What we did on our Christmas in the tropics, even though the city is not tropical!
Saturday we spent the morning cleaning, doing laundry and cooking. We had a late lunch and I baked fresh buns and Vernon grilled hamburgers. It was delicious! After lunch was all cleaned up, Jared went on his treasure hunt that the girls had made for him. We all followed behind and enjoyed the hunt with him. He was so excited and thrilled when he found the treasure, some fireworks. Since then, I have had more years scared off my life by sudden loud noises. My initial reaction is to jerk upright, open my mouth and yell as my right foot kicks. It seems to be entertaining for the others! The weather was so sunny and warm we all piled into the van and went to the park about 20 min. from here. It has green grass and pine trees and swings and a small zip line and hiking trails. We made use of all of them and also had fun with the Frisbee, creating our own special Frisbee throwing competition. After we got home, we had a special supper of snacks and then played an exciting and scary game of piggy wants a signal, in the dark. Vernon scared me so bad when I quietly opened a door and he was standing on the other side. We had so many laughs! Then we played games until the fireworks started. We kept rushing up to the open roof to check out the noise but when they really started, we knew! I have never in all my life seen such a show! We got a ladder and climbed up on a higher roof and the whole city was blazing with what looked like a grand finale that lasted for at least 45 minutes! The noise, smoke and lights were indescribable.
Sunday morning we had a relaxing morning and church started an hour later than normal. Brian preached about the innkeeper having no room and then asked us to look at our own lives, do we have time and room for Jesus? After church Craig made strawberry milkshakes to tide us over till our late lunch at two thirty. We had some pork meat that I roasted in the oven and then Vernon put it on the grill to give it the smoked flavor. It was delicious! We spent the evening relaxing and playing games and talking of our families and what they were doing today. Did I forget to mention the fresh fruit pizza we had for dessert? Yum!
That is what our Christmas in the tropics was like and we made some very precious memories and had a wonderful Christmas even though we felt some pangs of homesickness for our family back in the states!
