Monday, November 24, 2014

          Hooray for Mondays when we can exercise outside!  The mornings here have been just beautiful and it is so refreshing to be outdoors and take it all in!  While I was walking, the engineers and their helpers loaded The Nativity pieces from the storage building into the back of a small pick-up and drove them down the hill with about seven men hanging out of the truck on all sides.  Of course, it is sunny and the grass is green, but having this scene set up makes it feel like Christmas. 

         At 1:00 p.m. we had a call from Sister Ocampo wondering where we were.  Our FHE friends were all down in the cafeteria waiting for us to start our Thanksgiving Dinner!  Oh, it was so embarrassing!  Glade thought they had said dinner started at 2:30 when actually it was 12:30.  We had planned to take mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing along with two pumpkin pies and a big apple crisp.  Thank goodness the desserts were done so we had something to take, but the potatoes, gray, and stuffing just went down as a lost cause.  We hurried to get ready in about three minutes and hurried down with sheepish quickness and our dessert offering.  They were all very forgiving and there was tons of food, so it all worked out. 

         Everyone had a chance to express their feelings of thanks around the table as dinner plates were filled by Sister Ocampo and passed to each of us.  Glade interpreted my expressions and the constant waiting for him to translate gave me time to keep composed and not get all “weepy.”  Someone brought a sound system and played Christmas music while we finished dinner, and it made for a very nice holiday atmosphere.

         Then, we learned that the missionary couples and presidency were going to sing for the Christmas dinner planned for the temple workers.  So we went upstairs and practiced “Hark the Herald Angels Sings” with my keyboard accompaniment.  At home, it would have been a simple practice since most people know the song and have sung harmony before.  However, this group hardly recognized the song and each part had to be practiced over and over.  Along with not knowing the song, most of them don’t have much experience with music and it is a challenge for them to hear a part and sing it.  All in all, it went quite well for the first practice.

         The Ocampos purchased a boxed Christmas tree and decorations for the lounge area next to our apartments and asked us all to help put it up and decorate it.  Obviously, this turned out to be a whole afternoon of activity.

         I hope you all had great Family Home Evening time with your families tonight!  Love them and treasure every minute you have together!  Good Night! 

The engineers and temple recorders were also invited to our dinner
which placed about 20 people around our table.  

The men were assigned to assemble the tree and they got right to it! 

Glade was reading the directions to make sure it went up right the first time,
but he said no one paid much attention; they just did it the way they wanted to :) 

Fluffing branches is definitely something I can do.

The tree is up and it's time for the ladies to help.  There were no lights--sad
for me since that is my favorite part of a Christmas tree--but
 the balls and ribbon were beautiful and colorful.

There were no hooks for the balls, so we just cut lengths
 of thread and tied loops through the tops.

He is pretty good at this!!!

We quickly lost the men and the ladies put on the finishing touches.  All done!!
From left:  Sister Navas, Sister Peterson, Sister Valle, Sister Gomez, Sister Amado.