Feliz Navidad - Hannah

This was the most laid back Christmas we've ever had. The kids and Santa knew we couldn't collect a lot of stuff, because we'll have limited luggage space for our trip home. So gifts were small and there was not a lot. But we enjoyed being together, and of course that's what is most important.

We started things off on Christmas Eve by putting a puzzle together. It was a 1000-piece puzzle, which normally would have taken us a few days, but we got it done that night. It even kept Jonah's attention for a little while.

On Christmas morning we saw what Santa left for us. We were glad he didn't get struck down by the fireworks from the night before.

Our Christmas loot

 

Santa also found some foods we either haven't seen here or are too expensive
to buy. We all enjoyed cold cereal for breakfast, instead of our usual waffles
with ice cream Christmas morning tradition. 

We got a couple fun games to play together, Bananagrams and Spot-It, another Ed Emberley drawing book (any of which I highly recommend), the movie Elf, and some sidewalk chalk. Jonah got a batman toy riding a motorcycle (he asked Santa for a remote control motorcycle and a remote control bat, but he seemed happy with the substitution). Each of the kids also got a Costa Rican shirt so we can look even more like gringo tourists.

In the afternoon, the sister missionaries joined us for lunch. We had scrambled eggs and pancakes--not the most traditional Christmas meal but at least it included syrup, one of the four Christmas food groups.

The sisters spent the afternoon with us. We put together another puzzle, harder than the first one but with only 500 pieces.

Afterwards, we played Skip-Bo, brought the missionaries to and from a no-show appointment, and came back to sit on the porch to chat. This evening they went to President Lopez' home to make their bi-annual calls home. The missionaries are a long way from home on Christmas and doing a great work. It was fun to spend the day with them today. 

This evening we called some family in the states and now we're watching Elf, a classic Christmas movie if ever there was one: "I'm a cotton-headed ninny muggins," "Candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup," "I'm singing! And I'm in a store. And I'm singing!" "This place looks like Santa's workshop, except it smells like mushrooms and it looks like everyone wants to hurt me."

All in all, it was a lovely Christmas. Feliz Navidad to all our family and friends back home! We hope it has been a wonderful day.