Christmas

Luke and Mimi cooked a delicious meal on Christmas Day.

Christmas morning. It was still dark outside when the kids woke up. They were happy with their presents.

Titi's list to Santa. It was loooooong!!!

Carlos and Titi had fun at their class parties. I was in charge of one of the crafts and I did the same for both classrooms, a winter scene with cutouts, stickers and lots and lots of glitter. They kids really love using glitter.

Carlos and Titi participated in a play at the last Scout's meeting. Titi is not supposed to be part of the group but she wanted so much to participate in the play that they let her do it.

Carlos has the best teacher. She asked us to send Carlos' favorite recipe and a bag of chocolate chips for a project. The project turned out to be a class cookbook and jar of chocolate chip cookie mix as a present from Carlos to us. It must have been a lot of work putting all that together for each child in the class! She also gave me a gift card to Starbucks since I help in the classroom from time to time. She is definitely a great person and teacher. Titi and I immediately made the cookies and they were very good.

Santa's list

Carlos and Titi have been busy writing their letters to Santa. They keep changing their mind and have written many lists. This week I took them to the store so they could write their final list. They were busy! Titi's list is loooong!

December

Carlos has been our driving force to decorate the house, inside and out. He keeps asking us to put more lights and decorate more. He put lights in all the house plants. We never finished outside but I am sure he will make us do it.

Titi is now wearing glasses. She has been very good about it and she wears them all the time. She looks cute!

HANUKKAH

I haven't posted in a long time. I have been so busy updating the student's blog I keep for Mayan Families and I never have time for this one.

We had a great time at the Hanukkah celebration at Steven and Janie's. They had delicious food like always and we were happy to see everybody in good health. Carlos and Titi loved the presents they got and we hope their cousins liked the presents we gave them.

A big hole in the garden

Today we discovered a big hole under the kid's slide in the garden. It must be a fairly big animal because the hole is pretty big. I am hoping it is a turtle or something like that. I would hate it if it is an iguana. They are becoming pretty common around here and they are huge. The other day I saw two giant ones crossing the road. They are ugly!

We didn't see anything inside during the day but I was afraid to get too close. Titi was not afraid and wanted to look closer but we didn't let her. Don and the kids went to see the hole at night but they could not see anything either. Don thought that he might have seen eggs inside. We will try to look again in the morning.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Don and I finished closing the box that we are sending to Guatemala with shoes and presents for the families that we met during the summer. We were able to fit 97 pairs of shoes and lots of other presents for the children and their families. Fortunately they only charge by size and not by weight. It was so heavy because we packed it to the max.

We are hoping to send another box in January full of shoes, backpacks and school supplies. The school year is from January to October so they will need lots of supplies in January. Mimi, Luke and Roc already donated towards that box. Mimi found 12 pairs of girls shoes on sale and she bought them for the kids in Guatemala!

We had a great time at Steven and Janie's. The food was delicious, as always, and it was good to see everybody, specially Mema, Grandpa, uncle Izzy and aunt Mary. Carlos and Titi played with the kids and they had fun.

We also went to see Mimi and Luke.

Hannah Montana concert

Thanks to Steven and Janie, Carlos and Titi were able to go to the Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers concert! Don and I never thought of trying to get tickets because we knew it was going to be difficult to get them but Steven and Janie got tickets for Hailey and Andie and they had 3 extra tickets and they allowed us to use them. We know they could have made a lot of money reselling them so we really appreciate it.

Carlos and Titi loved the concert! Titi especially, she danced a lot and had lots of fun. Carlos had fun too but he thought it was too loud so he spent a lot of time covering his ears!! They are very lucky kids!!

Day of the Death

Don wanted me to post pictures of the altar we put this year. I think it looks the same as last year's. We could not put food out because we have been having a problem with ants. We did put candy, rompope and coffee.

Halloween

The kids had fun at Halloween. Both wanted to be vampires so it was an easy costume. They wore black pants, white shirts and we only had to buy a cape. I wanted to paint their faces but they only wanted to have "blood dripping from their mouths".

We went to downtown's Kiwanis parade and it was good. They love trick or treating at the stores. They don't like walking on the parade as much but they did it. Don was in costume too so it was nice. The had fun at the park.

They also trick or treating at the shopping center and they saw lots of their classmates. They had a magic show.

Their class parties were good. They did nice crafts and ate cookies. Carlos' teacher painted faces, she was good.

Bananas

Our banana tree gave us a big stalk of bananas and they are all ripening at the same time! Don took some to his office but we still have dozens of them. Today I ate lots of fresh bananas then I made a banana milkshake, banana pancakes (froze some), covered others with chocolate and froze them and now I need to go back and see how else I can use them. I am going to freeze some to use them in smoothies or milkshakes.

Our first camping trip

Here are some pictures of our camping trip. We had a great time. It rained a lot during both nights but I kind of liked it. It made it more like an adventure and it was not too hot during the day. There were lots of activities for the kids like archery, climbing wall, sports, swimming, fishing, canoeing and more. The time went really fast.

Next time we will get a bigger tent. The one we had was ok but we only had space for the matresses. The food was very good. On Friday night we ate at the dinning hall and we met people that we knew since it was for all Scout clubs in the area. The rest of the time the wife of the Pack (our group) Master cooked for all of us, and we only helped a little with preparations and cleaning. In our Pack we had approx. 40 people but there were some Packs that were big.

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The kids have been sleeping in a camping tent in the living room for some days. We are going camping with the Cub Scouts and we needed to practice putting it up and of course the kids didn't let us packing it again. They love sleeping in different places and they are so happy to have a real tent. I am not sure I am going to like camping but I will try it. It should be fun.

Laura is Sixteen!

I can't believe that Laura is already 16! She looks so grown up! I remember perfectly the day she was born and we went to see her at the hospital. Time really flies.

Keri and Larry had a nice party for her and we enjoyed it a lot.

Happy Birthday!!!!! We are very proud of you!


Love,
Don, Carmen, Carlos and Titi

Happy Birthday Mimi!!

Today is Mimi's 40th birthday!!! Happy Birthday!!!

We had a nice party for her last Saturday and I know she enjoyed it. Luke got a mariachi band to come and play for her!

Enjoy your day!

Lots of love,
Don, Carmen, Carlos and Titi