It's Christmas Time Again!

Yesterday we finally received our long awaited packages from home that had our Christmas in them!  The boys were super excited!!!

While the below photos may not be thrilling for all of you to look at, I know some grandparents who won't mind seeing them!  =)

"Christmas Morning" - except it almost wasn't!  Even though the boys were excited about having Christmas, they slept in fairly late which is unusual for them!

Jacinda and her new baby doll!

Although Parker can be quite rambunctious, he's actually the one who carefully opens all his packages. No haphazard tearing of wrapping paper for him!!

 Taylor - he's the Lego man!

And he got quite a few Lego related sets and an idea book this year!

Even though Kyle is growing up (so quickly), he still gets "pumped" about opening up gifts!

Thank you to all who sent Christmas cards, texts and emails, money, and packages...we deeply appreciate your thoughtfulness!

* * * * * * *

The next thing on the agenda is a revival in Santo Domingo this weekend!  Bro. Javier, from the H.I.M. church in Motozintla, MX will be the special speaker.  Michael (and I, at times) will be singing.

After that, our whole family is leaving Jan. 16th to go to Florida for a month!  Michael has a revival he will be speaking at in Boynton Beach at a H.I.M. hispanic church.  We will also be doing a few deputation services in Florida and then attending Sea Breeze camp in Hobe Sound.  We are looking forward to a change of pace and hopefully re-charging our spiritual, emotional, and ministry "batteries."

While we are gone, we are putting into effect a time of transition here at our churches in Tapachula and Santo Domingo.  We have been training nationals pastors who will start taking over the works here.  We are excited and they are excited to see how the Lord has been leading and working in their lives to bring them to this point.  Pray for our churches here while we're gone that the Lord would give wisdom in leadership and that the churches would stay encouraged!

* * * * * * *

Update on my sister:  she came home from the hospital on Jan. 3rd!  PTL!  We're praying and hoping for a swift recovery and that she would generally start to feel better, more often!  I know she's happy to be back with her little boy!

Capturing December: Day 25

Merry Christmas

to one and all!!

Above is our Christmas card.  To our family and supporters, you should be receiving one shortly!

 And then below, we have the annual Christmas-morning-in-front-of-the-tree picture.  Notice, we don't do the fuzzy Christmasy pajamas around here!  Our goal each day is to try and stay as cool as possible!

We trust you all will have an enjoyable day spent with family and friends.  And don't forget: Jesus is the reason for the season!

Capturing December: Day 24

{ Christmas Eve Activities }

I spent half of the day yesterday and all day today preparing an American Christmas meal for our church people.  I made two turkeys, lots of mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed veggies, and apple crisp.

We had a very special Christmas Eve service tonight complete with communion here at our church in Tapachula.  Afterwards, we served this delicious meal to everyone!

Our Christmas packages still have not arrived, so we are looking forward to having a low key day of rest tomorrow!  And since we ate our "big" Christmas meal tonight, we'll just have chili tomorrow to keep things nice and simple!

(Please excuse this unflattering photo of Yours Truly...

but Michael and I were trying to dish out the food as fast we we could!)

Capturing December: Day 21

{ Community Christmas Lights }

The gated community where we live always puts up a lighted tree in the park every year for Christmas. They also have lighted figures of Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus at the base of the tree.

Capturing December: Day 16

{ Outside Christmas Decorations }

This year I did minimal decorations on my front porch.  But really, it's better than the "no decorations" of most years.

Our poor front door.  It is in bad shape and desperately needs painted.  I just haven't felt like starting the project for fear I'll lose hope halfway through.  You see, to the sides of the door are a length of small windows divided by wood trim.  It seems quite time consuming to prime and paint all that!  And I'm a busy mama with not much un-interrupted time!  =)

I have a small tree and wooden sleigh in the corner of the porch.

I was also hoping to get some poinsettias to set on the porch, but alas, that hasn't happened either!  At any rate, the iguanas would probably eat them too!

I hung some LED icicle lights (and about knocked all the cement off in the process!)  I'm not really in love with the LED look, but they're up and there they'll stay.

And that's pretty much it.  Once again, we're just keeping things nice and simple.  We do live in a community where lots of people hang Christmas lights and decorations, so some evening we want to drive around and look at them.

Capturing December: Day 14

{ Our Christmas Tree }

It's nothing fancy...just a simple, homespun, country type Christmas tree.

Capturing December: Day 10

{ Homemade / DIY }

Yesterday, I was feeling somewhat accomplished.  Today, not so much!  =)  So I'll just share some things from yesterday!

I've had some knit material laying around just waiting to be made into a few skirts.  After thinking of all the horrible things that could happen while working with knit, I finally worked up the courage to try a mini maxi skirt for Jacinda!  It turned out really cute, albeit almost too small.  But at least I learned a few things of what not to do when I make one for me!  I'd really like to come up with a size guide formula that works for anyone (baby > adult).  I'll let you know when that happens!

Then, I did a few more Christmasy things around the house.  I've been eye-balling this style of burlap trees...

I basically followed this tutorial, although I cut my own strips of burlap instead of using burlap ribbon!  (How nice it would be to have a Hobby Lobby here!)

Then I added a Christmasy bow to my ever present wooden star!

I decorated a little tree on my font porch too...but you'll have to wait on that until another day!

Capturing December: Day 8

{ Ornaments }

Well, life has been busy around here and I haven't got a chance to make any homemade ornaments this year.  But I did find these simple and cute ornaments to add to my tree.

