First Week of December

 We had the girls come over again this week. Don was tutoring Nick at church and finished just in time to give the girls a ride to our house. Only two girls were waiting...no Julissa. Don waited awhile and then drove up into the colonia as far as we ever drive (terrible rutted dirt roads), but no Julissa. She doesn't have a phone and lives very high up in the colonia so he couldn't just run up to check on her. Leidy and Karla said she was not in kids' church the night before. That was a bit worrisome. There was nothing to do but just go without her.

The girls wanted to watch another movie - The Little Mermaid this time. They certainly love sitting in our recliners while watching the movie. Afterwards we had lunch which they always enjoy. When they had finished eating, they took their plates and glasses to the sink and Karla immediately began washing the dishes. Leidy grabbed the dish towel and began drying. Karla said "I love washing dishes at your house!" Oh my. She loves our kitchen...we have a sink and running water, even HOT water!!
If you look closely, you can see the plaque that Karla made and painted for us, hanging above the kitchen window. She was very proud that we hung it up there.

Karla played a video game on Don's laptop that he said reminded him of the old Space Invaders game that we had on our first Atari. Karla played it several times. I asked Leidy if she wanted to play and she shook her head "no." She seemed a bit subdued. When I asked about it, she said she was just tired.

Since Julissa didn't come, I had extra food left, so I packed up the leftovers for the girls to take home. Leidy always likes to take a little something home to her mom. So sweet.

Friday afternoon Bob and Debi came over to play a spirited game of 500. We had to pause to take some sunset photos. I love how this palm tree frames the sunset. The palms along our deck are getting very tall and may have to be thinned out or we risk losing our fabulous view. After awhile we got hungry, so we moved our card game to the Pizza Inn and played while we waited on our pizza and then played some more when we had finished eating. A fun way to end the week!

Yesterday morning I spotted these sailboats enjoying an early morning outing. It was a lovely day but got pretty warm. A perfect day for Christmas shopping! Susan picked me up and we drove up to French Harbor to do some shopping for Julissa's family. A couple in Canada gave Susan money to buy some food and gifts for Julissa's family for Christmas. They had read one of Susan's postings about how poor Julissa's family is and how they struggle, and this couple felt moved to help make their Christmas a little brighter. We had such a good time picking out gifts for each of the kids. We also bought (with our money) some extra gifts for the other sponsored kids. They'll be so surprised!!!

Today, at church, I saw Julissa and learned that she did not know that she was invited to our house last Thursday. I felt so bad for her (but not half as bad as she was feeling!) and apologized for not telling her myself. I had instead asked the girls to relay the message to her and when they didn't see her, it didn't happen. So I told her we would make it up by having a special day for just her. So this Tuesday, after the Ladies Bible class, I'll bring her home with me. Not sure what we will do yet, but it will be fun!

Leidy surprised me this morning with a lovely bracelet she made for me! She's learned to macrame, worked 3 little pearls into the design, and did quite a nice job. I was just very touched by her thoughtfulness.