¡Hasta luego, Mexico!

I'm writing this last "destination" blog post as we sit in the Monterrey, Mexico airport, waiting for our flight home.  Our 5 weeks in Mexico flew by and, for that matter, this whole year flew by!

A few more pictures from Mexico:

We were so excited to spend an evening with Carlos and Marisol Ayala and their sons, Carlos and Alfredo.  They hosted us in this great little barbecue room.  Two summers ago, Carlos brought his boys to Michigan while he worked at Innotec and the girls and I had fun entertaining them.  Very fun to see the boys again and for me to finally meet Marisol.

Carlitos and Alfredo with the girls.  They're such great boys and we're still holding out hope for a future match ;)

Mike kept telling us about this great carnitas place (shredded pork), so we finally visited for a Saturday lunch.

Why do I always take a bite before remembering to take a picture?  Anyway, you can see these tacos were the size of the whole plate and filled with meat as good as Mom's pork roast. Best part?  Two of these tacos and a drink for 59 pesos (about $3.50)

On a Sunday afternoon, we were invited to a carne asada by David, one of the Innotec guys.  This is his brother-in-law and dad roasting a lamb in their backyard wood fired oven.  He was part of a fun family and again the hospitality was amazing

We also got to visit his new retriever puppies

And this is what school looked like.  Reading The Hobbit together for Trina's Language Arts class.  And yes, it's the first time I've ever read it.  And yes, I'm glad I put it off till now.  I realize I'll alienate many of you, but, as they say in Spanish, I found it "mas o menos" (so-so)

Even though I'm not a Hobbit fan, I did find some of these closing lines quite appropriate:

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

And another parade!  We found out December 12 is Our Lady of Guadalupe Day.  Tradition says that the Virgin Mary appeared in Mexico in the 1500s.  

Playing the part of Mary

This covers it all--Mexican flag on front, Christmas lights, picture of Virgin Mary--and the pickup truck!

And then there was Christmas caroling.  These little kiddos came from the kindergarten next door and were all wearing little Santa hats.

Our Christmas season has been different and kind of refreshing.  We haven't had nearly as many events, so we were excited to hear that the Coahuila (Mexican state we're in) Orchestra would be playing at Vida Church.

It was a fun concert with the orchestra and singers.  "Santa Claus Llego a la Ciudad" (Santa Claus is Coming to Town), a beautiful All is Well in espanol (Todo Esta Bien), and of course Feliz Navidad to wrap it up.  

And yesterday we heard about an Innotec stewardship event in a small village about a half hour away.  Faith, Trina, and I tagged along and had fun helping with their little posada.

The pinata was the highlight!

And the boys on the roof were having lots of fun moving the pinata around.

And then it was time to say goodbye to our new little friend, Luna.We had so much fun with her and she was such a friendly little bunny that we tried to figure out a way to bring her home.  But it was going to be expensive and we did find a great home for her.    

So there you have it!  I'm sending this out on Sunday evening, so we've now had about 24 hours to re-acclimate.  At this point, I think we would all say that it's just weird--some things feel like they happened yesterday and other things feel very unfamiliar.  For Mike and I, the people thing has been surprisingly overwhelming, so if we've acted strangely toward you, we're sorry and we'll try to fix it soon :).

I'll probably do one more wrap up post after the holidays are over and we've had some time to regroup.  If you have any burning questions, we'll be happy to answer them and otherwise I'll just give some closing thoughts.

For now, let me say that we have so appreciated all of you who've followed along and commented and emailed and prayed for us.. Looking forward to connecting with many of you soon and have a very blessed Christmas!