You Can Call Me Grams

Is this not a darling little face?

Love the crazy hair too.

He was born Jan. 13.

He can already make spit bubbles.

Alan says he is excellent.

For more pics, head here. 

So This Was Christmas

I was feeling guilty for complaining about the lack of Christmas blogs when I hadn't posted anything about our Christmas, so here it is:  This picture, taken from the car, is the best one I got of the big fabric tree in the praca this year. It really doesn't do it justice, but it's the best one I got.

On the eighth of December we said good-bye to quite a large group of elders. It was a really good group and we were sad to see them go, but excited for them to be moving on in their lives.

The next day we received another group of newbies. Only the Brazilian missionaries that were scheduled to come made it that day. Actually they didn't arrive until night. There was a flood in Sao Paulo and they couldn't get to the airport to make the flight they were supposed to take. They finally arrived at about 7:30 at night; about 8 hours late. We didn't even get the North American missionaries that were supposed to arrive in this group. They had visa problems and were stuck in the MTC in Provo until just a couple of days before Christmas. Eight more missionaries was a pretty good Christmas gift we thought.

We got another good Christmas gift; a visit from Mom and Ellen. As you can see the trip made Mom a little tired. She sort of crashed the first day, but rebounded nicely.  Alan drove us to see the site for the temple that will be built here.  We took a drive along a road with a pretty ocean view too.  I hadn't warned them sufficiently about all the trash and  graffiti they would see.  That took them back a bit, but being lovers of trees and flowering bushes, they could still see the beauty in the area.

This picture is out of order a bit as to how things really went, but I suppose it doesn't really matter that much. I took them to see a few of the tourist spots in Fortaleza. The mural behind them is made of little tiles; probably less than a square inch each. We drove past some other interesting spots in the city, but....

Ellen was pretty sick and really didn't feel like getting out for a bunch of photos. She spent most of two whole days on the couch or her bed.

We did drag her to the mall one day and took a picture of her in front of her grandson's, James, favorite birthday meal restaurant, Subway.  She didn't feel like eating anything, but she was game for the picture. We had gone to the beach that morning too, but didn't get any pictures.  We didn't stay too long and just waded.  Ellen wasn't up to getting in the waves. 

 

While Ellen was sick, Mom checked her e-mail and had time for a few forwards. Don't you love how she fits in Alan's chair?


I finished piecing a little quilt top for neto#1.  Mom and Ellen said  my sisters would help get it quilted and bound.  I hope they don't mind being volunteered. I would do it myself, but quilt batts, quilt frames, and other quilting type stuff is not to be found in Fortaleza.  They don't have to worry about keeping babies warm here. 

Finally by Wednesday, Ellen was back on her feet. She wasn't feeling great, but I had asked her to help me make doughnuts while she was here and she did. We gave some to our stake president's family. (They had been to the U. S. and had mentioned that they really loved the doughnuts there.) Irene took a bunch to her family. Alan took a bunch to some of the missionaries and the people that work in our building. I ate 3, Mom had 2, and Ellen had a doughnut hole. I know, she can be such a pig sometimes.

Mom did her part putting the maple icing on some of them. You can see my attempt at the glazed ones in the background. I didn't quite get that down. I may have to practice some more.

The night before they left, we went to the market by the beach so Ellen could get all her grandkids a little something from Brazil. She has 17 of them, so it was no small chore. It was fun even though we got sweaty. Mom said she  thought she saw half of the 2 and 1/2 million people that live in Fortaleza that night. I doubt she really did, but there were a lot of people there.

The next day Ellen came to the cooking rescue again.  She fixed Cordon Bleu for us and for four missionaries.  Two were heading home in between transfers so they can start school on time and one of them had mentioned that he really liked Cordon Bleu.  I had never fixed it before, but I knew Ellen had, so I enlisted her help.  She said it wasn't that hard, but I think her definintion of "not that hard" must be a little different than mine. 

The week went by so fast and it was so good to see them and have them here for Christmas.  I felt bad about Ellen getting sick, but we really think it was something she brought with her and wasn't something she picked up here.  (We don't want to scare any potential visitors off.)  I hope they had a good time and thought it was worth all the effort to get here.  I just got a phone call that they had arrived in Grant.  Back, safe, home again.

One Big Question

Where are all the Christmas blogs? I know you are having parties without us, but NO ONE has blogged about a party, a dinner, a gift, or even a holiday family fight. We're thousands of miles away, you know, and we would like to know what's been going on.

What about all you guys with little kids? I know you took pictures on Christmas and couldn't you post a few?

Happy New Year! anyway, even if you are a bunch of slackers.

Merry Christmas, Do I Know You?

