Celebrate!

Happy December! Before I start inundating you with the festivities that are sure to take place in the next month or so, let's back up to last weekend when I attended not one, but three celebratory events.

1. Lanzamiento de la promoción for HS senior and missionary kid Enzo Fritzler. Enzo's mom, Lilian, invited all the DR missionaries via a WhatsApp message; she admitted in said message that she didn't really know what it was, only that it was Friday at 5:30 at Enzo's school. I decided to go in support of the Fritzler family and because I was curious. I should have known better than to show up at 5:30...I was one of the first people there! I was also totally shocked by the intensity of the setup. Turns out that the lanzamiento was sort of the beginning of the countdown to graduation for the senior class, and it was a huge deal. Lots of the senior parents had matching shirts, and the highly anticipated climax of the event was a dance that the seniors had been rehearsing for the past month. It all started - around 6:30 - with an opening cover band. 

Next came a photo slideshow. The emcee then promised that the students would be ready in 5 min. or so. Twenty minutes later, there was a countdown video...which was finally followed by the dance routine at 8:00!

I basically stayed long enough to take this video before I couldn't take it anymore. I had been there for 2 1/2 hours, was getting chilly, and my eardrums were vibrating! Also, Enzo wasn't dancing; he was in charge of setting up chairs, which he did like a champ. 

Earlier this week, I saw a poster for the lanzamiento de la promoción at Cerro Alto's neighborhood school and knew exactly what it was! 'Tis the season, I guess...

2. Feria at Concordia Lutheran School in Licey (the parochial school at the church I go to here). It's apparently also the season for family fun fairs! The one at Enzo's school had been the week before the lanzamiento and the one at a school that a bunch of other missionary kids attend is tomorrow. Licey's had a ticket booth...

...the fruits of which could be "spent" on anything from chips, cookies, soda, and habichuela con dulce to a prize wheel to face painting to a used clothing sale to a classroom that had been turned into a haunted house. 

Jo, Jamielynn, and I taking advantage of the photo op. Can we talk about these paper flowers for a second?!?

Chilean seminary student Mario and his wife Vania manned an informational table about the church that was set up near the entrance. 

A cookout started a little later in the afternoon, but I missed that since it was on to...

3. Baby shower for Carlos & Giselle at Pueblo Nuevo (another of the Lutheran church plants in Santiago). Former Uber driver Carlos came to the church thanks to the evangelization of Rev. Jonathan and Cheryl Naumann. He has since been catechized, baptized, and married in the church to his longtime girlfriend. They're expecting baby Ayla Sofia around Christmastime!

It takes 11 squares of TP to go around Giselle's baby bump. Everyone guessed too high!

Lovely ladies. 

Praise God that little Ayla will be raised to know her Lord and Savior, and God-willing, brought to the waters of Holy Baptism early in the new year!

It was an exhausting weekend also featuring a 5 hour hike, but a culturally enlightening one in terms of local school traditions and always a privilege to encourage my extended missionary and Dominican Church family. 

And with that, let the Yuletide merriment commence! First up: tree lighting at the botanical gardens tonight. 

Until next time, blessings!