30 weeks

We enjoyed an afternoon at the country club with Christian friends.  It's always so encouraging to be around moms going through the same stage of life. 

only 10 weeks to go!

We celebrated New Year's with a church family and a very nice dominican lunch. Scott taught them Mexican train. They didn't ask to play twice though :)

Adeline playing I Spy with Tia Olga. I definitely recommend adding I Spy Eagle Eye to your game closet. 

It was a very enjoyable afternoon with brothers helping us with our children. Whew, what a nice break.!

Adeline convinced Olga to play Candy Land as well. 

Dios es Grande

In nursery at church, the ladies teach the infants basic concepts about God, pray over them, and read scripture to them. I am very thankful!

Christmas Day 2011

Our Christmas feast on Christmas Eve - also known as Noche Buena here

Kim played a few Christmas hymns for us. Singing about our Lord IN ENGLISH
with fellow brothers was a very sweet moment. 

Each of Kim and Doug's children play the piano and took a turn playing for us.
Brandon played a beautiful O Holy Night.   

Christmas morning at church 2011 (29wks pregnant)

Our 3 blessings - Adeline 5, Darton 3 1/2, Matthias 1yr

Little mermaid did get one thing she asked for at least ;)

Matthias digging into his stocking. 

This kids sang Angels We have Heard on High in the church service. 

Feliz Navidad

I was so very excited when I found out IKEA carried premade gingerbread houses. We enjoyed constructed them last Friday afternoon and then the kids really enjoyed eating on them Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and well you get the picture. The set didn't come with icing, so I followed the recipe on the back and melted 2c of sugar on the stove. To ensure "stickiness" I added a bit of powdered sugar. It worked, but not too kid friendly since the sugar was at the temperature to make candy. I had to return to the stove every 2 minutes to remelt the sugar. Next time I'll go with the powdered sugar icing that doesn't need cooking.
Monday we made my mom's famous Christmas cookies. I grew up eating these and am having a really hard time not devouring the entire container. My mom uses a tea cake recipe for her sugar cookies:

Linda Meador's Tea Cakes - Celina, TX

Cream together

1 c shortening

2 c sugar

3 eggs

Add

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 c milk

Sift together

4 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

Combine all together gradually and then chill in the refrigerator.  Roll out in flour, but not too thin. Cut (in shapes or the shape of your pan). Put in pan. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400F until lightly browned (for cookies about 7-8min).

 Although Christmas without family isn't the best, we are still in the Christmas spirit despite wearing flip-flops and tanktops.  :)  I'm had about 20 moms and kids over on Thursday for crafts and pizza and then a missionary family is coming over on Saturday evening for a traditional Christmas meal and a time of singing Christmas hymns and carols. It will be my first time to cook a turkey!  The main ingredient missing for a traditional (or at least my family's traditional) Christmas meal here in the DR is yams/sweet potatoes. They have a sweet potato here called a batata, but I haven't gotten the hang of cooking it (the flesh is more like a root than a potato). Plus, I'm just needing a good ole orange yam :)

Our craft time included 3 stations.  Here they are making wreaths. 

 Darton hard at work at the angel station.

 We also had a star station, but the picture below is of the older kids and some moms making snowflakes out of paper.

 A paper snowflake!

I put each of the kids' names on a plate and as they finished a craft, they put their work on their plate. 

Diggin' in to pizza

Matthias and Scarlet are only a week a part in age. 

Our Week in Review

After last Friday night's bribe of a donut for Adeline to sing with me, we went to Krispy Kremes on Saturday as a fam and enjoyed way too much sugar for 9 o'clock in the morning :)Last Saturday was free admission for all Santo Domingo museums, so we went to the Natural History Museum and the History of the Dominican Man Museum. We normally stick around the house on Saturdays, so it was so much fun to get out and about.
sorry the picture is so dark
A sugar cane extractor from way back when. Well maybe it wasn't so far back...not quite sure. Sugar cane was big business here at one point.
Since it's December, we have to enjoy hot chocolate with marshmallows for story time. The weather is beautiful right now. The air is much drier which makes the heat more doable. Time on the terrace in the evenings is very refreshing.
Our Christmas tree. Scott's first words when he saw it were, "Yep, that's a Needum Christmas tree." However my moms is much prettier!
Scott and I enjoyed a progressive dinner with Christian couples last Saturday night. I made this tomatoe-mozzarella-basil-sundried tomatoes appetizer as well as stuffed mushrooms. The mushrooms were yummy, but not so pretty to take a picture of. Scott came up with the genius idea to use the left-over stuffing to make a quiche. It was YUMMY!
The kids washed Abraham this past week. Yes, we now have dogs named Sarah & Abraham ;)

Look at my cute boy....he's one of those babies (my first) who knows to smile when you get the camera out. He is so much joy!
Adeline and Darton sang last morning in church with the other children.
Ms. Ballerina
Thursday morning before the performance. I'm 28wks now and so. very. tired. The same week I started the 3rd trimester was like running into a brick wall and all my energy was gone! We are taking it slowly needless to say and I'm increasing my iron intake.
Thursday morning was not only Adeline's ballet class performance, but also the school performance. Darton is in the picture below on the top row and last on the right.
Adeline was one of the shepherds in her class. She did an excellent job learning the songs in Spanish.

Matthias still loves his morning naps and fell asleep on Scott during the performance.

Santa came and brought a toy for each of the kiddos (bought by the parents). Darton and Santa. Since the DR is a very Catholic culture, Santa was sure to incorporate baby Jesus into his greetings over and over. He even asked the kids if they talk to Him every night. The kids received part of their Brio train set from Santa. They are truly enjoying just these few pieces, so I can't wait to see their faces when they receive all the extras (bridges, etc) on Christmas morning.

However, when Adeline opened up the train set she IMMEDIATELY started crying because it wasn't make-up! So there very well could be lots of tears come Christmas morning.

I asked Adeline if it was fun to see Santa and she just KNEW that he wasn't the real one because he spoke Spanish!! We explained that he speaks all languages, but Scott has also explained that Santa isn't real. Adeline refuses to believe that.

Adeline Ballet 2011

For the third year now, Adeline has participated in ballet. This isn't the whole performance because I wasn't ready with a blank memory card, but there are 2 more short videos on Youtube under "Geerfamily" if you want to see more.

Adeline & Mom Singing

I'm not claiming to be Krysten Getty, but we did enjoy our first daughter/mother duet! Adeline had never held a microphone or sang before an audience until that night. She hid behind me until I bribed her with a donut.....and it worked!

Inspiration

Will I ever get to this point? Can I do this with pure motives? Wow. Inspired.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/12/when-christmas-gets-radical-whose-birthday-is-it-really/

Getting a Late Start: Truth in Tinsel

Through a Christian sister's blog I was introduced to Truth in the Tinsel - the EXACT thing I was looking for to make sure our Christmas focus is on Jesus. It's an ebook and only costs $4.99. It's well worth it! Although we are 7 days into December, we are only 3 days into ornament making.

Day 1: Jesus is Light

Day 2: Jesus is KingFor the last few years a man in the DR creates wood-made Christmas structures and I thought this tree was perfect to hang our ornaments!Day 3: Zacharias (Truth in Tinsel has it's own FB page to follow and you can get great ideas from other mommies who decide to not follow the design exactly. For example, another mom used a band-aid to cover Zacharias' mouth to represent that you couldn't speak.)

Let's not forget the artists! They are coming along with their Christmas trees about Jesus as well. An example of more of the Christmas wood decorations handmade here in the DR.