Christmas in Costa Rica!

 Papa White Hair and Grandma J visited us over Christmas!  Seeing their faces at the airport was the beginning of many, "man this is awesome!" moments during the week.  One of the days we visited an active volcano (pictured to the left).  During our time a the National Park we were able to do some hiking which was a true highlight for these Colorado Ferry's living in Costa Rica!  Reese added in an extra measure of fun with her hiking-wresting hybrid.  

Never boring!

Back at home in San Jose we spent Christmas Eve making 6 pies, black bean brownies for Santa (yes, you read that right...), a birthday cake for Jesus, graham cracker gingerbread houses, poinsettia centerpieces from egg cartons and coffee filters, and egg carton Christmas trees.  We were super crafty and enjoyed time together chatting, laughing and creating.

Another day during Christmas break we visited the Doka Coffee Estate.  We learned that Doka exports 80% of its coffee to Starbucks!

It was a big day as Georgia and Reese tasted coffee for the 1st time.  Chris and I are so proud being HUGE coffee drinkers ourselves.  I'm not sure they'll be drinking it daily but we rest at night knowing we have at least paved the path for them to enrich their life with the magic bean of COFFEE!!!!  We take our parental duties very seriously.

Chris and Bob took time together to chat and catch up.  Bob's constant presence in his son's life has been a great stabilizing factor and Chris is grateful for his continued presence as we life abroad. We praise God that Bob and Judy were able to come and share in the Costa Rica phase of our journey towards Ecuador.

Tina spent much of the Christmas break in the kitchen cooking three meals a day for our family and visitors.  Now before you say, "Poor Tina!" remember that cooking is one of her favorite hobbies.  So, this time was spent in great joy and having Grandma J do all the dishes made it all the sweeter!!

In the end, Christmas week was a sweet time of family and celebration.  Although we didn't have a "real tree" or snow or all of our family and friends present the Reason for the Season remained.  Jesus.  The Greatest Gift of All.  We enjoyed celebrating His birth in new and different ways this year in Costa Rica.  This year we had carrot and pineapple birthday cake adorned with our homemade poinsettia centerpieces...  Feliz Navidad from Costa Rica!

Trimester One - Done!!

Trimester 1 of our 3 trimester year of language learning is complete!!  We've included pictures of Tina standing with each of our teachers (we had the same 3 teachers but different class schedules).

 This trimester was full of mistakes, progress, patience, growth, frustration, sleeplessness, hope, victory and so much more!  We learned to "trust the process", to persevere and have faith in God's character and strength even if we grow tired and weary.

We have also been striving to choose gratitude in the midst of hardship.  This is a hard process but we count it as a total gift and a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Who can complain about that?!  (Well, sometimes we can but that's where grace comes in isn't it?)

God blessed us this trimester with teachers who seek to please God with their work.  Each of them view their work as an opportunity to equip missionaries to share the love and grace of God with all of Latin America.  Their patience, heart and consistent presence were a huge gift and stabilizer during this stretching time.

Shortly after our trimester ended Chris made his way to Nicaragua to renew his tourist visa.  This trip was made with two other Chris'.  Just imagine all the jokes told about 3 Chris' headed to the border.  They were truly endless!  The three Chris' spent over 16 hours on a public bus, 4 of which were spent waiting at the border for clearance.  Chris (Ferry) specifically begrudged the bus music-soundtrack of Celine Dion.  He made jokes about a new form of torture - bus border crossings with Celine Dion...a recipe to make any guilty party confess on the spot!

While Chris was in Nicaragua the girls and I enjoyed a quiet girls-only weekend.  We read books, snuggled, played chase, cards and more.  This was a sweet time for us but we were very glad to have Daddy back home!!  As a gift, we promised him no Celine Dion music for the next year.

Turkey Fruit, Meat and Time With Grandparents Can't Be Beat!

Thanksgiving has been "tropicalized" in the Ferry house!  It's been such fun to tweak some of our home traditions and adapt them to our new environment.  Also, it was a great opportunity to use Spanish when trying to explain to the deli counter employee that you are making a turkey out of fruit and cubed cheese and lunch meat.  Lots of laughter, side stepping, back stepping and in the end... Turkey Fruit!!

Each of the girls were able to share their tropical turkeys with their class and kicked off our tropical Thanksgiving of 2014.

We were also incredibly thankful to have Papa Whiskers and Grandma Ibsen visit from Colorado.  They came bearing gifts of toothpaste (we have a couple picky toothpaste users!), packages sent by churches, friends and so much more.  It was like an early Christmas.  Mostly, however, our most cherished moments were the ones spent snuggling, chatting, laughing and updating on the normal ins-and-outs of every day life here in Costa Rica and in Colorado.

Grandma spent time with the girls making a Christmas train out of cereal boxes, glitter, ribbon and other recycling bin finds! She also made an angel tree topper and ribbon garland.  All Christmas long we looked at them and played with them remembering our sweet time over Thanksgiving.  There is no one like a Grandma to bring warmth and love to the holidays...

And, now to get to the "meat" of the post.  (Hey! Don't groan. We need all the humor we can get!) Anyways, Great Grandma Ibsen took it upon herself to stock our freezer with meat that is hard to find, super expensive or just not up to quality here in Costa Rica. Ever since Thanksgiving we have been savoring each piece of bacon; enjoying each serving of spaghetti with italian sausage and more.  Little tastes of home have made this transition so much for "palatable". (C'mon! I had to throw one last groan-worthy word in...)