A Costa Rican Christmas

I don't quite know how to put into words my feelings about Christmas this year. I have loved the simplicity of it. I have loved the non-exposure to all the commercialism. I have loved the peace and the calm of the season. I have loved seeing the smiles on the faces of people who have nothing and I have loved the chance to focus on what we are giving rather than what we are getting. Every year since our kids have been old enough to know what Christmas was all about, Lane and I have wanted to somehow create the environment that would allow the real meaning of Christmas to really sink into their hearts and do something more service oriented...creating a memory that would stay with them forever. I think every parent has this same wish at some time or another.
Living here in Costa Rica provided a very natural opportunity for this to happen this year. We started off our Christmas Eve morning by making a delicious mess in the kitchen with some homemade cinnamon bran muffins that Mariah's roommate got her hooked on. The wonderful smell mixed with some good Christmas music and that was all it took to get us all in the holiday spirit. Up until this point, we were finding it a little hard to wrap our brains around the fact that it indeed was Christmas, since we have been going to the beach, the pool and running the AC.
Late in the afternoon, we loaded up the car with many bags of muffins, jam, toys, as much food as we could fit in the empty spaces....practiced our carols on the way and started making our many stops to those on our Christmas list. It was a wonderful night and we were met with smiles and thankful hearts. We all came home "full"....and I was thankful that no one even complained that we did not even have a Christmas Eve dinner. I think we all got full on bran muffins as we were baking. I snuck a cookie off of Santa's plate just before I headed to bed.
Even though it was after 9pm, the kids put on their costumes and we had a nativity, complete with a song at the end from Lora. The little girls sprinkled the "snow"around the christmas tree that they had been making for weeks by cutting up white plastic grocery bags, and then it was time for bed.
Even though I am well into my forties, I still find it hard to sleep on Christmas Eve. I was excited to watch Lora open the panda bear that she has been dreaming of...Emma to get her doll ( love that she is still little enough to want one), excited to talk to our missionary son, and mostly excited to load up the car again in the morning and take another load to the sweet family up the road, who I know were not expecting a thing for Christmas. We were fortunate enough to be able to do all of this because of the generosity of many people in the states who heard about the Costa Rican Christmas Project that one of my friends in the branch was involved with here. She had a great response and so we were able to combine our efforts with her efforts and bring a wonderful Christmas to this family.
I hope the pictures will help to convey the feelings. I know that it is a Christmas we will always remember. I wish every year could be like this.
The day got even better as we were able to skype with Elder Martinsen. Yes! Video Skype! Guess that is one of the benefits they give you when your family lives in a 3rd world country with no phone. He was just glowing...so happy! The hour went too fast and I am glad it wasn't me who had to push the little red button to hang up or we would probably still be talking. He is the obedient missionary though, and kept it to an hour. (this is one time when I wished he would be a slacker on the rules). The next time we hear his voice will be in person when we pick him up from the airport in 3 short months.
We had the missionaries for dinner, got them back to the bus on time... and at the moment, the kids are dropping one by one like flies...falling asleep. It has been a long, but beautiful day. Thank you to our amazing families who sent wonderful goodies and packages and for all of you that remembered Alex...thank you. He was overwhelmed with the gifts and love from home for him.
I love this time of year when the excitement of giving is just in the air. I hope this Costa Rican Christmas will always be part of us and no matter where we find ourselves in the world, or no matter what our circumstances will be, we will remember the joy of giving and that the smallest Christmas can make the biggest impact.

These are our neighbors up the road....Grandma Anna, mother Betty and her 8 children. Two of the girls were not here when we made our delivery.

Getting ready to make our Christmas morning delivery

Christmas Eve delivery to Gertrudis and her daughter Norena. Single mom...sweetest lady ever.

Ready to head out on Christmas Eve.

We were met with a flat tire this morning. Oh well, Santa had it fixed in no time.

Tire is fixed and we are loaded up with goods.

Sorry these pictures are a little out of order, but I am too tired to fix them. You can get the idea of our last 48 hours. We are so blessed and love you all. FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

And she is here!!

I have been so preoccupied with my Christmas present that I haven't even taken the time to post about her arrival until now. Ahhhhh....I still have to pinch my self that she is really here. It is like a very important piece of our family puzzle was just missing and now it feels so much more complete. Just one more piece to go and then we will be whole again.
The five of us had so much anticipation as we waited for her plane, which ended up being about 30 minutes late. Painful.
Then, as she describes on her blog, we had to sit and watch her struggle with her bags as we were not allowed to run and hug her and help her like we wanted to. It was like having a chocolate bar dangling in front of your nose for 15 minutes and not being allowed to devour it. As soon as we spotted her making her way towards us we all just wanted to run and grab her and squeeze her to death, but no....we had to stand and wait and...wait....
Oh well, it was all worth it when we finally got to put our arms around her! She has more pictures on her blog of our reunion.
Mariah has always been the "glue"between my kids that just keeps them together and happy and I am happy to see that she still has that affect on them. They absolutely adore her and she adores them.
I know that there will be some challenges for her as she tries to adjust to our life here in a third world country and for a girl who is used to a schedule, being productive, and busy....I know that our slow paced life here will be very different for her.
I am just so happy to have her back with us a for a few months. She is a good example to all of us in many ways, she is helpful, happy, selfless, positive....and my best girlfriend.

