Christmas Cookie Party

To celebrate Christmas we invited all of the girl students and volunteers that we know in Caracas. We ended up with a small turnout, with just Claudia and I, our roommate Sol, and my disciples Ruth and Nohemí. We had quite a bit of fun though, despite the turnout.

We decided to make sugar cookies and decorate them. It took a bit of creativity for certain ingredients and utensils, but they turned out quite tasty.

Finding Christmas cookie cutters turned out to be quite a challenge as well. Claudia, Ruth and Nohemí went out for what we thought would be 10 or 15 minutes looking for cookie cutters, and came back more than an hour later! They walked all over the place to all sorts of different stores, trying to explain what they were looking for (cookie cutters are obviously not common in Venezuela!).

The girls did finally make it home successfully with cookie cutters though.

We had a lot of fun decorating! Lots of sugary frosting and sprinkles involved...

Some of the final products.

Our roommate Sol enjoying a sugary Christmas tree.

I made hot apple cider. This was a new taste for the Venezuelan girls. I told them this is what Christmas smells like to me... they told me Christmas smells like hallacas to them. Hallacas are a traditional Venezuelan food fairly similar to a Tamale. They take a banana leaf and spread a cornmeal dough on it, fill it with a cooked meat or veggie sauce, and fold them up. Then when they are ready to eat them, they just boil them to heat them up, and open up the banana leaf for a delicious Christmasy meal. I am definitely a fan!

Merry Christmas from the Vida Estudiantil girls in Caracas!

White Christmas?!

Being snowed in at my house was last on my list of expectations for the holidays this year, seeing how I was planning to spend it in sunny Venezuela! 

Yes, I'm in Auburn for the time being! I hurt my wrist a couple months ago and I'm home to get some treatment, with the added bonus of being able to spend Christmas with my family. It has been quite the whirlwind. The decision to come home happened on Sunday evening, as of Monday evening I had a plane ticket, and by Wednesday morning I was on an airplane!

So here I am, looking out the window at the snow, still a little in shock. God willing I will be back in Venezuela by mid-January to start of the new semester. Your prayers are appreciated for the doctors' wisdom and the healing of my wrist, and the timing to get back to my job and passion in Venezuela.