Felíz Navidad Part 3

Here is my last batch of pictures!!

These were taken here in Guadalajara. 

 An awesome Rudolph!

 Twelve Days of Christmas Chorus Line Style. I can't find my picture of when they were all kicking, but it was impressive.

 Planning Rudolph

 El Burrito de Belen.

And we learned the elder on the left has a great singing voice. We didn't know that before. 

 Here is the performance of The Twelve Days . . .

And Jingle Bells. Brother Call helped out with this one and the group played the chimes very well! 

We were so glad Elder and Sister Call could come to the party. Not only are they fun, but also a big help. 

 Gift Exchange Game

 Brother Call going to work . . .

 Everyone pitching in to help . . .

And a few pictures afterward.

One picture I am missing is of our trio. Elder Brighton, Elder Quinton and Elder Webb sang What Child Is This and did such a beautiful job. I don't know what happened to the picture of it though. 

So there you have it. Three days of Christmas festivities. Since then we have been welcoming several new missionaries and sending a few off. I will post pictures of the new ones later this week.

Felíz Navidad Part 2

The first zones we met with for our Christmas party were the zones from Vallarta, Tepic and Santiago. 

Tepic has a large stake center so we had plenty of room.

And I was so thankful for the sister missionaries who came early to help me!

 Some of the elders were there early as well.

 Here is a group practicing for their musical performance of Felíz Navidad

 This one really made me laugh because they did it as a boy band. Loved that! I had no idea we had so much talent in the mission.

Here another group practices for Rudolph

 One of my new favorite songs is El Burrito Sabanero. Here this group is performing their rendition of the song.

This jingle bells performance with chimes was not to be outdone. They were great!

 But I have to say the funniest was this performance of the 12 Days of Christmas (Mexican Mission Style) The elder in the middle was day 5--Parasites!

 I loved this picture of them all taking pictures of the performances.

After all the performances was the gift exchange game

 We also read the nativity (just like we do every Christmas Eve with our family) and sang songs as we read. This group was a special musical number of What Child Is This? (Que Niño Es Este?)

 And then of course there was the food. . .

 Looks like they all got plenty. :-)

 Nothing says Christmas like rice, beans, green chili pork and chicken tamales!

 So much fun!

Felíz Navidad--Part 1

We had a great time at our Christmas celebrations! We met in three different cities with three zones each on three consecutive days. Thanks to some expert help, we were able to pull it off. Although the decorations weren't exactly up to my usual standard, :-) we loved being able to spend time this Christmas season with all of our awesome missionaries.

There are too many pictures to have in one post, so I will do it in three--beginning with our last group--Colima, Manzanillo and Guzman.

President Wagner and the assistants conducted district leader training before the Christmas celebration so many of the elders were in the chapel attending that meeting. Meanwhile in the kitchen . . . my daughter Michelle was conducting training of her own. How to frost cupcakes. All the sisters had a great time and ended up being pretty creative.

 Waiting for the festivities to begin . . .

 We were a bit cramped at this building, but we still made it work.

 As part of the festivities, they were divided into five groups and given 20 minutes to prepare to present a previously selected song. Here the sisters are practicing their rendition of Feliz Navidad.

 In another room this group of elders were practicing Jingle Bells with chimes.

 One of the very popular Christmas songs here is "El Burrito de Belén". Any guesses which elder was the "burrito"? :-)

 Here we have a dancing Rudolph. He was pretty impressive!!

 Not to be outdone by this version of the 12 Days of Christmas Mission Style. They added an extra verse Rap style. It was so much fun!

 We also had a gift exchange game. All the elders brought ties and the sisters brought something a bit more feminine.

 President Wagner and the assistants supervised. Love the tie color coordination.

 In one part of the game a person had to exchange gifts with the missionary with the most holes in his shoes. Guess who that was?

 But in another group (they were divided into three smaller groups) this elder won. Unfortunately he still has a lot of time left on his mission. Notice the pants as well. I asked him if he got them caught in a tire chain or was bit by a dog. He answered no to both questions. Just a hard worker, I guess.

 Showing off their gifts after the game . . .

 And everyone filled up on food. . .

 Or got special instruction from the President. . .

We had so much fun with these zones. They are great missionaries and we love them all!