Although it really doesn't feel like Christmas to us here because of the weather and all, we have seen some pretty fun decorations around the city and thought we would share some of the things we see here. One good thing is that Brazil is a very Christian country so to have a nativity in the center of town is okay here. I really like this one even though it isn't typical. It is really pretty at night.
I got our own sorry little tree put up just in time for the new group of Elders that arrived a few weeks ago. It is a little lacking in decorations, but it looks okay at night when the lights are on.
There is a large round-about we drive through often with this large tree in the center. It is made of fabric on some large metal frame. At night, they have colored lights shine up through the middle and is really looks neat.
I had to take a picture of the painted snowman on the windows of this mattress store, which, by the way, there are tons of in this city. I was surprised that a snowman would mean Christmas to people here since most of them have never seen snow. I was also surprised to see the painted windows like we have at home too.
I guess Santa doesn't come down the chimney here since there aren't any. He just sneaks in over the balcony.
This "tree" was colorful and caught my eye. I think it is at the headquarters for one of the groups of native people here. I don't know anything about them, but I thought the tree was pretty funky.
This big snowman is made of painted 2 liter bottles. It is actually sort of tacky looking, but I thought it was an accompishment of sorts.
I took pretty lousy pictures the night we were in the old Centro part of the city. I sort of liked the idea of the huge bow on the building though.
Another lousy picture...sorry. It was pretty in real. The lighting on the building is pretty and each balcony had a huge wreath on it that was lit up too. I don't know what the building is, but during December they open the balconies on all the windows and young people that are dressed in Christmas hats, etc. sing and dance. There are two in each window. I think they really might be lip syncing, but it is still really showy and sounds good. That actually got us in the Christmas mood. I think we will try to go again when our family comes down in a few days.
I have no idea what this guy was up to. He was just standing on the street as we passed by one evening. I don't know why he is wearing a green Santa suit. Maybe his red one was dirty.
FELIZ NATAL (Merry Christmas) everyone. It is still okay to say that in Brazil.
There is nothing quite like a missionary choir. This is one of the zones singing at the conference.
Alan has been busy making fudge. It is a hit down here. I really don't know how many batches he has made, but it is a lot.
I love this kid. Besides the fact that I don't understand Portuguese very well, he has a pretty heavy lisp. I don't understand hardly a word he says, but I always understand his smile.
We had to say goodby to two of our really great sisters on the same day. The one on the left will be back ,if everything goes well, after she gets her ankle fixed. The one on the right is headed for BYU. 
This is a picture of some of the missionaries in the musical devotional getting on the bus to go to Sobral. They were a great group. 
Alan is chatting with everybody after our lunch at the restaurant in Sobral. That long table of missionaries drew a lot of stares that day.
You can't go wrong with the candy bar game. Frankly, I don't think they make a candy bar down here that I would want to steal, but the elders had a lot of fun playing it.
This overturned truck was on the road to Sobral when we went out last week. It had a load of logs that were all over the place. It probably swerved trying to miss a big pot hole or a goat or something. Just another verification of the reason we don't like to drive that road. It was still on the road when we went back about 6 hours later.
I had to take this picture while we were cooking for the conferences. All six of the burners were on and the oven was on too. Can you say sweat? We were dripping.
