Twas 1 Week Before Christmas

On Monday G had her Pre-school Christmas Program.  She was so cute!

G asking Santa for a Pink Nutcracker???

Every time we ask G to pose for a picture she does something crazy.  She refuses to just stand there and smile.  If she does then she will just frown.  This is the result of one of those pictures.

S and CR decided to pose with her for this one!

 On Tuesday the kids were still in school and I went to do my internship for just an hour because I had an SEOP appointment but the rest of the time I frantically tried to wrap as many presents as I could.

On Wednesday the kids were supposed to be out of school but because we had that wind storm they needed to make up a day and this is the day they chose to use.  The high school girls did not want to go because most of their teachers told them that they would not be doing anything.  So we made a deal.  They went to their first period class and then they could come home as long as they cleaned their rooms.  It was a good trade I think!  The rooms got cleaned for a day at least!  CR still went to school but didn't do much.  K also came home on Wednesday night and it was great to have her home!

On Thursday we were just getting ready for Christmas.  At night KC & I went to the temple.  Our ward does a White Christmas Night.  Where all adults attend the temple and we meet and have a short talk by one of the temple presidency and then we all go through a session.  It was a great experience.  It was nice to put aside the craziness of getting ready for Christmas with the peacefulness and wonderful Spirit that can be felt at the temple.

The residents around the Bountiful Temple have put together through pictures the story of the Nativity.  A slide show can be viewed at  Boutiful Utah Nativity

After the session KC and I drove around to see and read the beautiful pictures and scriptures.

Here are a few pictures:

On Friday we spent a good amount of time getting the paches ready for Christmas Eve.  And also more wrapping and last minute shopping.

This is what the paches look like (this is not a picture taken by me but this is what they look like):

Here is a little description of "Paches de Guatemala".

Tamales are an ancient American food, made throughout the continent for over 5000 years. Tamales have been traced back to the Ancient Mayans, who prepared them for feasts as early as the Preclassic period (1200-250 BC). There are so many kinds of tamales that if one was to try one per day, it would take you over twenty years to try all the different kinds. In Guatemala alone, there must be 100 different kinds if not more. Tamales are usually made with a cooked masa (maize dough), tomato sauce, and a piece of meat; normally pork, chicken, turkey, all wrap around in husks or banana leaves. When I say tomato sauce, I am being over-simplistic since this tomato-based sauce could be as difficult to make as an Indian curry, if not more.  A Pache is made with potato dough instead of maize. It is called pache (short) and it is made in all other respects the same way as tamales. In Guatemala, paches are usually sold on Thursdays, I don’t know why, and “normal” maize tamales are sold on Saturdays.