Christmas Costa Rican Style

This Christmas provided us with many new experiences.  

We didn't quite feel like it was Christmas, and we missed our family deeply.  

However,  it was a grand party here in San Francisco de Dos Rios that felt much more like a 4th of July celebration back home.

The party started the first weekend in December with a street fair in the park located one block from our apartment.  There were people selling crafts, food, and live music all afternoon and evening.  With a cool breeze wafting through the open windows, we enjoyed listening to the music each evening.  The festivities ended on Sunday night with a grand fireworks show.  

No matter where you go in San Jose, you will find manger scenes in all the public places.  The grocery store near our house has a big manger scene right in front of the giant Christmas tree.  

One interesting fact - Baby Jesus isn't placed in the manger scene until Christmas Eve, so up until Christmas Eve the mangers are usually empty.  

Making tamales is another Costa Rican Christmas tradition.  Jim along with our new teammates, Dave  and Angie, were invited to a Tico family tamal-making evening (I was with the girls and grandbaby in AL).  Tamales here are a bit different in that they are square and wrapped in plantain leaves.

After attending services at our church, Christmas Eve was spent with just the two of us in our apartment.  I'm sure you are picturing the two of us celebrating quietly at home, but your picture isn't correct.  Nope, we were introduced to another Latin American tradition - fireworks to celebrate Christmas Eve.  We're not talking about a few sparklers and black cats in the backyard, but real honest-to-goodness fireworks.  After eating with the family on Christmas Eve, the Costa Rican families celebrate with their own fireworks shows.  It started about 8:00 p.m. and lasted until well after midnight.  In addition to fireworks, we experienced dogs barking at the fireworks, and car alarms being set off by the fireworks. 

Our new experiences continued Christmas Day.  A fellow ReachGlobal missionary, Judy, invited Dave, Angie, Jim  and me to Christmas dinner.  We had delicious grilled pork with mango salsa along with other great food on the patio in 70 degree weather. 

Need to wash your hands?  Here you go!

Our celebration culminated with a trip to the fiesta in Zapote - another Christmas tradition here.  Many families spend the evening of Christmas Day at the opening of the fiesta.  Again, it felt more like the 4th of July with tons of carnival rides, food venders, and carnival games.  The highlight of this fiesta is the bull fighting that takes place throughout the entire week between Christmas and New Years Day. We didn't go inside the ring to watch, but we were able to watch all the action on a giant TV screen outside the bullring.

Christmas is a celebration here, and we look forward to having friends and family come celebrate with us next year.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Fun Stuff

The day after graduation, Jim left for Nicaragua, so I decided to try to fly stand-by to Alabama where I could see several of my favorite people at once.  I was successful in securing a seat on both planes, and I arrived to a house full of loved ones.  

I planned to take many pictures, but playing with Baby Wilson was a much higher priority. 

I'm having to get all my silliness out now, because in just a few short years my granny games will cause Wilson terrible embarrassment.  However, we had a great time being silly!

I had a bit of culture shock returning to the U.S.  When I deplaned in Atlanta, the number of white people was shocking - there were so many!  This is not my new normal at all.  I also found myself struggling to remember that I could flush the toilet paper.  It's amazing how quickly you can adjust to a new way of living.  I know that prayers of friends and family have helped with the transition in Costa Rica, and God has graciously put us in a place where we feel at home.

Costa Rica is an amazingly beautiful country.  We accompanied a team from Dallas to a retreat in Quepos, and the team spent a few hours at the beach one afternoon.  This is a pic I took, so you can imagine how much more beautiful it was in person.   This was our first time at the beach, so we look forward to visiting again when we can stay longer and enjoy the beauty.

We Are Officially Graduates

Instituto de Lengua Española

Although our language learning is far from over, we have completed our time in language school.  YAY!!  We have benefitted tremendously from our time at the language school, and we have had amazing teachers.  We are thankful for the opportunity to spend focused time learning Spanish. 

However, we are excited to be able to engage more actively in ministry.

Our graduating class

Our Costa Rican pastor - speaker @ graduation

We are deeply grateful for the prayers and support during this past 11 months.  The difficulties we have faced have and the opposition from the enemy have given us assurance that learning Spanish is critically important to our ministry here in Latin America.  

  We were blessed to share our celebration at the language school with most of our ReachGlobal teammates, and . . .

they took us to lunch at a soda (small restaurant) owned by one of Jim's ESL students.

Again, thank you for being a part of this journey with us!