Merry Christmas! From Belize!!

Merry Christmas to everyone back home!!

We are all well! We had a relaxing day here so far.

 I will tell you about our last few days and our Christmas day here but I will post later with the pictures just to make sure I don't run out of Internet time. We only have so much time before we will be cut off so I'll tell you about our last few days then if I still have time to post pictures I will do it on the next post.

We have a cute house here, we have a washer and a clothes line so I have been washing and drying the laundry, as I was way backed up! It is totally off the grid back in here so the electricity is limited and the water was only cold a few times. We have had some cold showers but it actually don't feel that bad because it is so warm!

We played some games after breakfast this morning, we read and discussed the Christmas story on the porch. My guys made the breakfast and I did the dishes using cooler water then I'm used to when cleaning bacon grease and it takes so much soap to do dishes here! I realize when going to other countries that we are truly spoiled Americans! Or I choose to call it blessed!

Yesterday we had rain showers, heavy ones!! We also had a nice amount of sun! It rains so hard and all of the sudden it's nice and sunny and the clouds can be a nice break from the hot sun. But we are enjoying our warm "Summer like" Christmas.

We headed out after breakfast yesterday to do some sight seeing. We felt like tourists here! We went to "Spanish Lookout" to see the Mennonites. We got to tour the dairy factory there (we saw how they make cheese, yogurt, ice cream, milk) and Dave did a short tour of a modular building plant. It's amazing how they do there buildings here and the conditions that they keep there lumber etc. is just so different then at home at the shop!. We have seen many many "hut type" homes and the children are amazed to see how these people actually live here!

It feels very safe here though and the people here are very friendly! It feels so nice to be able to communicate with them here unlike in Mexico!

We stopped at a butterfly farm and saw many butterflies! We had to be cut short there though because of a heavy rain shower that came suddenly! It is very sloppy and muddy around here but the sun so soon comes out after a shower!

We went to see a part of the Myan Ruins. We had a tour guide that we picked up along the road. He was happy to show us around and we spent a few hours with him. We took him along in our vehicle and he took us to see the Guatemala boarder. We saw Guatemala but didn't cross the boarder. It was the Western side of Belize.

We saw the North side of Belize as we drove here to where we are now. Lots of sugar cane fields and wide open space up there! We plan to leave here tomorrow for the Southern end of Belize. We want to see Citric Valley and we have a few other places in mind that we want to see up there. The only thing is... we do not have a place booked to stay from now until this week end when we get to the Island so I'm not sure I will post again until then depending on Internet service. Just praying we will be able to find a decent place to stay. From what we saw so far (as far as the houses we saw), the older boys are not sure they will survive it the next days...:)

Glad you figured out how to comment mom!! We miss you all to this Christmas day! Tell everyone we love them and Merry Christmas to Marilyn, Kath and families!! And Allen And Mom and Dad! And how is baby Ava enjoying her first Christmas!?? Can't wait to see her again!! Kisses to her from me and to all my nieces and nephews!!...:)

We then came back through town last evening and had supper at a local Belizian restaurant "Benny's. It was not raining when we arrived but we had a real downpour while we were eating our supper!!!
It was so good but I'm kind of scared to feed my babies a full blown Belizian style rice and beans meal, yet when I order them American food it never comes out good at all because they just don't have the American touch here,  they then always want to eat off of my plate anyway so I have learnt to just let them eat the rice and beans dishes. They are doing fine on them and Jordan is back to his normal self after his supper ordeal in the last post. He did throw up during the night again that night but woke feeling much better in the morning so thanks to those who were praying for him!

We are keeping today more low key because it is Christmas and many places are closed here so we went out exploring yesterday and plan to stick closer to our place today. A few times yesterday it was pouring down rain as we were driving down the road and we were not sure where we were going to end up. Dave drove down a trail once that ended in the jungle and I almost lost my cool,(okay I kinda did lose it) with the kids all packed in the truck, bored at times, the real character starts to show and we have to take a deep breath at times and just be patient with each other and our different personalities!...:) The big boys tend to find entertainment in teasing the Little's! :{

Justin and Dave want to go kayaking later. We have a river right behind our house here and we see some kyakers and canoers at times going by here. But the waters are higher because of the rains lately so I'm not sure they will be able to go? We also plan to head out for supper later since we only bought breakfast items for the house.

What are you all doing back home this Christmas day?? It seems strange not to be with family today but I have my husband and kiddos here and it's still a great Christmas day here...:) Just different!

I will post some pictures on the next post. I just want to make sure I can publish this before the Internet shuts down so I'll share more with a few pictures if I can.

Have a blessed Christmas day...

A few things we do for entertainment... Shoot rubber bands at each other! Games! Loud laughs! My guys can get loud and crazy at times and I had to move the computer to another room just now (stomp of in a huff type!) just to be able to concentrate on blogging!...:)

Love sent back home from the Zook family... Thanks for your prayers as we travel...