Celebration of Nativity...

We have had an exciting last few days...

The weekend was kicked off with a movie on Friday night that the girls invited me to, that's always fun to get in PJ's and just sit and eat popcorn and watch a movie... I don't know the movie we watched but it was somewhat related to "Annie"... Orphan story, she gets adopted to a family and then hates her family so she tries to run away but in the end she loves the fam. It was alright... :) Just to spend time with my girls was nice!

On Saturday we went to the mall. Mother Ivonne said about 12 girls needed to get out... so we went to Oakland Mall... I did a little Christmas shopping for some special people back home and then we all enjoyed a little BK (St. George's treat - thanks for supporting this outing)... We all had BK Big Fish sandwiches and Coke... it was yummy!

Saturday night we went to a "Lights Show"... it is a fireworks show put on by Pollo Campero (the popular fast food chain in Guatemala - mainly chicken) to say "THANKS" for all of the support throughout the year... It was beautiful - here's a few fireworks pictures the girls took on my camera! - Oh, we went to Mother Ivonne's brother's house, Ricky. He lives in a penthouse (basically) above some office buildings and it's tradition for him to have the girls over for fireworks, snacks and after; pizza! It was awesome... :)

Sunday was fun too, haha does the fun ever stop when I am with children?? NO WAY! We went to a Christmas parade in the city. It was basically all of the marching bands, and dancers from all of the high schools/ middle schools in Guatemala. They were fabulous! I only took a few pictures because my battery died. :( But here is at least one!

After the parade we went on a 4 mile walk down the "Americas". It's an avenue in the city that is super long and along the way there are things dedicated to the Americas... Didn't see anything I recognized... but I am sure there was a small rendition of the Mall of America somewhere in there... :) haha (kidding)...

We stopped at a little ice cream shop "Rich's" for a treat and then walked back to the microbus. (the van) and hopped in, back to the Hogar.

Me, thinking this was our "fun activity" for the day, showered and jumped right onto my bed. I was exhausted but it was only about 2:00pm by this point. I opened my eyes to hear the girls pounding on my door saying "Jody, vamos a mirar una pelicula!!!" (We're going to watch a movie!) I was like... Uhh... but then realizing I am 3 weeks away from being in MN with nothing to do, I got up and went with them to watch a movie and spend time with them!

What can I say, I can't get enough of them!

Well, I suppose that's all for now...

Sending LOVE AND PRAYERS as always...

xoxo