Hello and Happy New Year to you all!
Thought I would post a few quick photos before I head off on my next adventure. I am leaving tomorrow for a month long trip around Uruguay, Argentina and Chile! Right now school is on summer vacation, so I am going to take advantage of my vacation time and see more of South America! I will definitely be blogging and posting photos to Facebook - so stay tuned! =)
My sister left today after visiting with me for almost 2 weeks. We had a FABULOUS time together!
We spent Christmas with Yessi and her family (parents, brothers...). The tradition here is to eat a big meal at like 11pm on Christmas Eve. Then "ring in xmas" together at midnight. Then everyone opens their presents at midnight and sleeps for a lot of xmas day!

This is a picture of the mangers they have here. Most every house has one - they vary in size. But apparently you always leave fruit out for Baby Jesus to eat.



This is a drink we had that night called “clerico.” It is wine, chopped up fruit (apples, pineapple, bananas…) and then usually soda or juice – ours had soda. It was quite tasty!




However, I did bring the Christmas cookie decorating tradition to Paraguay. My mom was nice enough to send down all the fun goodies to decorate the cookies (everyone LOVED LOVED the red hots!) Most of you have participated in that with me, so you know how fun it can be! Everyone loved it down here as well! In fact, Yessi said that I am required to send her the cookie decorations every Christmas so that she can keep the tradition going!




After xmas, Anne and I headed off to see the Iguazu Waterfalls together. It really is just a beautiful place. There are a series of multiple waterfalls. It rained a bunch that morning, so it was a bit foggy/misty that day. But they were STILL so gorgeous!



We got completely soaked from all the mist and the rain, but it was worth it when a butterfly landed on my shoulder and started drinking some of the water from my shirt – SOO COOL!






While we were in Brazil we ate a fun dessert called Tapioca. It seems to basically be Brazil’s version of the crepe, but it is made from tapioca. They cook the powder on the grill first and then fill it with sweet or savory items. We went for strawberries, chocolate, coconut and condensed milk – SUPER yummy! (Anne and I have decided that unlike people in the US, the latins definitely have a love affair with Dulce de Leche and condensed milk! LOL)



For New Year’s we ate dinner with some friends at another couple’s house. Apparently everyone is supposed to wear white for New Year’s Eve, which is why we are in all white here.
After everyone had rung in New Year’s with their families, (about 1am), everyone (mostly singles from church, but a few marrieds too) started coming over to this house to get the party started. I danced until about 4am. We left after that though since we had just gotten back from Brazil that day. I am told though that people continued to stay and dance well after 6am! We slept for most of New Year ’s Day! LOL





Frank and Liz, the kids and Anne and I all went to a small town nearby called Aregua. We ate at this nice restaurant outside. It is mango season here and there are mangos everywhere. There seem to be two types of mangos. One is huge and purplish on the outside – probably the type most of you are familiar with. The other type is smaller and more yellow. The problem with this type is that it is very stringy inside the skin and therefore hard to eat the fruit/juice. Frank taught us the best way to eat them. You first knead the fruit. Then tear a small piece off the top and just squeeze/drink all the yummy juice out. I am officially addicted!

We also visited the lake nearby – very pretty.The water was super warm, but apparently not super clean!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday with friends and family!
I can’t wait to post photos from my trip!
hugs