itl

The whole school assembly...

After the assembly, all the students - well, grades one through twelve, went to the field for some games: A Journey to Bethlehem.  The games where fun but had a few issues....  One of them was entirely my fault, but I claim ignorance.  I volunteered to wet and freeze 12 towels for the game - the point was for the teams to thaw their towels (swaddling cloths) and then once malleable, wrap them around "baby Jesus".  Well, several people had played a game similar to this before, but not me.  So I soaked those stupid towels, stuck them in our freezer and went on with life.  Well, do you see what is happening with our precious towels?

They were so well frozen the teams couldn't thaw them.  Mostly they took to throwing the towels or tearing them apart.  We lost six good towels that day....we didn't have many to spare!  Those six towels were in absolute shreds when all was said and done, and the other ones had several holes in them as well (we had to use our bath towels at the beach when we went....).  Sigh...

After an hour of poorly executed and destructive games, the elementary classes went back to their classes for parties and middle school and high school had a variety of other events.  Each class put together a station with an activity.  Freshman did a photo booth, Sophomores had a station to put together cookies and notes of thanks to staff, Juniors had hot chocolate and story time with Santa and seniors had a cookie decorating station.

Maddy, being the freshman VP, asked me to take pictures at their photo booth.  While the area was cute and all, most of the kids just hang out and didn't get into it.  The school suffers from a severe case of apathy and lack of enthusiasm about almost everything.

At the end of the morning, all the middle and high school student gathered and sang Christmas carols.  I can't honestly say whether or not the students had a good time.  They are a very hard lot to understand. Perhaps it is cultural, but they just don't get into things a whole lot.  Kinda sad.  The good thing is that the student who are part of Student Council see that and are hoping to change it.  Hopefully they'll get the idea that school can be some place fun and some place to be proud of.

I wish I could show you pictures from Mia, Cade and Lucy's parties but unfortunately I was not able to participate in their activities.  Definitely a huge down side of having this job.  They seemed fine with me not being there, but I wasn't fine with it.  On to a new season of life, I suppose.

Christmas with Casa G

Celebrating Christmas with Casa G is always a highlight.  Who wouldn't love giving and receiving gifts with these ever-enthusiastic guys?  Personally it was a bit of a let down as I had to miss a good portion of the festivities - because of the way we needed to do it this year, I had to tend to our 35 pound turkey and other things of that nature.  I did love hearing all the laughter, talking and all that good stuff though.  We also didn't do as much with gifts this year so that was kind of sad, but there was still plenty of joviality to be had.  Watching the boys open gifts is always entertaining!

One of the great parts of the celebrations this year was that all of Casa G's staff was invited.... their tutor (below, with her grandson), the house dad and his whole family.  Having the buzz of all those people is  energizing.

We had our annual game of open-the-gifts-wearing-the-hat-scarve-and-mittens-while-everyone-else-rolls-the-dice-for-a-turn game (really need to come up with a name for this game).  Everyone always loves it and it is fun whether you are watching or playing.  It didn't last as long as it usually does however.  Eric took it a little too easy on them this year and didn't go crazy with the tape and wrapping.

They also played another game that Phil and Debbie brought.  It involved some plastic stick type thing that told them that they had to do a certain action to it..... I was downstairs getting dinner ready so I don't quite know how it all goes, but it was hilarious hearing all the shouts and laughter coming from above.

After Phil's devotional, gifts and games, it was time to eat.  Debbie and I had divided up the cooking tasks and everything was mighty tasty!  Phil carved up that huge bird (wish I had pictures....) and we all ate like mad people.  Considering how much I love traditional thanksgiving and Christmas dinners now, I can't believe how much a disliked it as a child.

Lucy was so excited about dinner that she sat in front of the oven, staring at its contents for a good, long old time.  What a goof ball.

After dinner we had a despedida (farewell) for Dani.  Dani was the house dad at Casa G for a little over a year and half.  He lived with the boys during the week.  He quit because he is getting married (in four days now) so we figured we should probably let him go.  Most of his family has been involved with Casa G in someway or another, so they were all there as well.  Great family.  We also invited boys who had left Casa G but with whom Dani had work previously.  One of the boys who left quite a while ago even brought gifts.  This mug that we got was the best gift all season.  To know that a boy who used to live on the street now is thoughtful and kind enough to go out, buy a gift and wrap it speaks volumes about where he is at in his life.  We pray that it is a reflection of who Christ is to him and how he is living out his life for Him.