We found a new place to live! This was a tremendous
blessing, and the Lord knew where we needed to be when we needed to be there.
This new home is significantly smaller, but it’s perfect. It has a yard with
turf, and a cement wall. Its further from the road and busy cars, and is
significantly safer. I can still walk Hannah to school, or take the kids to the
park too.
Plus, a seriously amazing view!
It was also a miracle and blessing of the timing of the
move. We were able to move during Matthew’s last 2 weeks of school, and then we
went to Panama for a vacation, while the Landlord was able to purchase a new
fridge (it stopped working) and then we came home and had Christmas in our new
place with time to go up and clean the old place.
(Sadie was all to helpful while I cleaned the fridge)
Christmas was wonderful! And many could say quite interesting!
While we were in Panama (don’t worry, that fun post will
follow), Matthew and I both felt impressed that Christmas & Christmas Eve, we should only pull
out one or two gifts, and focus those days on the Savior. It
helped that we are here and away from the commercial Christmas, and celebrating by ourselves....Not to mention our only Christmas
decorations were home-made snow flakes, and a felt Christmas tree taped to the
wall.
When we got home from our vacation in Panama we learned the
presents we ordered (that were supposed to have arrived 2 weeks before
Christmas) still hadn’t arrived, but were due 3 days after Christmas. So we had
a Christ-Centered Christmas!
Christmas Eve we baked a cake so that on Christmas we could
ice it and celebrate the Saviors birthday. Then we watched some Mormon.org
Bible Videos portraying the story of Christ Birth. Before each segment we told
the children the story they were going to watch and after we testified of what
we had watched. Then we drew pictures to give to Jesus and put them on our
tree. After which we went and got something that was special or important to
us, and put it under the tree to give to Baby Jesus for the night. I was
touched by the thought that went into these activities and how sincere the kids
were.
(Thomas gave his prized water-bottle, Sadie her shoes that she never wants to take off, Hannah her "baby", Mommy my phone and scriptures, and Daddy his tablet)
Santa had visited some other people on the island (student family who was done with school & leaving) and gathered a few small gifts to give the children. So on Christmas they were able to get those (one each & one to share). Then we finished the cake, sang a very peaceful happy birthday song and celebrated the birth of our Savior. We talked about the presents we gave him the night before, and how the greatest gift of all has been given to us. Then we just spent the day together. It was nice!
Later in the week, we learned that the packages had been delayed yet again, and wouldn’t arrive until January 10th. So when January 10th rolled around we had a “Wiseman Day”. We used it as an opportunity to talk about how it took the Wisemen longer to get to the Savior, but that they came bearing gifts.
Merry Christmas!
...And Happy Wise-Man Day!
