Presents, staying up late and lice, Oh My!

This is our third time we have celebrated Christmas in Belize.  That is comforting to us. We kind of know what to expect, we are feeling "settled".  We have developed some traditions and adopted new ones this year.

Koinonia prays for us on a Sunday morning

To begin the holiday season we had a new tradition with friends from Stann Creek, the Groff family. They also serve with EMM, and it is a blessing to be in Belize together.  We occasionally get together. It is difficult at times, since their kids are in school during the week, and we have weekend commitments. We decided to get together for Thanksgiving but were unable to until closer to Christmas vacation.

playing a quiz game with the Groffs

Tim decided to call it Friendsmasgiving. It turned out to be the perfect name.  We had a great time eating a traditional American Thanksgiving Dinner, hanging out and playing board games.  Of course, we enjoyed Bubble Tea, our favorite Orange Walk drink.

Adults snuck out for a childless time of bubble tea and dumplings

Christmas Eve is what Belizeans celebrate as Christmas. It is often brought in with a "bang" ie fireworks.  We stayed up till 2am at Pastor Ed's house, playing games, eating and hanging out.

Dyna and I chatting Christmas eve. Zephaniah eventually fell asleep next to me

Christmas day we spent as a family. The brunch was awesome. For some reason, our dinner was kind of a flop. Everyone survived. ;)

Pastors Ed and Dyna

We had two cookie parties. One with local friends, and one with the Deaf Youth.  At the end of it all I was exhausted. Thankfully Anna came and cleaned/washed the dishes.

a wonderful family sent Oatmeal cream pies. Nathanael says they "made" his Christmas

While we worked on cookies, Nathanael and Misael took the three wheeler to villages. They invited the Deaf in villages to our New Years Eve party.

The van packed full before our first cookie party

the Deaf youth event 

One not so fun thing that happened in our house over Christmas vacation was lice. They were discovered immediately following the Groff visit.  I spent way more time than I wanted to picking out nits.  The good news out of all of this is I've found the best method that works for us! Now to get a nit comb that works! I had to pull every nit out by hand.  If you were wondering, that is why Ni lost his dreds. He is actually fine about it. Since kids here can't wear them to school, there are no boys his age who have them. I was probably more upset about him losing them than he was.

nitpicking takes hours

there go the dreds

Next week I'll share pictures and stories from our Annual New years eve party. Stay tuned!

Love Spring