Rock and Ice and Everything Nice

Dear Friends,

Hope this finds you all contentedly filled with christmas cookies and donning your latest snowflake sweater from Aunt Mabel...

Well, we´ve started a new Christmas tradition! We were determined to find some snow on Christmas and so drove to the nearest volcano...of course. Volcan Osorno is quite dormant and topped with a generous helping of blinding white snow. It was admittedly odd to hike in scorching sun, through thirsty crisp volcanic gravel, being dive-bombed incessantly by biting flies of some sort, in order to reach it, but it was worth it. Some of us sled down the slopes on trash can lids, some just did a free-fall belly flop. I free-styled, using the edge of my boots as a "snowboard", I jumped and sliced my way down.

The best was running down the volcano. Due to the spongy-sinking nature of the loose gravel, you could run straight down the mountain in "full-bore-linear-panic", flying and plunging your foot falls, only to fly and plunge with greater velocity. Come to think of it, we must have looked hilarious, a bunch of gringos galloping down the mountain, arms swinging like helicopters to compensate for our legs´wide sprints, throwing up clouds of ash in our wake. Funnier still as we hit hard pack and couldn´t stop ourselves, no longer aided by the cushiony nature of the loose gravel. It went from "Oh..hee hee hee...I´m flying!" to "Oh...yeah I´m not going to stop any time soon." We all got down nicely, batting at the flies and sunburnt, sweaty and happy.

The kids enjoyed their presents; Sophia got a little wool doll, a set of wooden kitchen tools just her size, and a batch of homemade playdough. Edison got a lambskin rug to lay on. We had no where to lay him down before where he wouldn´t smack his chubby face on the wood floor. Now he is a happy man.

In the evening we made chocolate-chip cookies, read the account of Christ´s birth, and prayed together, thanking the Lord for His precious gift to us. My hope is that you all were likewise blessed as you remembered and celebrated Christ´s birth. Blessings!

Sarah