I can't post in the new year! (Feliz Navidad!)

I have interrupted my Christmas post to announce that I cannot get my new year posts to show up in the main blog page. They are listed in the contents, but will not show up on this page...It is a mystery to me why this is happening- Can anyone help?

Read the new years day post for a great slideshow at the end!!!


Now for your regularly scheduled Christmas post...

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad!

Navidad! Navidad! Hoy es Navidad! Es un dia de alegria y felicidad! Hey!

This is a song our kids have learned in school and we also now know...(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells!)

We hope your day today was wonderful and blessed and full of joy celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I wanted to share our day with you and a few pictures as well. As you can imagine, this Christmas has been very different, but very special and full of new traditions as well.

The new traditions started yesterday around 10:00 am. Joanie and I a few of her girls were invited to join several of the women in the Los Guido church as well as Neris, pastor Rogelio's wife prepare tomales for the Christmas Eve dinner. It is tradition in Costa Rica for families to gather together and prepare tomales and then celebrate Christ's birth with a dinner and fellowship late into the night. We began the 12 hour process of preparing about 200 tomales for the church. What a wonderful day it was. I was reminded of all the stories I've heard growing up of all the Adair get together's from Mom's childhood and I remembered the days spent together with them just being together. It was a day I will remember forever filled with hard work, laughter and so much love. After a day's preparation, the tomales were put in the fire pit to cook for several hours. Then the festivities began around 8:30. Mark delivered a powerful message based on 2 Timothy. We sang Christmas songs (in Spanish, of course!), shared a few laughs and then we ate the tomales! They were delicious! It really was a wonderful day! I was exhausted when we got home around midnight...but what joy filled my heart! Matt and I wrapped the presents we had picked up for the kids with the money our families had sent for them and we made it to bed around 1:30 am or so.


This is me mixing the "masca" or the base of the tomale. It was hard work! The mixture is corn flour base mixed with puree of cilantro, celery and onion and good ole lard. (I know it is terribly unhealthy and doesn't sound that appetizing- but MAN OH MAN! was it good! And they only eat them once a year...) Since we were preparing for so many, we had a huge batch. Near the end of the mixing process, we ditched the spoon and I decided to use my hands. I was up to my elbows in masca!


Paige helped out a lot during the process. It was fun hanging out with the Price girls during the day and seeing how willing they were to help out.


Here's Sydney mixing away!


Rosa and Zoila armed with appropriate headgear for keeping stray hairs out of the masca (Rosa was ready for a swim, if the opportunity came up- as Alex had fun kidding her about :) ) We had so much fun just kidding each other all day for different things. We shared lots of laughs.


After the masca is mixed, the tomales are constructed in banana leaves and wrapped tightly then tied with string. Neris, Alex and Joanie spent all morning cleaning, drying and sorting the leaves before we constructed the tomales.

During the assembly process, the we formed the masca into balls about the size of a tennis ball then flattened them out onto the leaves. We then placed a carrot strip, red pepper strip, a small potato slice and a small amount of rice in the center of the masca. Then, we placed the meat on top and wrapped them up. They are supposed to be rectangular and even all around, but many of mine were somewhat like an agenda or a small book in size- and it was the joke of the day that I was building a library as I was collecting so many books (tomales). They had fun poking fun at me- but it was that good old clean fun that makes you feel loved... :)

It was so neat to see how everyone pitched in to help during the process. Several of the husbands helped during the tieing process. Many worked on the pig earlier in the day, preparing the meat- that's a whole other story! What a story...


After assembly, the wrapped tomales are placed in a deep fire pit with un poco (just a little) water and then left to cook for about four hours. Pastor Marvin was in charge of this step.

It was a great day spent at La Finca! What a blessing this property is for Iglesia Nueva Vida Los Guido. It is awesome to see how the kids gather for the whole day, people come and go throughout the day, and even without a building, it is a safe place where youth and adults alike can come and worship and serve the Lord in a community that has such darkness surrounding it. Our kids ran and played and laughed all day and late into the night. The girls both fell asleep before suppper, but they spent a full day playing with their friends from Los Guido. One of the most special parts of the day came about 1:30 in the afternoon. I watched as three little girls ran up to my two girls as they got out of the van at the top of the hill. They (these three little girls) had been asking all day when my two girls would get there because they had a surprise for them. I had no idea what this surprise was, but my eyes filled with tears as I saw the following scene play out. These three little girls from Los Guido presented my two little girls with a Christmas gift! A beautiful little baby doll and two braclets for them to share. The people we minister to have so little worldly possessions, yet the depth of love and giving that they exhibit is so amazing. What poverty they have- and it is true- the living conditions are unsanitary and very dire in some cases, yet they are truly rich- more rich than many of the richest living in the United States. Rich because they have the love of Jesus Christ deep in their hearts and they share that love very freely.

Audrey was up this morning around 7:30 am and not long after that, came Isabelle and Ethan. They woke up Daddy and we gathered around the tree and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and started the day with prayer. We opened our presents and took time to take pictures of every one to send back home. :)

We hung out all morning. Alex came over for awhile so we could say goodbye to him - he will be back in the states for about three weeks.


Then, we headed over to the Price's house for lunch. It was nice to be able to share a meal with them today. We played a few games and enjoyed fellowship with them. Then we came back home and started making phone calls. We spent most of the evening on the phone or on Skype. It is such a blessing to be able to talk to those of you back there with such convienance. God is so good!

This has been our first Christmas away from family, first Christmas out of the country, first Christmas in Costa Rica. A Christmas of many firsts, but many good firsts.

We were able to spend some time with our South Carolina buddy Chelsie this past week, too. She was here serving. She left Monday morning, but not before coming over to hang out and snap some pictures. It was so nice to see a familiar face right before Christmas and she was kind enough to bring some goodies for us (like Vanilla Caramel coffee mate - THANK YOU!!!!) We love her and will be counting the days until her next visit! :)


Thank you Father for the firsts of this season. Thank you for that very first Christmas so many years ago when you gave the world your Son. Thank you that we call him Holy, Emmmanuael, Savior, Counselor, Friend. Thank you that because he first lived, then later died, and then later rose from the dead and ascended in to heaven that I now have an example of the way to live my life - I have an example in Jesus Christ of a life that is pleasing to you. I can live a life filled with joy because you live in me. Thank you for this day that we celebrate the birth of your Son, Jesus. And thank you for him.