Feliz Navidad!

Thursday, December 20

Today we looked forward to our last day of class before break and a Christmas Party.  Sonia had us practice listening to her dictate a paragraph in Spanish, and Rysen and I wrote it down in Spanish.  The hard part about it was that many of the words we did not even know the meaning of.  She said it was still good practice to listen for sound patterns and just hearing the language.

We continued to practice irregular past tense verbs… and I was disappointed with my progress.  We wrote 10 sentences with past tense verbs and I got 8 wrong…  Ahhh!  Please pray for us!  I expressed to Eddie that I feel like I am hitting a wall in my language learning, and he said the same.  I know we are still learning a lot, but being half way done with our time here makes us want to feel like we have learned half the language.  I feel like I have mastered a good 6%... I guess it is time to give our brains a break and go on vacation for 8 days :)

After a frustrating class, I was reminded by my precious husband to just enjoy the rest of the day.  God helped me change my attitude and we all had a fabulous time.

We each took turns reading our letters to “Niño Dios,” and I loved hearing what kinds of things were on everyone’s hearts.  

After we finished, they told us that we would be burning the letters because that is the way to “send our requests to Niño Dios.”  We participated, but not before taking pictures of our hard work.

We presented our “botas” (stockings) to the person whose name we had for “Amigo Secreto,” and then we all opened them at the same time.

I tried to implement our family tradition of “one-at-a-time-sitting-on-a-chair-in-the-center-of-the-room-starting-with-the-youngest” but they said we didn’t have time for that.  I guess not everyone likes it, but… boy am I thankful that I get to be with my family this Christmas and share in memorable family traditions.  One more day… and we will be home!

Eddie and Amanda and I wore our matching shirts and Jaden had one in his stocking from Titi Amanda.  Of course we had to show off our "Pura Vida" and "Mae" souvenirs.  

The best part of the day was watching Jaden play with his new "camera."

Jaden loved it when the teachers posed for "una foto" for him and his new camera!

Check out the new furniture at CISA... Merry Christmas!

We spent the afternoon packing and getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.   Samia prepared some of our favorite meals this week and tonight’s dinner was a pasta dish that was one of my favorites while we were here.  Freddy got home super late because his car was at the mechanic.  Once he got home, we spent time exchanging gifts with the family. 

Jaden's cute new "Pura Vida" shirt...  Thanks Tico Family!

Tica Sisters!

Jaden spent the whole evening dancing and playing with Ebony... It was like he knew this would probably be the last time for that... and I think he was avoiding bed time.

Tico Brothers! 

One big happy Tico Family!

We also got to share some of our funniest memories over the last three months.  The one that stuck out Samia was from our second day here.  She reminded me of how concerned she was for me when I fell and hit my head… especially since my husband was standing over me laughing.  Oh, how we love our Tico Family.  We will miss the love and warmth they have bestowed upon us.  I will miss watching Eddie tease Jimena, José Pablo goof around with Eddie, Freddy teasing me, and Samia’s cooking and great stories.  Of course we will also miss seeing them hug and kiss and love on Jaden!  Praise God for a wonderful host family!

As we celebrate the Christmas season, we can't help but be grateful to God for all the blessings he has given us.  We remember this season with over-flowing hearts of JOY and thankfulness for his birth, his life, his death, and his resurrection.  Jesus is the REASON for the SEASON!