MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH . . . . .

It's finally here!! Christmas break!! I love break -- not that I don't love teaching . . . I love it!! It's just that . . . um . . . too much of a good thing is NOT a good thing . . . right?? :-) Just kidding! I miss my kiddos -- I'll be excited to see them again when school resumes in January.

In the meantime, I'll be enjoying my break! It's been really nice the past couple of days, just spending time with the family. My sister and brother-in-law came in from Michigan for a couple of days. They of course had 3 of the most adorable little boys with them!! I must say -- they have to be the cutest boys in the world!! (or as my great-aunt said -- "They're pretty enough to be girls" -- I don't know that I would go that far, but they are pretty cute -- they must look like their Aunt Kelly!!!! :-) They're gone now and the house is pretty quiet -- no boys screaming or saying, "I hungy Mama!" or "Iunna geon you showdulls". :-) I miss them too . . .

For now we're just relaxing and trying to enjoy the rest of the night.

Merry Christmas!!!

Remember the TRUE reason for the season is

JESUS!!

Pictures!!

After many days of waiting to find the picture-loading thingamajig, I found it in my pocketbook!! I don't think I ever had it and my camera at the same place at the same time, so my actually realizing where it was wouldn't have gotten these pictures on here any sooner!

So here they are: Pictures of Chile and Teresa's wedding (I guess Marcelo was there, too :-)

This is the outside of the house they will (I guess now ARE) call(ing) home. I hope to get some of the inside pictures on facebook next week sometime.
















In Chile, they perform two ceremonies: a civil ceremony and a "religious" ceremony. The civil ceremony is held in a tiny office (though we fit a lot of people in there!) This is seen in the eyes of the government as the "official" marriage. The outfit Teresa is wearing is the traditional "garb" of Chile. Mostly, they wear it on their Chilean Independence Day. (Sorry, Teresa, I don't remember the date.) Her sister and niece were wearing theirs also. The outfit has a name, but rather than totally mess it up, I won't even attempt to spell it!

















This is a picture of me with the happy couple after the ceremony!!
















Then we went on to the campground where they would have the "religious" ceremony performed by Teresa's dad. This is the cabin where I was attacked by a bat!

















We stayed up pretty late that night decorating -- the ceremony was supposed to be outside, but we had to switch to an indoor wedding because it had been raining for 2 days!


















This was one of my jobs the day before and the morning of the wedding -- we iced all 300 cupcakes, then stacked them on these tiers to make the wedding "cake". It turned out pretty well (even if the icing did turn out to be more green-ish than blue because of the butter!)






















This is them lighting the unity candle (well, attempting to light it - it turned out to be a pretty good picture, though!)

















My view of the ceremony -- I decided that my family will sit on the groom's side and his family will sit on my side so we can actually see the person we came to see!!! (though her hair was very pretty!!)




















My former roomie and ex-member of the single's club! :-(





















On our way to the bus station, I took a picture of this volcano! Some of the people I was traveling with hiked up there the morning of the wedding! I would have gone, but figured that would have been a little awkward! :-)

















I realized as I was about to board the plane that I really didn't have pictures of the mountains this time.

















Then on the plane, I saw this beautiful sunset and just had to get a picture!! Until next time (not next year, though!!

home sweet home

I would love to say that I have pictures to put up, but once again, I have left the picture moving thingie at my apartment. I just wanted to type a quick post to say how much I LOVE Christmas!!!! I got some decorations up in my room and at my apartment. I'm so excited!! I wish I had pictures. Oh, great . . . now I really feel bad about posting at all if I can't show Chile or Christmas pictures . . . sorry to totally ruin your reading experience and waste your time . . . I'm such a loser . . . . I could make it up by finishing my travel story . . . maybe.

Things weren't too eventful for the rest of the trip. I made my flight and connections safely. It was actually kind of cool. Apparently when you travel from Canada to the USA you go through the US customs before your plane takes off. This way when I landed in Dulles I just went straight to baggage claim -- no customs!! This way I was able to pick up my damaged luggage more quickly!! That's right -- my bag was busted (I can say that - I'm in 3rd grade!!) I didn't notice until I went to sit down and wait for my parents to pick me up. I finally sat down, let out a sigh, and saw it. The seam was ripped. I almost didn't say anything -- it wasn't that big of a rip, but then I remembered that I did pay a little extra for travel insurance, so I figured, "I'm waiting on my parents anyway, I'll just see what happens." I found the people and told them what happened. They said they could fill out the claim and just switch bags right there and be done with it . . . if I didn't care about keeping the same color. If you don't know, my luggage is a medium-sage-ish green -- very easy to spot on a luggage carousel. They wanted to trade for black -- just like the other 5,000 suitcases people like to use when they travel! I opted to stick with the same color and they just gave me stuff to FedEx it to the repair place. This was left in the very capable hands of my father, so hopefully I'll have it back soon . . . not that I'll be needing it for a while . . . . .

We did a little shopping on the way home from the airport and finally made it back to my parent's place that night. I think I slept until about noon the next day (I decided to take both days off of school to recover -- I like it when I occasionally think ahead!). I was back at school last Wednesday -- just in time for the beginning of the "I'm-in-school-but-really-wish-it-were-Christmas-so-I-won't-behave-very-well-for-my-teacher-unless-she-threatens-me-within-an-inch-of-my-life" attitude of my students. Actually, they were only "bad" last week. This week I've been really proud of them. Not that things are perfect, they have just been much better at sitting quietly during the worksheets. I really do have a great group of kids this year -- they seem so much younger than the class I had last year, though. Maybe I'm just getting old . . . . yup, that must be it!

Well, I guess it could be worse -- at least I'm not 30 !!!! (yet)

P.S. - I really don't like my background, but it was the best I could do for free!!