Our Christmas in Mexico

This was our second Christmas in Mexico and our second year to be away from our family and home in Arizona. But we loved celebrating the birth of our Savior here and with the missionaries. We were very glad, however, that our daughter Camille and her family were able to come and visit us from Colorado. Opening presents on Christmas morning is so much more fun with children!

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional reading of the Nativity Story. Normally we have the kids act it out but this year our daughter Kathryn drew out the story on the whiteboard as it was read.

In the morning we were so glad to see that Santa found us!! And after opening gifts we quickly made breakfast for ourselves and the two senior missionary couples who work in the temple. (But I forgot to take a picture of them!!) When breakfast ended we began cooking for a missionary open house.

Last year we felt bad for the missionaries who told me they had no where to go on Christmas day, so this year we decided to open our house in the afternoon and invite the missionaries in Guadalajara over--if they wanted to come. About half accepted the invitation and we loved having them!

 We spent many days the week before baking Christmas treats and most of Christmas Eve day cooking beans and meat for chili. We knew that chili dogs and nachos aren't really traditional Christmas fare, but with our large Christmas activities last week and the high number of missionaries invited, our budget was limited.

Here are a few pictures from our day:

And our best helpers when it came to cleaning up . . . thank you, thank you!

A big thanks to all who came and all who helped. We love you and enjoyed spending part of our Christmas day with you all!

And I promise that by next week I will have pictures of the Christmas activities.:-)