Simple Christmas Wishes

This poster that Emma made touches me every time I pass by it as it hangs on our wall....
Before she was quite finished up with it, she came to me for my opinion as to what she should add. I suggested maybe she could fill in some space by adding some more presents under the tree. Her reply was, "I already have 4, one for each of us. That is enough." (guess mom and dad aren't getting anything this year??)
I am thankful that the real meaning of Christmas has somehow made its way to her heart this year. Here, in CR with so much need around us, we have been trying to prepare the kids for a much different kind of Christmas this year. Love the "MARRY Christmas" ha ha


This was a poster that Lora did. Love it too.

I am feeling so blessed that I will have 4 of my gifts with me this year...Mariah, Abram, Lora and Emma.
And of course Mr. Clause as well...wouldn't be Christmas without him.
Emma's Christmas wish will come true this Friday at 3:00pm in the Liberia, Costa Rica Airport!!
It is going to be a wonderful Christmas.

All creatures great and small

Isn't this amazing? We took our flashlights down to the beach tonight just hoping to spot some turtle tracks in the sand that would lead us to a mother turtle burying her eggs.....and sure enough, we were able to witness this beautiful creature doing just that. It was just incredible.'This is nesting season for them and then in a couple months the babies will hatch and maybe we will get to see that event as well, as the babies make their way to the beach.

This MONSTER lives in the church yard and usually stays up in the trees but he made a showing sunday after everyone had left except us and the missionaries. They turned into 2 little boys and were running around chasing him and finally caught him by the tail! You can't see the whole tail here but all in all he is at least 5 feet long! Amazing!!

This little guy we rescued from the middle of the road on the way to church. Lora is in heaven now that she has a pet. She said, "I love Costa Rica, cuz you can get pets for FREE!"
He lives in our garage now and his name is Ellsworth.

And last but not least, this tiny fella was in the shower with me tonight. He lost his tail in a tragic accident when the shampoo bottle fell on it! This is the smallest gecko we have seen yet.
I feel like I am living in the middle of a zoo here in CR. Pretty awesome to have all of these creatures around us. I know my little nephew Connor would just be in heaven!

Glimpses of our life

Here are some random pictures of recent events and daily activities happening here in La Casa Amarilla ( the yellow house)... as the weeks go by, we settle into life here more and more and are becoming more attached to people and places that we have forged bonds with.

Love these moments when Lora wants to take over as "teacher" for Emma. She is actually really good at it and it gives me a break.

This is our wonderful Branch President who also serves as a Spanish teacher for the girls once a week.

Walking through the forest to one of our favorite pools to get a little family exercise.
This pool belongs to a friend of ours and there is never anyone there, so we get it all to ourselves.


This is my dear friend Neida Pina. She had a birthday this past week and so we had her over for her birthday dinner. She requested my chicken pasta salad and her husband's Peach Cheesecake!

This is our sweet branch president, President William Lopez, my handsome esposo and Jose Pina. The three amigos. They serve in the Branch Presidency together.

Love this sweet lady!


Love this sweet little person


This is Abe's new friend "SANDY" that he created for himself at the beach

El guapo muchacho!

Another beautiful sunset to end a perfect day at the beach

This is our favorite little "Tico"restaurant that is owned by a member of the Branch . We go here now and then after a day at the beach. This is also where we hold sacrament meeting for the small group of members in Brasilito now and then.

Savor the moments

This week was just full of good moments and I found myself thinking many times..."I need to tuck this moment away in my special box and keep it forever." I remember when we met the Ballantine family very early on in our adventure at the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border, they told us that we would see changes in our family that we would treasure and that there would be priceless moments. I am starting to recognize those things now and am trying to savor every moment. There are so many things that I can't put into words and so many things that I wish I could capture with a camera that I can't. I love the way my kids are becoming such good friends and they find things to do together that they would never have thought of before. They make up skits, dances,songs, games...all kinds of things. Yes, they still have their fair share of sibling rivalry too but life wouldn't be normal without a healthy dose of that right?
We had a few days of rain again this week and those are the days where we have learned to enjoy staying in and reading together...playing outside in the rain or watching dad's favorite show together (The Andy Griffith Show). All 5 of us took a little walk out in the pouring rain with our umbrellas and I think the look on the guard's face was pretty funny as we passed by his little guard house. ha ha...crazy family that must come from Arizona where they never get to play in the rain!
I have reflected this week on what wonderful people we have met here. People that have been in this world my whole life that I never would have met had we not come here. I love that people have a way of enriching your life so much and it always makes me get this ancy feeling inside that I wish I could move to a million different places and meet all the friends that are waiting there for us to meet! I just LOVE meeting new people and learning what I can from them. I think every single person has something about them that we can learn from.
We have already shed some tears with friends here as we all talk about the time when this journey will end for us. It is hard to get close to people and leave, but then the pain is worth it, so I wouldn't change a thing.
The holidays are upon us and we are looking forward to celebrating them differently this year. We didn't bring any holiday items from home so we will have to get creative and embrace the culture here....the girls have already been spending some free time cutting up white plastic grocery sacks into itty bitty pieces so that we can have "snow" around our Charlie Brown tree.
We will be putting that up this week since Lora is about ready to jump out of her skin she is so excited about it! I already told them that this year, the tree is their project and anything goes....normally I am a little bit of a control freak about the tree and although I let them help, I prefer to re-do it after they go to bed. Nope, not this year...I am learning to let go a little and relax. This is a good thing. I think this "Pura Vida" life is growing on me.

