Now that we’re off and running in the new year we thought it was time we started trying to spend more time with locals. To start our adventures I asked the mother of one of the boys if she would like to teach Nicole how to make another Dominican meal. Once we explained that we would pay for the food she was more than happy. Understandably since making food for an extra 4 people when your living in poverty would not be an easy task. Nothing like volunteering your wife for a little extra work!

I could tell you about installing our new stove that arrived today, how I managed to borrow a saw from a Spanish speaking stranger, the heat here, or our trip around the barrio with my parents. But I won’t. I’ll tell you about our New Years celebration.

The excitement today was definitely picking up my Parents from Santiago. They arrived only a half hour late after a full day of travel, two stopovers and one late flight. Much easier than those traveling a week ago. We got home a little to late to visit the kids, but were able to enjoy some good Canadian chocolate before heading to bed.

Today was definitely a shopping day. For the first time we walked all the way to downtown with the kids. Ariana did pretty good, and even Ciara walked further than usual. The big ticket item was a new stove. Unfortunately they will not be delivering it until later this week or early next. While we were downtown we even took the liberty of buying a couple small ice cream cups for the kids to enjoy.

I feel tired. The noise last night was too much.

I feel frustrated. People still don’t understand words I learned long ago.

It rained a lot today. Not that long at any given times, but many times during the day. Each time it would rain, a different spot in our roof would leak and the kids would come running and screaming “It’s raining in….” You would think they would be used to it by now!

Today we helped put together a bunk bed for our future guests. So, when are _you_ coming to visit?

Christmas, as planned, was simple and enjoyable. We started the day with a classic pancake breakfast. For the first time since being here they were almost as good as at home. Most the day was spent hanging out at a friends house where we enjoyed good company, some card games, a bit of TV, lots of junk food, and a straightforward chicken & potato dinner. The kids opened their gifts in the afternoon and seemed to enjoy them. We presented the gifts to both of them: a block building / puzzle game and a set of molding clay. This gave us just the activity to spend a little extra quality time with the kids and help make the day memorable. Of course the birthday cake was a big hit as well (with me as well).

If you were paying attention back at the beginning, you’ll know that one of reasons for this trip was to re-evaluate our lifestyle and to give us the opportunity to make some major changes. Christmas was just one such example. Although it hasn’t been easy to be away from family and friends, it has been a lot easier to re-write our activities from scratch. So we have swung to just about the other extreme in terms of Christmas simplicity.

We got a lot of practice with our very limited Spanish language skills today due to visiting the home of a Dominican, hosting and Dominican to teach us how to make “Dominican Coffee” (hint: Make coffee. Add 1/3 to 1/2 …