Christmas Eve a Night to Remember

I know this is a little late, but we still wanted to share it with you. We spent this past Christmas here in Guatemala and what an incredible time it was. First of all, my mom and stepdad came down and spent about 10 days over Christmas here with us. It was great to have them here and they really enjoyed getting to have first hand knowledge of our everyday lives.

Christmas Eve is the big time of celebration here. The entire day and night is spent visiting with family and friends. We were able to go and visit a few of our friends homes and a few came to our home as well. When you visit someone or they visit you they give you tamales. So, we had a refrigerator full of tamales by the end of the night. The entire day was great, but the most amazing thing about the entire day happened right at midnight. Everyone and I mean everyone lights off huge fireworks from their homes. I know this is not the safest practice, but it was like nothing I have ever seen before. Imagine the best firework display you have ever seen and then imagine that you can see it everywhere you look. It truly was magnificent. Marissa was amazed by all the lights and sounds, but very quickly fell asleep on the roof with us. We are so thankful that we got to spent the holidays here with our family and friends.
-Chrissie

Dia de Gracias

Who says you can't celebrate Thanksgiving in Guatemala. We just celebrated our 2nd annual Dia de Gracias with about 15 of our local friends. The food was great and everybody had a good time laughing and eating and eating and eating... We were able to use this opportunity to share with our friends the reason that we give thanks in the first place. Overall, the night was a lot of fun and it was the first time that the RMI guesthouse was used for a different kind of ministry.

The Day Has Come...

We knew this day would come, but we didn't realize it would come so quickly. Marissa learned how to climb out of her pack-n-play last week. She had already started sleeping in her big kid bed during nap times, but didn't want to sleep in her bed at night. Well, last week we were traveling with a Sister Church team and Marissa did not want to nap in a normal bed. So, I put her back in her pack-n-play and within 5 minutes she had climbed out. When Enrique returned to our room, I put her back in and said, "Show daddy what you can do." This time within 10 seconds she was out of her pack-n-play. So, the pack-n-play is finally packed away for good!

Bilingual Baby

Recently, I have noticed that Marissa has really started talking in two languages. She’ll say “Mami no esta,” or “Paty se fue” or “I need a hug.” She even speaks a little spanglish such as “Let’s go arriba.”

The really amazing thing for me is that she has all of a sudden started talking about random things from the past. For example, when we were in the states, Marissa and her cousin Preston watched DVD’s of the Wiggles (a kid’s show). She was enamored with them. It has now been about three weeks since they have been brought up in conversation. Two days ago she was muttering something about “wehhaa”. She kept saying “wehhaa” for almost a week. We listened attentively and tried to figure out what she wanted, yet without any luck. Finally, Chrissie, who understands Marissa’s vocabulary better, said “The Wiggles.” Marissa started jumping up and down and shouting “si” “si.” She was so excited! It was the cutest thing I had seen her do in some time. Too bad we forgot the DVD’s of ‘The Wiggles’ in the states. I guess she will just have to wait until Christmas for Grandma to bring them down.

*Enrique

Halloween Guatemalan Style

As many of you may know, in Guatemala Halloween is not really celebrated in the traditional sense like us Americans with trick or treating, costumes, pumpkins, and harvest festivals. Halloween or as referred to here, ‘The Day of the Dead’ is not something that is celebrated, but rather feared. It is the night of evil before ‘All Saints Day’. Although more and more the commercialized Halloween is making its way to Guatemala; in the small aldeas the traditional views are still held and practiced. This holiday is a mixture of Catholic and Mayan traditions expressed through festivals, processionals, and visits to freshly painted grave sites with food and gifts for the dead. Some even believe that if they don’t repaint the tombstones and leave food for the dead, then their dead family will fight with them or feel as if they are no longer remembered. The days surrounding this holiday the skies are filled with kites. As innocent as this may seem, our friend Flory just told us today that these are used to send messages to the dead. Once again, I am amazed by the fear that is such a part of the culture here. How reassuring for us, as Christians, to know that we won’t spend eternity in a grave, but rather with our Lord in heaven!

On a lighter note, we celebrated the night by coloring pumpkins, eating pan de muerte, and pumpkin pie! Marissa had a good time and is still talking about her 3 little pumpkins.

Back to the Real World...

We returned last Friday night after a great time of rest and relaxation with our family in Florida. We traveled to Florida to meet with RMI leadership and began to plan for the future of RMI in Guatemala. After these meetings, we spent just over 2 weeks with our family throughout Florida. It was a great time to just hang out! I think we literally drove all over the entire state. The time flew by and it is hard to adjust back to normal life again.

Here are some of our pictures!

Marissa and her cousin Amanda enjoying the parade at MGM

Marissa with her grandparents

and her cousins at a T-ball game

Marissa and her Titi Julie

just hanging out

Look for the rest of our pictures on our website in the next few days!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy 32nd Birthday to Enrique!

I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Birthday to my great husband.

I love you,

Your wife