A Tico Style Wedding

This past Saturday night we had a wedding in the branch. This couple was supposed to be getting baptized as well right after the wedding but that got pushed back another week, so we just had the wedding. Our girls were very excited because this would be the first wedding they had ever been to!
This couple getting married comes from extremely poor circumstances as is the norm here, so a few sundays ago, we had a meeting after church and someone wrote down on the whiteboard all the ingredients that we needed to make the wedding cake and then people volunteered as to what they could bring. Someone else donated all the rice and beans for the "main course". I was very touched as I saw this take place and saw many people who have nothing, be willing to make the sacrifice to donate ingredients for a cake so that this couple could have a wedding.
It was very simple and humble but this couple had a wonderful evening and the bride's family especially was very touched that the church was so willing to help. None of them are members of the church. (yet)
Lane thought the whole "Tico Style" wedding reception was genious and thinks that our kids should follow suit. Ha ha...I don't think that will fly with them, but it was good for our three youngest to see that things can still be special when hardly any money is spent. As I was taping thin kleenex like paper over these old falling apart wooden tables for the food, and trying to keep the flowers from toppling over because they were only one or two stems stuck into a piece of foam, serving the wedding cake onto napkins because they had no more plates or forks.... I was once again humbled by all that we have and how much we take for granted. I hope that these experiences will stick with our family forever and we will learn lessons of gratitude and to be happy no matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in.

...and the rain stops

Well, we woke up this morning to a nice surprise...blue skies and sunshine! It seems like a long time since we have had anything but rain so we decided to take advantage of it and take a day trip to a place we hadn't been before. The missionaries needed our help moving them into a new apt. so we stopped first in Santa Cruz to help them. After leaving them, we were on the road to Nicoya and we noticed another set of missionaries walking along the road, so we pulled over and offered them a ride. Turns out that they had been taking a bus to Santa Cruz to meet up with our missionaries and their bus broke down so they were walking! Have no fear, the Martinsens are here!! They were pretty happy that we were driving by at that moment. We gave them a ride to the nearest bus stop and sent them on their way. I know I have said this before on my blog, but there is just something about seeing missionaries in foreign countries that warms my heart. I just love them.

So, next stop was Nicoya and we were getting hungry at this point and lo and behold what do we see in Nicoya but this totally GHETTO Burger King! It is actually an old bus that they have converted into a kitchen and the "dining room" and "kids play area" is under the covered patio. ha ha... We had lunch and a few laughs at how funny it was.
Next we drove through Nicoya about 30 minutes down the road to the beach in Samara. By that time it was not too far from getting dark so we didn't play in the water but had alot of fun exploring all the little tiendas and souvenir shops.(thank you Lane for being patient while me and the kids looked at EVERTHING!) We picked up a few Costa Rican trinkets to send Alex for Christmas. He will need some of those right?
The drive was a little long but really beautiful and fun to see part of the country that we hadn't seen yet. Aside from Lane accidentally driving the wrong way on a one way street for a minute, we had a great day and got home safe and sound.
I have no idea why my pictures for this post would not load...I tried for an hour and gave up. Oh well, just imagine a ghetto BK and cute kids shopping for souvenirs.

Halloween in Costa Rica

Well, here in Costa Rica Halloween is not really a big deal...they are already well into the Christmas festivities and decor around here, but our kids did not really want to miss out so they got creative and made some great Halloween decorations to put around the house anyway. I had no idea they could be so original with toilet paper, string, a paper towel tube, etc...
Since they don't trick or treat here AND it fell on a Sunday, Lane and I decided to have a little activity that we called "scripture treating". Since we have 4 bedrooms, we came up with a theme for each room and had the kids go room to room where we had a short gospel related lesson and a treat. The best part was hearing Lora SCREAM FOR JOY when she saw that we actually had Reeses PB cups in the bowl!! (thank you thank you Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Shawn for sending a box of candy that arrived just in the nick of time!) The kids thought this was alot of fun and were happy that they didn't miss out on the "spirit" of Halloween! Actually they said it was the best Halloween ever. works for me!

Visit to the Hot Springs

Last Saturday we were looking for something to do outside of our daily routine, so we decided to take a little day trip and visit some beautiful Hot Springs near a volcano. It was a little rainy, but it was a really fun thing to do and the kids had never seen anything like this before so it was fun to see their excitement. There were several natural pools here and some of them were even too hot to get in. Pretty amazing to watch the steaming hot water flow into them. The lighting was not that great for pictures but we took lots anyway.

The Yellow Raft

I don't know why these pics would not load on the previous post...but here they are.