Wintry Weather

We are so loving the weather the past couple of days. It's been cold, can you believe it? Ahh...so nice.

As you all know, I really don't like cold weather. But, of course it hasn't been that cold. And, it won't last. So, that makes it really, really nice. Just at the right time too. It really makes it feel like Christmas.

A couple from Asas is leaving (going to raise funds and then be stationed in Manaus) and they so generously gave us their little Christmas tree. So, we won't have to buy one this year (or for as long as we keep this one). So, Sunday we put it up, along with all our Christmas house decorations (all 2 of them). :-) It was still pretty warm on Sunday, but Monday it started cooling off.

Monday night we hosted the young married's meeting at our house again. We do that probably about every 4-6 weeks. We talked about Christmas and had lots of hot chocolate and hot apple/cinnamon tea. By the way, Christmas is a "real downer" (as I was warned before) here...they just don't celebrate it as big as in the states. It has gotten a little crazy in the states as far as just the materialism of it all. But, I love the parties, the programs, and just the general hussle and bussle of it all. Here, probably mostly because of the simpler way of life and the need for that simpler way of life (finances), it's just played down a lot. Nobody at the young married's meeting the other night could even sing one Christmas song by heart. It's just very different. BUT...I am keeping the spirit alive. LOTS of Christmas music (I always play Christmas music pretty much non-stop after Thanksgiving), lots of hot chocolate (for me anyway...sparingly with the kids of course), Christmas crafts every day, a Christmas countdown calendar, etc.

Yesterday was the coldest of all. It rained ALL day long. Ahh...it was so great. I wore a sweater all day. And, to top it all off, the Asas de Socorro Christmas party was last night. We got all dressed up...in our SWEATERS!!...and went to socialize, eat some great food, and celebrate Christmas. It was great.

It was so exciting picking out the kids' clothes last night. I had to pick just the right long sleeve/sweater for them. Because...I knew it wouldn't last. I had one chance to put them in wintry, Christmas-y clothes. :-) And, yep...today it is sunny...warming up at record pace speed. Oh well...I will still be drinking my hot chocolate. And, maybe the clothes that have been on the line under the porch for 3 days will finally get dry. :-)

Keep our youngest in your prayers. She has a rash of some sort that is in patches all over her body. We're not sure what it is, but we (along with the nurse we saw) are suspecting just some kind of food allergy. We were told to just give her all-natural food...no preservatives of any kind...until it clears up. Then we can work from there to make sure that's what this is and find out what she may be allergic to. We are praying for complete healing and that she doesn't end up being allergic to anything. So, we started that this morning...the all-natural foods only thing. We'll see how it goes. She shows absolutely no symptoms at all other than the rash that comes and goes in severity and spreads and then diminishes. There's no fever, no vomiting or lethargy, she doesn't scratch or even seem to notice that anything is out of the ordinary. She's running all over the place, busy as a bee as usual. For that we are thankful. But, she sure does look awful. :-) I'll keep you posted.

And now for some pictures of the last few days (unfortunately I didn't think to get a picture of us all dressed up before the party last night...when will I remember that it does NOT work to wait until even 5 minutes after we arrive...so funny how quickly the kids can get dirty)...

I am loving Grady's poses these days. I had an old scarf/blanket (whatever it was supposed to be) that I had started crocheting when Grady was a baby. Wasn't sure what I was going to ever do with it, but it came in handy the other day. When me and my brother were growing up, we had a Christmas countdown calendar. We had a strip of cloth decorated really nicely that we tied peppermint candy to and each day we got to get off a piece until the last piece on Christmas day. So, the other day I made a calendar for the kids. It's not nearly as nice looking as mine growing up (it was terribly makeshift) and they have to share their calendar, but of course they love it...it involves candy. They are so into Christmas too...really fun.


Christmas tree time!!
We love our Christmas tree skirt. It was actually a wedding gift from my cousin Joy. She even put pictures of me and Joel on it somehow (the cloth is pictures of us). Really cool.




Getting out their "Christmas treasure" (as Grady kept calling it)...
...the nativity scene. We LOVE our Little People nativity scene that sits on the table by the tree. L-O-V-E it.
All 3 of them working on it.

Maira and Hadley at the Christmas party last night.
Singing Christmas carols.
The kids' table at the party...they all migrated to that table together...we adults didn't put them there. That's Grady and Hadley, Michael and Maira, and another little friend Lucas (one of the student's sons...Rodrigo's son).
A sweet hug from the smallest Ebersole. You can see just a tiny bit the rash that was on part of her face at the time (it come and goes in different areas of her body)...under her left eye. It's red and sometimes has a welp.
A tired and unhappy girl...but still super cute in her sweater, mini-skirt, tights, and black patent leather shoes.

Me and Joel (and baby) last night right before we went to bed. We were so tired...you can tell it on our faces. It was after midnight already.