TGIF

I am trying to catch up so I am throwing everything from the past week into one post.  This week has been a little crazy.  All was well until Thanksgiving ended and then I was like "oh my, it's Christmas time!" (as if I haven't had a whole year to get ready).  I can get a little overwhelmed having to put away all the fall stuff, dig out the Christmas stuff, and get it all put out.  I like it but it's a lot of work.  We have guests coming in today so I was determined to get it done before the weekend.  And then there is homeschool and the stress of planning and making sure I stay on track to finish as scheduled by Christmas break.  It has just been one of those weeks where I feel like I can't get ahead. My mind is going a hundred miles an hour and my body is moving like a snail.  Calgon...!!!

I had a few photos that I forgot to add to our Thanksgiving post so I will start with them.  Here were two of our pre-Thanksgiving meals.

My boys loved these turkey waffles I served them for breakfast.

They also loved these "turkey" sandwiches.

We spent Black Friday making a visit to the La Aurora Zoo in Guatemala City with our new friends the Riddles.  The boys all had a blast being there together.  

ready to explore the zoo

feeding the fish at the zoo

One of their favorite parts of the day was the splash pad.  It took them a minute to want to get in it but once they did we could hardly get them out.  They loved it!

They got to ride the train without their parents which was a first for all of them and they thought they were so grown! 

We ate lunch at the food court and the kids got to play on the playground until time to leave.  The zoo has a great outdoor foodcourt and play area.  My boys love it.

One last photo in front of the big tree before parting ways.  We really enjoyed spending a few days with this family.  We are looking forward to seeing them again in a few weeks.

My boys playing with the kids at our mission house.  They were making homemade bubbles by mixing hand soup and water and then blowing it with pvc pipes.  They entertained themselves with this for the longest time.

On Saturday night David attended a service at Bro. Fito's church in Chiquimula.  They were having services all weekend long to celebrate their anniversary.

The church is on a dead end street so they blocked it off and had the service outdoors.  He went back again on Sunday night for the closing service.

On Sunday morning we all attended service at Bro. Elias's church in Chiquimula.  My boys always enjoy when we get to go there because they have a children's class that meets in the back.  We like it because we can sit down without them and enjoy the service.  We do not get to go often because David is usually teaching in the village on Sunday mornings so when we do it is a treat for us all.

When we went to pick them up they were not ready to leave.  That's a good sign.

They were eager to show us their papers and tell us all about the Bible story they learned. 

As I mentioned already we got our Christmas trees up this week.  I always have a big tree in the living room and then a smaller tree that is for the boys.  Their tree is filled with ornaments they have made over the years or ornaments that have been given to them.  They were so tickled this year to get to do their own tree almost completely by themselves.  They helped me with mine too- a lot more than I needed. ha

the boys decorating their tree

I let them put their ornaments wherever they wanted.  As you can see Ben wanted most of his hanging from the bottom.

My boys love having Christmas movie nights during December.  So far we have watched two movies.  Our first one of the season was Elf and it is our favorite.  I am sure we'll be watching it again a few more times before Christmas is over. 

Our Christmas tree with Elf playing in the background.  I love turning the lights out and just having the Christmas tree on. 

Another thing they love about Christmas movie nights is hot chocolate.  Well, Ben loves it.  Cruz always begs for it and then never drinks it. 

Speaking of hot our weather this week has been miserable.  This was from Wednesday afternoon.  I think the heat has been another reason I have been dragging this week.  It's just too hot to do anything!

We were in Muyurco on Thursday afternoon for Bible study.  Miguel went with us and led the order of service.  Most of our men are away right now picking coffee so it was mostly women and children.  It didn't stop us from having a great time of worship together.

Cruz leading a few songs in Bible study and Miguel singing along.

Pretend sword fighting when the service was done.  Miguel is like a big brother to my boys and they just adore him. 

Hooray, it's finally Friday!!!  The boys and I are home finishing up our week of school today while David is making a round trip to the airport to pick up our supervisor and his wife who are flying in from Mexico to visit us.  We are looking forward to hosting them. We'll be spending a few days showing them around our work area and introducing them to some of the people we work with.  It should be a fun few days.  I'll post about our time together one day next week.  Have a great weekend everyone!