We'll Be Home For Christmas...

As we pack our bags and clean our apartment, we are so happy that we will be flying home tomorrow! We will be somewhere in the air between Houston and Nashville this time tomorrow night.

We will be in Mississippi for the first half, and then Tennessee for the second half. I am pretty sure that my whole family, including Samuel and his family, will be there!! This is a rare occurance! The whole Halbert family will be there as well, and we are so happy to see our families.

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

It's Not Just Another Day!

Hello to everyone. Aaron was so very gracious to update the blog this week for me. Some weeks, it seems like my grading pile grows when I look away. I know they are kindergarten papers to grade, but I have been wrapping up before Christmas holidays and my kids have done so many phonics papers this week!!

The Christmas party last night was fantastic. Even though there was not as much food as we had expected, we had plenty and it was good stuff! There was a good turn out on the number of kids as well. The girls were somewhat on time, and the boys showed up at least an hour late. This is to be expected in Honduras, though. The girls were actually going on our "American" time. Honduran time is always "an hour behind." A lot of times, brides are late coming to the wedding, people are late for funerals, and NOONE is EVER on time for a party!! Oh, well, we can't change the culture!!

We are headed downtown for some fun. Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary (hence the title), and we are celebrating a bit tonight. It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by since our wedding. It was so much fun, and I can't believe it was all a year ago.

Alot has happened in this year. Personally, I never would have thought that May would hold such shocking news for our family. On the other hand, living in Honduras has been a bigger blessing than I had imagined! So, the Lord has surprised me in so many ways through His grace and mercy this year. He is the constant in our lives-the only One who never changes and the One who brought us here- both Honduras and one year together as husband and wife. To God be all the glory, for great things He has done!!

This and That

Sorry it has been so long since the last update. These past few weeks since thanksgiving have been rather hectic. As Christmas draws closer everything seems to have become more stressful as we prepare to finish school and come home for a few weeks. The kids have been extremely difficult to handle because they are all just as antsy as we are to have a nice break.
Over the past few weeks it seems like every night there is something that we have to do. This last weekend Rachel had the Christmas concert for the elementary school and it turned out to be wonderful. She loved seeing all the work the kids had put in come to fruition. I was unable to attend because I got a stomach bug the night before and wasnt feeling better until Saturday morning. Saturday brought more activity as we went to Valle de Angeles to do a little bit of Christmas shopping but, it was the same kind of Christmas shopping you do in the States. It was not crowded, hectic, or loud. It was actually very relaxing for both of us just to spend some time together enjoying the areas where we live. Saturday night brought a Quincineara, which is the equivalent of a Sweet Sixteen birthday party. It was one of the most extravagant things we have seen yet in Honduras. It was like something straight off of TV. It was very enjoyable to see these kids in their element and I was able to take some pictures that I hope to be able to post.
To continue on, Monday brought my Christmas concert, but once they get into High School they just aren't as cute as the younger ones. It was well put together and the kids seemed to have fun.
What we are looking most foward to is this Friday night when we are having a Christmas party at our house for all of the tenth grade. They are bringing desserts and appetizers and we are planning the games and activities. I have been dying to do some youth group type activities since we left and I think this will be a wonderful opportunity. We did do alot of preparation for this party while my friend Mark was in town because we decided to decorate outside. It started like most ideas do with two boys saying lets just do a little decorating and it ended with a hand made Christmas tree, icicle lights, bannisters wrapped in wreath and lights, net lights, and a blow up 8 foot polar bear that Mark bought us, a penguin the girls upstairs bought, and a snowman. So it turned into much more work than expected but the turned out way better than we could have hoped for.
With all that being said I hope to post alot of new pictures today and we look forward to seeing alot of you over the holidays. God Bless and thank you for all your prayers, interest, and support over these last few months.