And you'll just have to wait a few more days to see what the whole tree looks like!  =)  But if you want to see my tree and other ornaments from two years ago, you can click here.

And maybe I'll still find time to do some creative Christmas decorations yet.  (fingers crossed)

Christmas Sunday

Yesterday at both of our churches, we gave a little presentation telling the Christmas story from different Biblical characters points of view.  While most evangelicals from here are not used to any type of drama or special program, our people seemed to really enjoy it!  It was also a new experience for those who participated and had speaking parts.

The cast (from top left):  Sonia - as the innkeeper's wife, Mario - as a shepherd, Humberto - as Joseph  (from bottom left)  Paulita - the innkeeper's daughter, Kevin - a shepherd, Kyle - a shepherd, and Edith - as Mary

Hmmm...it looks like the shepherds were getting tired!!

From our home to yours...

Christmas Around the House

 I thought I'd share a few "christmasy" things from around our house!

This year, I decided to try my hand at making a few Christmas ornaments that I had seen while browsing blog land and Pinterest.

I love these simple jute balls.  I managed to find some jute at the Walmart down here, but it only came in green.  So I bought some red spray paint, and there you go!  Christmas ornaments to match my country primitive decor.  I followed this blog tutorial here.

And then I made some primitive fabric stars.  I simply cut fabric in the shape of a star, hand stitched two pieces together, stuffed them, and then popped a button on them.  Again, very simple.  But I like them!

And here's a look at our "new" cabinets.  Depending on the lighting, the color varies between a dark blue and black.  I still have a few finishing touches to do yet, but I'm happy with how they turned out!  And I'm especially happy to have the upper cabinets to put my spices, dishes, and drinking glasses in!

I trust y'all will have a wonderful Christmas Eve!

A Christmas Party

We had two families from church over last night for a little Christmas party!  It was a lot of fun!

On the menu:
Cocktail Meatballs
Tortilla Twirls
Italian Pasta Salad
Barbeque Chicken Pizza
Cheeseball and crackers
Ginger Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Fruit Punch

Isn't Huberto and Edith's baby so cute?

And then...we taught our friends how to play Dutch Blitz!!!  They caught on very quickly, and we had a "vonderful goot" time together!  I had Kyle take a few pics...so please excuse the blurriness!

Even though we're not able to be with our family and friends in the U.S. this year, we are so thankful for our friends here in Mexico!  Friends are a "vonderful goot" thing too, eh?  =)

Celebrate!

Yesterday, we were able to spend some time relaxing together. We also checked out the large indoor market here, drove out to the border of Guatemala, then later on, I put up the Christmas tree while Mom and Dad wrapped gifts.

All of those things that happened yesterday, brings us to today! We started the morning by eating a delicious french toast casserole, then we read the Christmas story and opened up Christmas gifts that Mom and Dad had brought with them. The boys were all excited, of course!

Parker was enjoying himself by piling his gifts on top of each other!

Later on this afternoon, my Dad and I put up some cabinets! I finally have a place to put my dishes and glasses, etc... Yay! Now, I just need to get them (the cabinets!) painted some time soon! My plans are to paint them an antique black that will match my desk.

And........today is also my 30th birthday! It was so nice to be able to celebrate it with my Mom and Dad and Pap! And we all really enjoyed Dad's chocolate/peanut butter cake!

A Mason Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas...from our family to yours!!!!

Although we were officially in Mexico for Christmas this year, we did celebrate Christmas with our families before we left the States. With that thought in mind, and with the "fun" of cleaning our house that had been dormant for six months, unpacking our stuff, and fixing the water pump, refrigerator, and toilets upon our recent arrival to our house in MX... we decided to not put up a tree this year and just open a few gifts and that would be our Christmas.

Well...that thought only lasted until Christmas Eve. With the temps being hot and no decorations up, I was just having a hard time imagining it was Christmas! So, while Michael and some people from our city church when to a Christmas Eve service three hours away in the mountains, I decided to surprise him and set up the tree!

Maybe you'll notice in the picture that there's really not a lot of decorations on the tree...well that's just because some mice invaded my house while we were away and chewed some loveable snowmen, red berries, and garland. The rusty tin stars, burlap bows, and some tinsel really do look halfway pleasing at night with the other room lights off! (lol) No really, Michael was very surprised, and it made me happy and started to feel like Christmas might be here!

The table has the only other "Christmas" decorations in our house...

And since I was on a decorating roll, I decided to go ahead and put a few homey touches on top of our desk. Once I get some of my house fully decorated, I'll post some pics. I know my sister-in-law will want to see! ;-)

And that my friends, along with reading the Christmas story, opening gifts, talking to family, and some yummy food, is "A Mason Christmas 2010!"

Scenes from Christmas Day

We were able to spend Christmas with both sides of our family this year. We were with my family (Crystal) in the morning to open gifts and eat dinner, then we went to Michael's Mom & Dad's late that afternoon and spent the night there.

Below are a few pictures from the day.

Scenes from Christmas Eve

We opened our stockings tonight...

My favorite picture of the evening...
Daddy and Kyle.

My "baby" sister.

This picture is "just because"! My mom hates to have her picture taken...and I just knew she'd "love" for me to post this one!!

We are staying at my grandfather's house while in PA. The kids have enjoyed spending time with him...this includes eating and telling hunting stories!