Summer break is starting to wind down here on the Tropic of Capricorn. AJP will start school in just over a week and a half and BLP will follow the next week. Since we are headed a little further south tomorrow, I thought I would do a quick recap of our holiday.
We had a great time this season. The weather was mostly warm – not too hot nor too cool. The sun shined most days and we saw our share of afternoon tropical rain storms. The week school got out we did a fare amount of nothing – just watching movies and swimming at the pool. We thought it would be a good time to relax and recover from a strenuous semester. (AJP worked really hard and his marks showed it.)
Christmas arrived with an unprecedented two invitations for Christmas Eve. We opted for our Brazilian friends in favor of our American ones (we knew we would spend New Year’s with them.) We had an incredible time. Our hosts were so warm and thoughtful. AJP and BLP helped reenact the nativity and had a visit from Santa. In Brazil, at least according to our hosts, presents are opened on Christmas Eve. Thanks to the generosity of our hosts AJP and BLP were not present-less. We had a wonderful feast, talent show and devotional.
Christmas day the kids let me sleep in so we started it at 7:00 instead of an earlier hour (thank you, JTP!). We were all happy with our bounty. We had the missionaries assigned to our ward over for dinner. Late in the evening BLP came down with the flu. One by one over the next few days we all followed her example so that the week between Christmas and New Year’s was mostly spent inside either in bed or playing the Wii.
New Year’s offered us a chance to meet with our American church friends. We had a great time chatting and playing the animal game (my favorite). We were lucky as well to meet some new people because some friends had family visiting them. It was exciting since the family is friends with some of our good friends from Boston. I always call it the Mormon connection. It seems no matter where we go we find people that know people we know.
The next week we decided to explore some things that São Paulo has to offer. We went to Intituto Butatan which is a snake habitat. They use the institute to do bio-medical research where they extract venom in order to create antidotes. We also visited the Museu de Arte São Paulo (MASP). It is a museum in the heart of the city that is as well-known for its architecture as it is for its collection. We saw a great show on portraits, a Rodin exhibit and a photography exhibit in which the photographer used a Polaroid camera. Asher missed that adventure since he was still a tinsy bit sick (or so he said). We also went with our friends the H family to visit the Zoo here in São Paulo. The kids loved it. BLP said that her favorite were the macaws and AJP liked the giraffes. Unfortunately, we only remembered our camera for the MASP adventure.
This past week that we have been able to get back into a certain routine. AJP and BLP both started a day camp. They attend each morning and enjoy swimming and sports. It is all in Portuguese so it offers them the opportunity to practice.
Tomorrow we are off to Igauçu falls. We are all excited to see another part of Brazil.
2 comments:
My Mom always talks about Igauçu Falls being the most beautiful place she has ever visited. She had a framed picture of it in our house.
Your mom was right.
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