Best Christmas Ever!

I had a special activity planned for Christmas day, so on Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon searching for sea shells at the beach.  Playa Blanca is the best place for shells because there is an area of it where the sand is all bits of shell.  We have typically walked over it to find the whole, intact shells, but this afternoon we plopped down in the middle of the bits and pieces and searched through them.  We found beautiful, tiny, swirly shells and had a contest to see who could find the smallest one.  They were smaller than a chia seed! Lily compared our scripture study to our sea shell search.  Sometimes we just read through the scriptures, just like we walked over all these shells.  We don't even realize what we're missing until we begin to search them and that's when we find the beautiful gems!  From the mouths of babes!  What a great analogy!  I determined to do more searching in my scripture study.

Then Adam made us a delicious soup made from squash, potatoes and carrots.  How in the world does he just whip this stuff up?  It takes me hours to find a recipe, buy all the ingredients, then slave over the stove following each step of the recipe exactly.  He just comes up with it and it's always amazing.

The amazing chef, happy in his kitchen:).

Then we had yogurt for dessert.  It's an expensive treat and the kids thought it was the greatest thing ever.  They are so easy to please!

We had been prepping the kids that we weren't buying anything for them for Christmas.  Adam likes to buy presents and usually goes overboard every year, so this was a little bit hard for him.  We knew that a 3 month adventure in Costa Rica was the biggest gift ever, but there's something magical about waking up to something Christmas morning.

We stayed up late Christmas Eve, secretly filling Adam's socks with candy for each of the kids, which is a super treat since we haven't had any treats like that the whole month we've been here. Adam juiced 20 oranges for a special breakfast treat. We hung up the socks on some string, reminiscent of a Christmas storybook  scene.  I wanted to make some sort of decoration so it felt like Christmas (we barely know what day of the week it is, let alone the season!).  We are living super simple and don't have a lot to work with, so I cut up the cover of Lily's workbook and then folded rectangles back and forth to cut it and made a Merry Christmas sign.  Towels worked as wrapping paper. We enjoyed the adventure of using what we have!

The kids weren't expecting ANYTHING, so when they woke up to stockings filled with candy, the excitement in their eyes was as bright as past Christmases seeing a whole bundle of unnecessary toys under the tree.  They couldn't believe it!  We had also gotten Jade and Brigham their own passion fruits and mangoes, which was the only thing on their Christmas list.  The younger 3 got some sand toys and a ball.  The favorite gift, however, proved to be from Jade.  Before we left, Grammy had helped Jade sew some draw string bags out of sea shell patterned material to hold all of their carefully selected sea shells.  How perfect!  They couldn't have been happier.  It brought tears to my eyes to see them so happy to have these simple gifts from the heart.

 

 

 

We had also bought them some string and glue from the hardware store and we spent all morning assembling these adorable sea shell turtles.  We'd seen some in a gift shop, but knew we could just make our own, so we used the shells we'd gathered on Christmas Eve and they were so fun to make!  The kids had a total ball.  We also made shell necklaces and anklets while listening to the first Christmas music so far.  It was refreshing!  Feelings of love, peace, and joy abounded.

Then we did our own version of the Nativity.  We used a stuffed turtle as Baby Jesus in a towel basket and it worked great!

We had been praying to know what we could do to make Christmas memorable.  We knew that if we just went to the beach it would feel like every other day.  Our answer came on Christmas Eve at church.  We asked Alberto, our mechanic friend, what he was doing for Christmas.  He said they are poor and don't have anything, so they don't do anything.  They don't have a car (they take a taxi to get to church), so they never go to the beach (45 minutes away).  Adam and I looked at each other.  Yep! This was the answer.  We asked him and his 4 kids if we could pick them up and bring them to the beach for Christmas and they all lit up and jumped 2 feet high and hugged us and squealed with delight.  YES!  Adam thought that since the van holds 15 people, why not fill it up?  He ended up picking up 4 other kids from the Primary and bringing them too. They are so adorable.  They LOVE our kids and are so friendly and full of hugs! They communicate in a way only kids can.

Adam (still has his Joseph beard on) took the missionaries home (they helped him find the homes of the Primary kids (whose parents trusted strangers to take care of them for the day!) and they said, "This is the coolest Christmas ever!  You guys aren't just on vacation; you're getting into the culture and that's so awesome!"

Adam pulled the kids through the skim on the boogie boards and they laughed and laughed!

Lincoln and Sander are the same age and found ways to play in the sand together without speaking each others' languages.  Kids are so awesome.

We love these kids so much!

The afternoon at the beach fulfilled every desire of a memorable Christmas.  All of the kids boogie boarded, laughed, and played together for hours!  They were sooo happy, which is always the preferred outcome.  We brought the whole gang over for a delicious Christmas dinner of beans and rice.  After dinner one of them asked for a piece of bread.  Soon all the kids were surrounding me begging for (and stealing) bread and toast and butter like they'd never eaten a day in their lives!  They are all very poor, so we happily buttered an entire loaf of bread for their dessert:).

The kids mentioned over and over in various ways how much they loved this Christmas.  They said it was the best Christmas ever!  I enjoyed hearing them analyze having simple gifts versus lots of toys.  They missed the traditions with extended family, but that's it.  I think they truly felt the Spirit of Christmas this year.  We gave from the heart, served others, and enjoyed time together.  It went exactly as I hoped:).