¡Oh, ven! ¡Oh, ven!

My favorite Christmas song is really an Advent hymn: "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." In Spanish, it's "¡Oh, ven! ¡Oh, ven, Emanuel!" 

"Ven"  is a form of the Spanish verb "venir," to come; its Latin root is evident in the name of the season itself (Advent). Yesterday, which I'll get to in a subsequent post, was the culmination of a season of waiting for the Christ child's coming as a babe in Bethlehem (OK, and His coming in Word and Sacrament AND His second coming). Whilst unpacking all of that in beautiful Sunday and midweek worship services, I invariably kept busy with a plethora of festive activities. December alternated between flying by and dragging as slow as the molasses I put in multiple baked goods as I...

...rode Santiago's new cable car with new missionaries & Spanish teachers. It's a form of public transportation that connects the outskirts with the city center, but we did the ~30 min. roundtrip just for fun - and the views! Dana & I will take a team of volunteers in January. 

...ate homemade gluten-free pumpkin pie (with real Cool Whip from my freezer), drank Guatemalan hot chocolate, and re-learned how to play cribbage (I'd first learned from a Peru team just over a year ago) from one of my missionary friends. I've gotten noticeably better in the weeks since!

...scoped out a new Friday night volleyball outreach at a park in a sector of the city not currently served by any of our churches. The Rev. Ross Shaver, his son Ryan, and two seminary students led a brief devotion; they left not long after, but a fellow missionary & I stayed to "play," aka do calisthenics and drills. My whole body hurt on Sunday. 

...enjoyed a Christmas music festival at Iglesia Luterana de Pueblo Nuevo. The musical stylings of numerous ensembles and instrumentalists were interspersed with congregational singing. Though it was only in its 2nd year, it's an annual tradition, and I'm not mad about it. 

...went to see a Christmas light display downtown with fellow missionary friends. We got weird Styrofoam bits all over our shoes in the air conditioned bosque de nieve ("snow forest") and saw Santa :)

...witnessed my friend Katie, a missionary with a different organization, tie the knot with her now hubby, Jeff. He's Haitian, so the whole ceremony was interpreted into French. 

...supported MK Esther at her community orchestra concert. It was pretty traditional until the very end, when the Dominican villancicos came out!

...facilitated a Zoom between Concordia Lutheran School in Palmar Arriba and one of our DR FORO partner congregations that has a large Lutheran school, for the 2nd year in a row. Students played charades with words from the Christmas story and learned how to say them in English and Spanish, showed off Christmas crafts, and sang for one another

...skipped breakfast on a Wednesday morning so as to enjoy this traditional spread orchestrated by our dear Spanish teachers. New missionary Josh busted out his skills from a college job as a line cook and made omelets (recording every step to fulfill one of his Spanish class assignments). 

...tried to go to one of the Águilas' last home games on a Friday night. 

...eventually made it to one of the Águilas' last home games on a Friday night (MK Ryan's first ever). A rain delay meant we didn't miss anything but also led to us leaving at 11 pm...with a tie score in the 5th inning (the Águilas went on to win 6-5 and claim first place). 

...helped Tirzah host a Christmas party for Cerro Alto's missionary and seminary kids. I did a lot of dishes and decorated a lot of cookies (do not be deceived by the photo: my attention span for doing so is exponentially longer than anyone under 4 ft. tall). 

...hosted a Christmas party for Cerro Alto's missionary and seminary ladies. It makes my heart happy to open my home to these sweet sisters in Christ. 

...dropped off a plate of cookies for the employees of the botanical garden (Dana's idea!). 

...leveled up when it comes to Netflix "Teleparty" movie nights by heading to Tirzah's and using the setup still in place from a screening of The Grinch at the aforementioned kids' party.

And just like that...it was Christmas Eve. 

Until next time, blessings in Christ!