A Tropical Christmas!!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas as we celebrated another year of Christ's birth. This year our little family traveled across the gulf to Belize. We spend one year with my family, one year with Ben's family and one year at our house. This has been seen we were married and it has worked out well. My parents were so happy to have us there with them.

Here are some highlights from our trip:

Going and coming, the flights were uneventful (thank God). We weren't sure how Eden was going to do with the flights and layover but she did great. I'm so proud of her.

All except for two days we went somewhere: San Ignacio, Melchor (Guatemala), Placencia, and Belize City. Yes, in one trip Eden visited two countries. It was fun but I had a hard time with the bumpy roads and speed bumps (no - hills). Baby boy is doing great, though. He lets me know very frequently that he's still there.

Christmas day was special: We woke up had a small breakfast, my dad read from the book of Luke about Christ's birth and then we opened gifts. Eden had fun opening presents and ended up with quite a few Elmo things (toy, cd, dvd). We then had Christmas dinner around 1 pm with some family friends. It was a feast. A typical Belizean Christmas dinner consists of Rice and Beans, Turkey, Ham, Gravy, Stuffing, Cranberry, Plantains, Dinner Rolls, and Potatoe Salad. For dessert we had the option of Black Fruit Cake, White Pecan Cake, Irish Christmas Cake, or just plain old white cake. We were stuffed.

That evening we started a Carpenter Family Tradition. From now on, each of our children will put together a box of goodies for a poor Belizean child their age and give them for Christmas. So this year we found a family with a little girl Eden's age and gave her a container with bowls, spoons, toys, blanket, and a little sweater. It was so neat mostly for me and even though Eden had no idea what was going on it will be a treasured memory.

We spent our last day at the beach in Placencia. It was so windy so the water was too cool to swim in but we took a little pool so Eden could play in the water. The weather was so nice.

Eden met her Uncle Sean, Aunt Gayla and cousins for the first time and she had fun. It was great to see them again.

Overall, we had a wonderful time. My parents spoiled us with a suite in the Bed & Breakfast and we enjoyed spending time with them.