Holiday Highlights

Our Christmas season this year was filled with a variety of activities. Thanksgiving, the official kickoff of the Christmas season, was celebrated with our visitors from the States. That was followed by the national congress of the church up in La Paz. The month of December brought the usual flurry of Christmas related activities including Niki's annual open house for the staff at the Learning Center where she works with kids with learning disabilities. James and Jenny Wolheter and their boys came for a two week visit before Christmas. JJ and Randi Guerrero and their kids came a week later, so we were all together for Christmas. That was fun. The house was full. In addition to our co-workers our daughter Dori was also able to come home for Christmas so it was a great time together.

The day after Christmas the president of Bolivia gave everyone a surprise gift. He announced that gasoline was going up over 70% and the price of diesel was going up over 80%. That did not set too well with the public and there were immediate marches, strikes and roadblocks. Santa Cruz remained calm but La Paz was basically shut down with angry marchers demanding the resignation of the president. Then came New Year's Eve and the president announced that he was rescinding the price increases and other things he had decreed at the same time. So everything is back to normal, whatever that is. (I only had to full up our car once at the new prices. If I had known I could have waited a day and not bought any of the high priced gas.)

The highlight of our Christmas break was our vacation (two nights and three days) at a resort out by the sand dunes. Have you ever read the Bernstein Bears book, The Worst Vacation Ever (or something close to that title)? we decided that our trip to the dunes was about equal to that book. There was a broken window in the shower to let in the bugs. Dori's bedroom was overrun by ants. The swimming pool was freezing (I don't know how it could be that cold on such a hot day). The dining room would only serve the expensive half of its menu (meaning no sandwiches, pizza or other things that we wanted). And when the rain came, well there wasn't much to do. At least it didn't come into the cabin. But by the time everything was said and done we had had a good laugh or two. While I don't think we will be returning (good deal or no good deal) we will have more laughs remembering the event. One good thing was that we went with some good friends so we all laughed together about our poor choice of location.

There were a couple of sad moments as well during this season. My brother's wife ended her battle with cancer a few days after Thanksgiving and went home to be with the Lord. They had been married 39 years. Our son Daniel and his wife Naomi lost their first child when Naomi had a miscarriage over New Year's Day.  But the Lord holds the new year and us in his hands and his presence will continue to go with us in these days.

May you have a very blessed New Year as you walk with the Lord of all our years.