More About Christmas

We wrote a "Christmas in the Dominican Republic" blog post which showed Christmas down here.  But since that post, we wanted to share how we actually spent the days right before and Christmas Day.

The Sunday night before, we took little red velvet cakes, a Southern tradition, around to other senior missionary couples along with our traditional singing of “Deck the Halls.”  Jill had ordered four little baking pans and a quart of red food coloring through Amazon.  (We don’t know exactly what we will do with all of it, but it was cheap!)

Here we are caroling

The morning before Christmas, we went out with other Senior Missionaries to visit Hogar de Mercedes, a sweet orphanage with 20 children.  We had all picked a name or two of children to buy inexpensive little gifts.  We had a boy and a girl aged 13.  We hadn’t been sure whether our orphan was a boy or girl – the name was Yefry, which we think of as Jeffrey at home, but we only know girls whose names start with Y.  It turned out that Yefry was indeed a boy, but I was so glad that I had brought an extra gift.  

Someone had been given a little flute,
so Rob was all set!

Us with Yefry, one of our orphans (tx. Elder Hammon for the photo)

The day before, a mother had just left her two little daughters, 3 and 5, on the orphanage door, so we had something to share with them. They were very serious but began to warm up after seeing the gifts.  The older girl is with Rob in the photo at the right.

The children in this orphanage which is run by the Catholic Church live there until they finish college!  They don’t try to put them up for adoption as we would think of in the United States.  It is run by three nuns, one of whom looks and acts like she was in the Sound of Music.  

These are the three nuns who run the school - the one in the middle
should be in the Sound of Music! (tx. Elder Hammon again for the photo)

They also have a school there during the week.  The Church did a Humanitarian project (about computers, washing machines and hands-on service) there last spring, so we have visited them before. 

After sharing gifts, we sang some Christmas songs – we ended up sharing copies, so they could join in. Then they sang to us, and we toured the building.  Since we had been through it before, we stayed out with some of the kids.  It was so fun.

Here are the kids!  The little girl in front in white and her sister in orange
are the ones whose mother left them the day before. (tx. Elder H again!)

On the way both going and coming from the orphanage, we passed all these displays of different cuts of pork on the side of the road.  That, and the bread that was for sale, are the chief features of their Christmas meal.  We didn’t indulge in a roadside purchase because we didn’t know how long it had been since the meat had been butchered, or even cooked in some cases.  But it was amazing!

That night, the Senior Missionaries joined in a short Christmas program – Jill sang in a quartet.  Then afterwards, we tucked ourselves into bed.

Away in a Manger

The next morning, we quickly opened our stockings (we had to use two of Rob’s exercise socks- we later opened up a package from Clay and Amie with large filled stockings).  So Rob’s held an apple,  an orange, and another small gift and Jill’s held an apple and earrings.

Our table laid for breakfast

Our dining room on Christmas morning. 

Then we hurried over to the Missionary Training Center, where we all filled plates of goodies for the 37 missionaries there right now.  We again had fun caroling with everyone.       

              Here are the plates less than half filled.

The kitchen was crazy!      

Out in the hall getting ready to go sing!

     Here they are getting their goodies - I'm sure that
 they all had sugar highs the rest of the day!

Then we put a turkey in the oven and finally opened the generous gifts that we had surprisingly received. Besides gifts from our kids, we also received treats from several friends back home, so we enjoyed homemade bread, candies, and some wonderful Christmas books.

                                              Jill's haul!        

Rob's haul                                                   

 We  invited a number of Senior Missionaries over that afternoon for turkey sandwiches – something that Jill’s mom always did.  Everyone brought something in addition, so we had lots to eat and great company.

Some fellow missionaries! 

We had been able to talk to Matt’s, Clay’s, and Bryan’s families the day before when they had gathered for a Georgia “Christmas Eve Buffet” for lunch, a tradition that we started more than 30 years ago.  Seeing them all gathered brought some tears to Jill’s eyes.  We were also able to talk to Heather’s family because they were heading to Arizona early Christmas morning.  On Christmas, we talked to Brittany and Adam, and then caught up with Ben a few days later. 

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas.  We hope that yours was equally satisfying and joyous.