Sunday, as we were just finishing lunch, the intra-apartment phone rings and the man downstairs says, "There is someone here with a gift for you." We like gifts so we said, "Sure, send them up."
We do a little spiffing up in the living room and wait, wondering who it could be. The phone rings again. Alan answers, listens, hangs up and says, "I guess they want you to go down to get it." I like gifts so I said, "Sure, I'll go."
I head down. When I get out of the elevator, I look for a familiar face. I don't see one, but there is a smiling face and it is smiling right at me. A little lady starts speaking to me and hands me a package wrapped in Christmas paper. I try to ask her who she is and why she is giving me a gift and if she is sure I am the person for whom the gift is intended. I wonder if she is delivering it for someone else and is making a mistake. She keeps talking.
I understand some of what she is saying. I know Natal is Christmas. I know para voce means; for you. She wants me to open the package and read the card, which I notice is a "Congratulations on your marriage" card. On the inside of it she has written a Christmas greeting. The puzzled lines on my face deepen.
She asks me if I am Catholic. I answer , No. I am a member of A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias. That seems okay with her and she continues wishing me Feliz Natal. The gate man at the front of the building is also taking part in the conversation. He assures me that she means for me to take the gift. I like gifts, so I take it. I thank her and wish her a Merry Christmas too.
When I get back in the apartment I try to explain to Alan what just happened. We decide he should go down and talk to the man in front and try to clear things up a bit. In a few minutes he comes back about as confused as I was.

Here are pictures of some of the gifts from our secret pal.

An embroidered tablecloth, with matching table runner and placemat.

Alan's favorite: a cover for the water bottle that matches the tablecloth and other things.
(Actually he is not a fan of covers for appliances. He says it's definitely an old lady thing.)

My personal favorite: The catholic charms and the St. Francis of Assisi, or possibly the Pope, key chain. We also got two apron/bibs for wine bottles and 3 nice dish towels, and a picture of the Helena, the gift giver.

I really don't mean to make fun of the gifts or the giver. After all, isn't giving what Christmas is supposed to be all about? I'm just a little confused about the whole thing still. I found out that Helena lives in the building just behind us. Apparently she just felt like giving something to someone and did it. She was just being nice. But I would like to know how she settled on us as recipients. I keep looking over at the other building wondering what apartment is hers. Has she looked in on us from time to time? Were we fully dressed? How did she know we have a round table or did she know? Is she looking back at me right now? Wow, this is almost getting creepy.

I better quit thinking about it and just try to think of something nice I can do for someone at this Christmas season. Thanks for the reminder, Helena.

Branching Out

Last Saturday we went out to Juazeiro. Our flight got in early and we had a few minutes to spare, so we stopped by to see how the new chapel was coming along. It is the first real chapel in the district. Here is Alan in his suit. He looks a little more dressed up than he used to when he was checking construction jobs in Idaho. He really doesn't have anything to do or say about the construction of the chapel. We were just interested in seeing it.


There is a lot of cement involved and they do a lot of it one wheel barrow at a time.

It's hot in Juazeiro. A lot of the construction workers were wearing big straw hats with a hard hat on top. Sort of reminded me of the children's book, "Caps for Sale."

When we got to Zone Conference the Elders were in a pretty good mood. They might have suspected we were bringing cookies or something.

This is the outside wall around the "chapel" in Barbalha. It is a house that was reformed to serve as a church for the branch that was just started there. There will be a new sign, I think. This one was taken from another city where they just got a new church. The elders cleaned it up and stayed up a little past regular missionary bedtime to get it put on the front of the building before church the next morning. I kind of hope there will be a new color of paint on the outside wall too. All the paint on the inside is much more subdued and church-like. It all looked really nice except the outside wall. I didn't know if I should say anything, but I just couldn't help myself. I thought this was a little too French-looking or Scottish-looking. French as is French's mustard; Scottish as in McDonald's golden arches. I didn't say that though. I just suggested they use one of the colors they had used inside. This picture didn't really capture the intensity of the yellow. It really is pretty bright, but maybe it will draw attention and interest and turn out to be a good thing. I don't know. Any thoughts on the matter ?

This is the outside of the house/chapel itself. Elder Monteiro is one of the missionaries serving there. He goes home next week, so I wanted to get his picture. Every one of the missionaries serving there helped with the work on the building this week.
I don't think the chapel would have been ready without them working their tails off. They even got some cuts and blisters to show for it.

They rented a keyboard to use until we are able to get one. The only thing it was lacking was a stand for the book, but Elder Hirata filled in nicely. Elder Peterson plays very well and I didn't hear him miss a note, even if the book wasn't perfectly steady.

A group shot of the 6 missionaries, the branch president and wife, the district president and wife, Elder's Quorum president and some cute kids. There were 57 people there counting us. Too bad I didn't get a picture of everybody. Not bad for a little group that started out with about 6 people. Hopefully it will mature and grow and be strong. With a lot of faith and work, I'm sure it will come to pass.

