On saturday the 16th Lauren and I went to Mexico with the Flipside. We got up at 5:00 a.m. to leave by 6. We were actually on time even though Sophia and Gracie woke up multiple times and I got less than 4 hours of sleep. We drove down with Dai, Bekah, Lizzie, my sister Debbie, and Devon. Now I'm not a drive a long way just to drive back the same day kind of girl. Claremont is a long way for me. Kyle and I have always talked about exposing the girls to poverty and mission work, and Kyle couldn't take Lauren, so I had step up and put my money where my mouth is. I like my trips to be well organized, with a list of things that are going to happen, but due to unforseen events, I had to let that go.(and it was very hard.) It took 3 tries to get insurance at the border, but we finally got it and went across. When we got to the town, we found the Pastor's house only to find out he was not there. So we decided to head to the church, after a few circles we finally figured out the church had been destroyed. Apparently in June the ground under the church had erroded and the building fell down. So we were looking for something that wasn't there. By accident we ran into the Pastor's wife, and she had us go to the community center. We found out that the Pastor had left his family and gone to the States, we didn't get all the details, just that it was bad. Aaron had talked to him via e-mail, and he had indicated he would be there so we didn't know exactly when he took off. He never mentioned anything about the church either. So it seemed he didn't want to tell us what was really going on. They weren't able to open the community center, so we gave out the presents and did the whole barbeque outside. It was very cold and we had to use a toilet that was a step up from outhouse, (it was one of the nicest in the town) but it was a good chance for Lauren to see how other people live. The girls handed out juice(jugo) at the barbeque, and Lauren and I got to see two of our boxes be opened. We meet the new pastor and made some good contacts. We left at four and spent about 2 and a half to 3 hours at the border. At one point we thought we would be stuck because no one would let us merge. They would literally rather hit the car in front of them then let us in. But Dai manged to get in, I would have been there a lot longer if I had been driving. The girls did great the whole day, I was very proud of them. We finally made it back to the church at 10, six hours later. Next year Dai and I decided Kyle and Mark get to go.

Here are the christmas pictures. Paul took them, and I am so happy with how they turned out. There were a lot of great ones, so it was hard to choose one for each of the girls. It was the nicest picture session I've ever had. Paul came right to the house, set everything up, and we were ready to go. It was so nice not having to deal with some unknown photographer, who would miss all the good smiles.

Rub-a-dub-dub, four girls in a tub.

Sunday was the Christmas musical at church. Lauren played the angel and Gracie told everybody what to do. Needless to say both girls are quite at home on the stage. Lauren said all her lines perfect, and Gracie had an impromtu solo in the microphone and kept all the little ones in line. It was a lot of fun to watch all the kids. I really appreciate Rayna giving all the kids a part to shine. Next year Isabel will be up there, and she might not let anyone near the microphone. I can't wait!

Every year my Mom has all the grandkids over to make a gingerbread house. It's a lot of fun, and the kids love to eat the decorations. They are getting a lot better at actually making it look good. Lauren wants it to look exactly like the box, but that is pretty much not going to happen with her sisters helping. There is so much going on during Christmas time that sometimes I just want to scream, but I know that giving them these traditions will mean more to them then any gift they will ever get.