Fun Times

Yesterday, we went to see the movie Avitar.  La Viña (the ministry school at Esperanza Viva) did a fund raiser to raise funds for the the Living Hope Community.  They sold all of the tickets so Esperanza Viva had the whole theater.  They sold tickets to the community also which made the community more aware of what Esperanza Viva is and what the plans are for the move out to the land and that the money was going to build a permanent home for them. The movie was very good and had some awesome special effects.  It was in 3-D and was the best 3-D movie we had ever seen. 

Jonathan and Erin in front of a snowman display at the entrance to the mall.

Erin with another snowman.

Erin and Leysi, one of her friends from La Viña.

Waiting to enter the movie theater.

Jim and Jonathan waiting.

The crowd in the movie theater.

After the movie, we were walking out of the mall and there was a petting zoo that had been set up.

 Of course, Erin had to stop and see the bunnies, chicks, duckings, and a lamb.  It was pretty interesting to see a petting zoo in a vacant store area of the mall.

In the evening we went to the 14th graduation for La Viña.  It was a wonderful time of sharing the accomplishments of the fine young men and women who attended the four month intensive ministry school.

Here is Joshua talking to the graduates.

This is from one of the performances/dances that some of the La Viña students did.

Erin with Naomi.  I was trying out the black and white setting on our camera.

Erin and Leysi, one of the La Viña students.

Erin, Leysi and some of her family.

So, we had a very busy day yesterday but a very good day.  The kids are now counting the days until Christmas.  Only five more days.  This year, we will be celebrating a bit different.  We are doing our celebrations on Christmas Eve.  Although we have always done our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, this will be the first year that we will be opening all our presents on Christmas Eve also.  On Christmas morning, the kids will have stockings to open and we will have our traditional breakfast of breakfast burritos, then we will be going in to Esperanza Viva and will spend Christmas day with the kids and staff.  We are really looking forward to the week.

Today, we had a wonderful Christmas service at church.  We sang a couple of familiar songs, in Spanish of course.  The kids did some dances to Christmas music and then all the kids from Esperanza Viva received gifts from people who sponsored them for Christmas gifts.  After church we went with two other families for a very special treat.  We went to Chili's for lunch.  It was such a nice lunch and we enjoyed the fellowship and the food.

Here is a picture of Jonathan and Erin with the Nielsen kids.

Molly and Lydiah.  Lydiah has adopted me as a sort of grandma.  She is just a few months younger than our little grandaughter, Brooklyn. 

We started our meal with a bottomless plate of chips and salsa.  Now, I know we live in Mexico and that should be no big thing, but you just don't get chips and salsa here like in the states.  They were so good and the fact that it was a bottomless plate of them, made them even better.

We found out that Ryan has many talents.  The forks are being held in the air by two toothpicks.  Everyone was quite amazed.  Rene was able to make it work also.  It's amazing what you do while waiting for food.  The other things that made the meal so good was that we had the most amazing waitress.  She was so helpful, especially for a large group.  We had 12 people there.