3D F.H.E.

Last night we did something we don't do that often; actually, two things we don't do that often. We went to a movie and we had F.H.E. Okay, we went to the movie for F.H.E. but still...

We went with a family that is very good to us, the Cabrals. We had been to their house for dinner on Sunday. They had their Christmas tree up and decorated. I added "and decorated" since there have been some years when I got the tree up, but it took me a few weeks, okay, one year it took me until Christmas Eve, to actually get it decorated. ( It's always those dang lights that cause me grief! )

The Cabrals had the Christmas tablecloth and napkins on the table and Christmas decorations all around. We talked about Christmas music and Christmas traditions and just worked ourselves into a Christmas mood, which, I might add is no easy feat when you have such strong associations of winter weather with Christmas. Anyway, they mentioned that they planned to go to Disney's new version of "A Christmas Carol" for Family Home Evening on Monday night and would we like to come. Alan evaded a direct answer for a few minutes, since he does not like to commit on such matters until he knows if he is going to "feel like it," but the Christmas mood was pretty strong and got the better of him, and we said,"Yes."

It took close to an hour to get to the theater. It's not so far away, but it was a really busy time of night and the traffic was crazy. I was afraid the traffic, especially the crazy motorcyclists and the road-hoggin buses, would cause a deep dip in the Christmas spirit we were in, but we passed a couple of our Elders on the street as we were going, and that brightened the mood again. We honked and waved, and a few minutes later they called us to see what we were doing in their neck of the 'hoods. I sort of felt bad telling them we were going to a movie, but I didn't want to lie, and besides that, we have a different rule book than they do.

The movie was really fun. It was the first time either of us had seen a movie in 3D and we were both pretty impressed. The movie has a lot of "flying through the air" scenes and "chase" scenes and "things jumping out at you" scenes, which were really great in 3D. The 3D falling snow was pretty fun too. I will caution you that it is dark and scary in a lot of the movie and I would not take little kids. I also watched it in Portuguese and didn't understand a lot of it so I don't know about language either, but I doubt they would take too many liberties with this classic Dicken's story. It was a good thing I was familiar with the story or I'm pretty sure I would have been lost. Andrea Bocelli sang a beautiful Christmas song during the credits at the end and it made it worth just sitting there for that part too, even though there wasn't any 3D action going on then. At least I don't think there was. Maybe I took my glasses off and missed it, I don't know.

Rotten Tomatoes only rated it 57% fresh, but I think I would give it a "thumbs up." But of course, I'm in Brazil and everything gets a "thumbs up" here.

It is probably a little early to say Merry Christmas, but Happy Thanksgiving and "God bless us, every one!"

Fact or Fiction: The Man behind the Mystery

Happy Birthday, I won't say which one, to my one and only. On this occasion I thought it might be fun to play a little TRUE or FALSE trivia game so you can get to know the man behind the mystery a little better.

RUMOR: His bare feet have never touched the floor or ground. (See above picture.)
Only partially TRUE. They have never touched the floor or ground since we have lived here and never never in any hotel we've ever stayed in, even if we happen to stay in a really nice one.

RUMOR: He loves surprise parties.
FALSE: He threatens me every single year. And not to burst his bubble, but I don't even consider it anymore; haven't for years.

RUMOR: He can play the William Tell Overture.
TRUE: He plays it using his teeth and a pencil. He can play other tunes too, but the Overture is the most impressive.

RUMOR: He hates kids.
FALSE, even though he did actually say that he hated kids just last week. BUT, there was a really noisy one that needed a diaper change, for quite some time, in the seat directly behind ours when we were on a plane last week. I excused his comment because of our situation. I know he really loves kids and is already planning some "Grandpa projects."

RUMOR: He loves watermelon.
TRUE, absolutely true, and on almost any given day, we have the rinds to prove it.

RUMOR: He loves Christmas and the Blackfoot Fair.
TRUE, and I think the love for the two are about equal.

RUMOR: He doesn't enjoy talking on the phone.
FALSE, He is on the phone all the time and if it is a sheep friend he is talking too, definitely don't wait dinner.

RUMOR: He loves going to movies.
FALSE: It's a rare occasion that we go to a movie, but if he does happen on to one he likes, he will buy it on DVD and memorize it (at least his favorite parts). Cases in point: Cinderella Man, Rudy, Hoosiers, Sea Buscuit and more that I can't think of right now.

RUMOR: His favorite song is "Moon River".
NOT QUITE SURE: It was his favorite for years, but might be getting the bump by "The Dance." Yes, the Garth Brooks one. (I realize our kids are going to wish I hadn't mentioned that. For some reason they find that embarrassing.) Maybe it is embarrassing, but it's a little endearing too.

RUMOR: He is going to hate this post.
PROBABLY TRUE: But he banned the surprise parties, so what else was I supposed to do?