We left California on Christmas Eve afternoon and landed in Kansas City at 9:45 p.m. It was 10:30 when we left the airport and we were starving. A quick call to the Minsky's Pizza on Barry Road confirmed that they were open until 11:00 p.m so we enjoyed a half mushroom/half pepperoni as our late Christmas Eve dinner. It was almost midnight by the time we reached the mission house in Lee's Summit.
Thanks to Steve and Terisa making a HyVee run for us and stocking the frig, I was able to make Stephen and Jon's favorite breakfast on Christmas morning: bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy.
Stephen left for West Plains before lunch; Jon and I joined the McKinney side for lunch at my sister's house. The spread included ham and smoked turkey, plus side dishes and salads too numerous to mention.
After lunch we played cards and worked on putting together a 1000-piece puzzle.
Late afternoon, we finally moved into the living room and exchanged the gifts under the tree. Jon's gifts had a decided Royals bent.
We finished off the gift exchange and headed back to the game tables! It took most of the night, but we did finish the puzzle. My dad even played cards with us until midnight!
For the second time in two weeks we went to see the kids at the Remar Orphanage. This time it took two buses, two vans and a SUV to get everyone (more than 125 of us) and everything up the hill.
Lucy, the house mom, was so excited to see what we bought with the money Christ Chapel Bible Church left with us. She just kept saying thank you over and over as we unloaded everything.
We didn't get there until 11:30, so we got started on lunch as soon as we arrived.
Everyone else played a variety of games with the kids, including their version of "wet paint" Twister.
There were so many of us we had to eat in shifts.
After lunch we divided into teams and held a rally, with six different stations, including Bible verse (in English and Spanish), games and team cheers.
Even though everyone was worn out by the end of the time, it was an awesome day and everyone loved it.
Today was the final day of the March campaign here in El Salvador. We went to a small, vocational school called CAPA this morning and since the team from Valley Baptist flew out this morning we had to readjust the groups. Guillermo, Blake and I were group #6 . . . . I don't normally translate, but today I did "translate" Blake's message. I asked him if he could keep it simple so we decided to use the beaded gospel bracelet as the basis of the message. I know that I couldn't have been that clear, but God was able to use it and more than 20 of the students made a profession of faith.
Since I am the official photographer, I only had an opportunity to snap to school pictures before we went to our class and then a couple of pictures after we finished.
We went to my sister's house for lunch on Christmas day and what a lunch it was: various dips/appetizers, ham, cheesy potatoes, mixed veggie casserole, cherry fruit salad and hot rolls. All of this plus a couple of trays of cookies and a pecan pie for later.
Gift exchange time is always fun with the bulk of the packages going to Dad, the girls (our nieces) and Jon. Dad's treats tend to be of the edible variety and most are very sweet. He unwrapped three different kinds of chocolate covered cherries. Note that I say "unwrapped," not opened because there's never an expectation that he will share the bounty.
The best part of the day is the after dinner/gift game time. As usual, Dad, Stephen, Bruce and Jon went straight to the round table for their traditional game of Hearts. We know better than to bother them during this time. The rest of us play the less competitive group board games. This year it was In a Pickle, followed by MadGab.
It was a great Christmas!
