About 12:30 the older teens at Sagrada Familia opened their gifts. After attending the church service, they stopped by the downtown plaza to see what the action was. Then, they were off to Norky's for a chicken dinner before heading for home. Not finding transportation at 1:30 a.m. after their visit to Sag. Fam.,Padre and Vicki walked about a third of the way home before they stopped a taxi. The roads were really deserted and even the barking dogs had gone to bed!

Peruvian Traditions

Midnight Christmas Eve- a special time for fireworks in Peru. On every street, no matter how humble, most of the neighbors will be setting off fireworks. Some sound like popguns. Some sound like cannons! Occasionally someone will set off a few pretty Roman candles. We stood by Papa Noel in front of Freddy's house and watched the display.

Christmas Eve

After Padre Ron and Vicki attended the Christmas Eve Mass, they celebrated with the Casas kids. About 9:30 p.m. the housemothers began to fix the Paneton and the hot chocolate. Piping hot, steaming, and well laced with cinnamon, it was a hit and judged by the kids as "PERFECT!" At 10:15p.m. the San Jose children opened their gifts. What fun!

Papa Noel Is Coming!!

Boy! Are we excited! It's getting close!

Plans For the Future

Many thanks to our friends from Christ Church Plano for their visit to help us plan for the future. This year we have six kids that will move up to Sagrada Familia. They are: Maricruz,Waldir,Hermelinda,Xavier,Adda Margooth,and Miguel Angel. However, we are out of room in our cabanas! So, as a stop-gap measure, we are considering joining the two cabanas together. We can squeeze two bedrooms in and that will give us just enough space to get through till next year.

What's That Word??

Vicki works with Diego and Manuel on English.

Splish, Splash!!!

The girls at Sagrada Familia just bought new bathing suits for the school trips to the pool. Big smiles all around!

Women's Retreat

Maria Perez, our director of San Jose, attended the women's retreat. Maria also is a seminarian and has completed 18 of the 20 courses to be a licensed Lay Minister. Always one to be involved, she assists at the altar some Wednesdays.

Judge

María Perez, director of Casa Hogar San José, was asked to be one of the dance judges this year. (No small committment as the dances can last 4 hours or more!) She attends the parents meetings, picks up the report cards, and checks regularly with the teachers on our kids´ progress. We try to fulfill the role of parents as best we can. Of course with 24 Casas kids in San Lucas, we represent about 13% of the enrollment. All our educadoras help out, too.

More Outfits

Danzas

As one would expect, the Casas kids participated in the dances. Costumes are rented and sometime cost up to a day´s wages! This is an item in the budget we keep raising each year! Parents are really pleased here when there kids do well. And we´re not talking a 3 minute "do-see-do," either! Waldir in garb.

San Lucas Eucharist

First communions were planned for San Lucas this past week. Due to doctors' appointments, Nestor was not able to play for the event and Vicki stepped in to pinch hit for him. It went very well and the kids behaved, too! We have 23 kids attending San Lucas now with our two smallest ones attending the preschool across the street from San José and Edgar and Giovanna who are in the PRONOE program. Can you pick some of ours out? They are all growing so fast!

Spelling B

Vicki and Padre judged the San Lucas spelling Bee yesterday. The kids select a word, read it, and then spell it in English. The judges were tough, but fair. "Hmmm...., how did you pronounce "K"? Was that "e" sound Spanish, or English? Hmmmm....."

Our secondary winner was Margot. (no surprise there!) And our primary winner was our Waldir who tied with a student named María de los Ángeles. The winners´ picture didn´t turn out! :(

Olympiad 2008

In celebration of San Lucas Day our Casas kids participated in the field day events. We had a raising of the Olympic flag, a run bringing in the Olympic torch (no one got burned!)and then races and futbol competitions. Padre Ron was a "padrino" for the 4th grade. We have Victoria, Marta, Hermelinda, Xavier, Miguel Ángel,Lizbeth, and Katiuska in that class. TRANSLATION: Padre got to buy a new soccer ball for their games. It was great fun and the kids enjoyed the out of doors.

Corazón con Esperanza

San José kids had a visit recently from Corazón con Esperanza, a medical group from the US that checks hearts and teeth. A great group, they quickly checked everyone out telling us that we needed a couple of extractions but everything else was fine!

Peruvian Roof Dog Run

Knowing that over 400 of our friends participated in the US Roof Dog Run. We did our own "marathon" event. "Run, kids, run!" We had races and then just some good play time at the park. Everyone enjoyed our outing. The kids were amazed that Tio Bob in the US was able to walk a mile so soon after his back surgery. We love you, Tios and Tias!

Today

Today is the ROOF DOG RUN!!! Please pray that everyone has a great time, is blessed with good fellowship, and is free from any injury. We are so blessed by your love! Run, Dogs, Run!!

Arelis Bunged Up

Bless her heart, Arelis was playing the other day and smacked her mouth hard on the floor. One permant front tooth out and the second one split. She is worried that she will never have front teeth. Not so. We will have the dentist tell us options when her mouth has healed.

Remembering Our Friends

Yes, we had a great time!

Food Fest

Our kids participate in all school activities, thus they participated in the annual Arequipa Day celebration At school every class shared a traditional meal,so of course Lizet was in the middle of it all getting a kick out of her classmate explaining how the cuy (guinea pig) is prepared. As testers/judges, Padre and Vicki tasted EVERY DISH and, by God's Grace lived to tell about it!!

Restaurant

One of the nice things the teams usually do is go out to dinner and invite the leadership of the church involved. In this case Padre Juan Carlos and Deacon Maria. Hmm...What looks good to you??

Memories

As a remembrance of their visit, the Roof Dogs received a personal painting from Sagrada familia. San Jose gave them each an alpaca scarf.

Dances

Of course we had to end the park day with some exotic dances. Peruvians are really steeped in their cultural dances and do an awesome job. Our kids had worked hard on their presentations.

Pillow Case Race

This went pretty well after the kids figured out what they were supposed to do. We did, however, lose a Roof Dog or two along the way!

Presentation

After lunch the girls presented their puppet show about the good Samaritan. Here are some of the stars in the presentation.

Texas Shirts!!

We had special shirts for the park day. (Of course they ALSO helped us keep up with everyone!! It was a challenge! We had a great pavillion for shade at lunchtime. It was a sunny day.