A White Christmas

JCS ended classes on the 21st of December and I was finally home for Christmas on the 22nd! This meant that I had one day to unpack, do laundry, and do some last minute shopping before our family celebrations started on the 24th!

Luckily my family "took off" the 25th from Christmas craziness and we had a day to work around the house. It was actually very nice to not have to do something that day. That evening we ordered in Chinese and went to see a movie. How American are we :) It was actually one of my favorite days of break. We relaxed and enjoyed each other and that is just fine with me.

I got a new camera for Christmas..yeah!! (All my blog pictures since November have been stolen from various friends' computers).

My two and a half weeks home were so so great. It was just what I needed after a crazy first semester of teaching overseas. I don't think I realized how much I missed my family, friends and life in the States until I was actually there after a 5 month absence.

Here are just a few highlights of my trip...

(Melody, I totally stole some of these from your facebook. I guess I am still in the habit even with my new camera.)

Christmas with the family

(I have decided that my family needs to take more pictures...)

Christmas cooking with Melody

Friends in Chicago

Brothers! Way to go Andrew.

Gingerbread house with my two best friends! :)

Thank you for all your prayers for safety and transitions as I have been traveling back and forth!

Peace and Blessings,

Jo ♥

Christmas Crazy

Well, I am very overdue for an update so I am going to chunk everything into a few posts.

Before I begin to tell you all of our 1st grade Christmas activities, I should remind you of the way most kids are right before the holidays-hyper! So our normal energy level was heightened...just a little.

Christmas Program

Every year JCS has a Christmas program in which each class presents a Christmas song, dance or skit. Of course, as over achieving 1st graders, we decided to perform two songs: Donde esta Santa Clause? and Rudolph. Kristin and I combined forces and worked hard to coordinate music, costumes, and of course, the children for the performance. Our first song went as planned... for the first 30 seconds, after which our music went out. But the kids didn't miss a beat. I was so proud of them. They kept singing as loud as they could. And so did I :)

Snap shots from the girls' dressing room while we were waiting to go on stage...

Here is a little of our version of Rudolph. If you listen to the end you might notice the "Dominican-ized" ending. Usually where we would add "like George Washington", we said "like Pablo Duarte", one of the Dominican founding fathers.

That night Kristin and I also performed a dance to Joyful Joyful ( Sister Act style of course) with our dance class. 3 songs back to back made for a crazy night but it was so much to fun to enjoy it with all the kids.

After the program with my roomies :)

Christmas Party

Kristin and I also joined forces once more for a Christmas party at my house. We had lots of crafts, cookie decorating and a short Christmas-themed gospel presentation. A very fun day, but I am still finding glitter in my house!

Christmas cookies!

Christmas Banquet

That night JCS held its annual Christmas banquet fundraiser at one of the local hotels. It was a very fun evening with lots of food, merengue dancing, and visiting with my students- three things that make for a very happy Johanna :)

A few of my boys all dressed up. It doesn't look it, but I promise they were very happy to see me! C'mon boys, smile!

Amanda, Allison, Me and Anna

Dominican-style Christmas is a lot of fun! Crazy, but fun. However, it never really felt like Christmas in 70 degree weather. I actually started missing the cold and of course, snow! Who would have thought. Needless to say I was ready to be home, cold and all, with my family for Christmas.

Feliz Navidad!

Peace and Blessings,

Jo ♥