Last day for Jay

Jay's last day of school was November 21 but they had the closing year ceremonies a few weeks later. The whole school comes and all the parents. It was a bit boring but it was fun to see Jay all dressed up in his uniform and playing with his friends. Afterwards we went out with his whole class and all their parents to a club one of the parents belong to. That part was a lot of fun! We are so blessed that Jay is in a class with such wonderful families. The great thing is that he will remain with the same group of kids the whole time he's hear because they move each class up together as a whole. We talked, ate, swam and had a great time on a gorgeous Bogota day. We love our little Gimnasio Moderno family!

White Elephant Party

The Christmas parties continued with a White Elephant party we threw at our house! We invited all the Americans in our ward and ended up having a huge turnout! It was a lot of fun. I think there were a total of about 16 adults and 18 children in our place. Aleida made ajiaco plus some traditional Colombian desserts. Everyone else brought appetizers, sides and desserts. The food was delicious! The white elephant gift exchange was fun too. I think Mike and I ended up with a hideous blue Christmas sweater (perfect for an ugly Christmas party) and a few other random things like a tooth brush cleaner and old cook books. The true white elephant gift of the night was brought by Cooper. It was a super old board game and Nate ended up with it! Lucky him :)

 Nate and Mike

 Cooper

 Melissa Mellars and her sister who's visiting.

 Mark and Joyce

Our favorite missionary couple, Elder and Sister Collins. They are leaving us in a few days :(

Not pictured: The Wallaces, The Dossets and the Rojas (they had to leave early to catch midnight flights back to the States for Christmas!)

Amaya's School Presentation

Before Christmas break Amaya's preschool held a little presentation for the parents. It was out at their sister school in a beautiful spot about 20 minutes outside of Bogota. Each class dressed up as a different kind of animal. Amaya's class were zebras :) She looked adorable but they made us buy the costume (or told us we could make it ourselves... yeah right) and it cost $30!!!! Insane! It was homemade and Amaya chose to be a yellow zebra. 

She looked adorable but still... When we got there she was kind of freaked out. I think she thought we were going to leave her there. She refused to put on her costume and it took a lot of coaxing to get her into it. She finally consented though and off she went with her class to get ready to go onstage.

Here she is with her British friend Anais (they are the two blondies at the school).

 Her class was third to present so we waited for her to come out. The other kids were adorable. They sang songs and did little dances, then finally Amaya's class came walking out to the stage. Somehow she zeroed right in on me in the third row and immediately started wailing! None of the previous kids (all younger) had cried and none of the rest of the class was crying but our baby? She freaked out and only wanted mommy! Mike even tried to go up on stage with her to calm her down so I could take pictures but it was a no go. Finally I went up there and she cried on my shoulder while I danced around with the other kids. Well, there goes $30 bucks!!! Oh well. She sure makes a cute yellow zebra :)

Ward Christmas Party

We had our Ward Christmas party tonight. It was nice. The food was good and everyone had  nice time. The kids even got to see Santa Clause, their favorite part! They also decorated sugar cones like Christmas trees. The best part was eating them :) Jay asked Santa for a maze game (we saw it on Amazon) and Amaya asked Santa for a kitty (don't know about that one).

Dia de las Velitas

Today was Colombia's Dia de Las Velitas. It happens every year on December 7 on the eve of Colombia's Immaculate Conception Day. It basically signifies the unofficial start of Christmas here. All over Colombia people place candles and paper lanterns on their windows, balconies, porches, sidewalks, streets, parks etc. in honor of the Virgin Mary and the immaculate conception. In our own little building 4 little families came out to the entry where the children lit candles. The wax from the candles was used as a base to set the candles up. We probably had over 200 candles burning at one point! 

Perhaps a bit dangerous, but there were enough adults there that all was well. Although we did smell burning hair coming from Jay at one point. It was really cool! Our neighbors were so nice to include us in their tradition and the kids loved it. 

After all the candles went out our next door neighbors invited us to their house for buñuelos and natillas. The buñuelos here are little round balls made of corn meal and fresh farmers cheese mixed into a dough then deep fried. 

Sometimes I really like them but sometimes the cheese can be a little overwhelming. The ones our neighbors served were delicious! Natillas here are also different. It's still like a flan or pudding but it has a different taste here and it's more formed. 

It can be made with a cinnamon flavor or a caramel flavor. Our neighbors made the caramel version and it was excellent! It was fun to sit around with everyone and talk and eat. We are so blessed to have been able to start our Colombian Christmas season here in such a traditional way!

Villa De Leyva

We decided to take an overnight trip to Villa de Leyva with Nonna and Zina. Mike had Friday off after Thanksgiving so it was the perfect time to go. Villa de Leyva is a beautiful Colombian colonial town about 2 1/2 hours from Bogota. It is lower in elevation so it's a little warmer, but not by much. Most of the streets in the city are paved with stones and the buildings are all painted white making the town quite beautiful! The first picture is of Mike and I in the Plaza Mayor. All Jay wanted to do was drive his cars over the cobblestones and Amaya just wanted to play in the fountain :)

We stayed in a charming little bed and breakfast in the town. It was really unique and the gardens were gorgeous. The owner painted special murals on the wall herself and she made us a delicious Colombian breakfast complete with fresh juice, chocolate, fruit, eggs, bread and homemade jam. Yum!

 Check out her Christmas nativity scene!!

After breakfast we went to a little farmers market in town.