Is It Really Almost Christmas....?

Seriously….it’s still hot, there isn’t much Christmas spirit, and WE DON’T EVEN HAVE A TREE!- this is a sin in itself for us! We love Christmas- everything about it- the tree, nativity, advent wreath, food- oh the food, spending time with our family and friends, the parties, movies, music, and just the Christmas spirit. However I like to think this Christmas will be unlike any other…We’re in Jamaica!

I’ve been asked by several family members to illustrate a typical day… this is really hard because no two days are the same however for the most part our Friday’s go something like this:
We wake up at 6:45 a.m. in the morning- for no particular reason- we don’t have to leave for work until 8:15… Below is a picture of our wonderful room...

we roll out of bed and make breakfast- every day is different. Sometimes it toast with peanut butter other times it’s a fried egg or porridge. Once we eat Breakfast Will washes dishes while I get in the shower (now mind you sometimes we have water lock off so taking a shower is not possible unless we use our water from outside to wash up). Once we both get our morning shower in we pack our lunch and walk to work. The walk takes us about 15 minutes- we like to walk slowly- we’re not in a hurry and if we get to walking to fast we start sweating…that’s no fun! When walking we like to take pictures---Behind us is the neighborhood we live in:When we arrive at work we do office tasks for the majority of the day- I might spend my time on the computer preparing lessons for my school children while Will helps Extension Officers enter crop data. On Fridays the office closes at 4 which is an hour early. We walk downtown into Santa Cruz. This is a picture of downtown Santa Cruz:We walk to the Market which isn't too far from the main road. This is one of my favorite things to do in Santa Cruz, they have an awesome market with almost everything produced in Jamaica. Everything is so fresh and the people are really nice to us. We’ve developed relationships with about 5 people at the market- these are the people we buy almost all our produce from. This particular woman is extremly nice to me- she is always really excited to see Will and I. She then proceeds to tell us how beautiful we are!We walk away with bags full of carrots, cabbage, sweet pepper, lettuce, onions, garlic, sweet potato, irish potato, cucumber, zucchini, and sometimes salt fish. We then begin walking back home- since we walked into town it takes us about a half hour to get back home. This is another slow and heavy walk. One of our favorite things when we're walking is to see this calf and his mama! They come to the fence to greet us- almost daily- I ♥ this little guys ears!Once we get home we prepare dinner- This is the best day to cook because we have all of our wonderful, fresh produce. Most nights we sit in our room or on the veranda reading or listening to music.

This weekend we’re going to our favorite spot…Treasure Beach! We’ll soak in some rays, have wireless internet, swim in the sea, and enjoy some Jack Sprats Pizza! Then it’s off to Portland for Christmas- We finally have our arrangements- we’ll be staying at a nice little guest house on the beach for two nights and then in Port Antonio for two more nights and of course with our favorite Portland friends Josh and Jesse for 3 nights. We’re looking forward to Christmas and trying to make the best of it! We’ll be thinking of everyone as they gather to celebrate the spirit of Christ! We love you all!