You Have Been Elfed!!

Copy the link below into your browser window for a good laugh!! It's too funny not to watch!!
Here's to a wonderful holiday season!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9621920678

We're Home!!

We arrived home mid morning today. It is always so hard to leave Guatemala without one of the girls. I am already making plans to go back as it does get harder and harder to stay away with each trip. We had a wonderful trip and we took lots and lots of pictures. Here are just a few.

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I wonder what she's dreaming about?


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Getting into the Holiday Spirit!!


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I got out of bed to take this photo. Dave always complains that he doesn't have enough room! Are you kidding me!!


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You're not really going to make us wear these stupid tutu's are you??


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OK...I thought the tutu was bad, but this big a** pink bow takes the cake!!


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Gotta post the obligatory bath photo!!


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Daddy's Girls


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I love my sister!!


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Daddy's Girl


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Where's Maria Rene?

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There she is!!


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Don't you think this hood compliments my big brown eyes!!

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This picture is a perfect example of Flora's temperment. I swear she does not fuss unless there is complete inattention to her needs. She resembles this picture 99% of the time!!


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Could she be any cuter??

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Hey...How Come You Get To Be Naked and Mama Made Me Wear These Crappy P.J.'s??

Maria, Lidia and Jaime

We are having a wonderful holiday in Guatemala!

We arrived in Guatemala on Thursday at noon. Lidia picked us up at the airport and we then went to her house. She had prepared a Thanksgiving feast that would rival any grandma from South Dakota!! She had made her first turkey, complete with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy and bread. It was scrumptuous!!

We stayed with Lidia on Thanksgiving evening. It's so nice for Lidia to open her home to us. I also think that it helps Flora with the transition to going with us. By the time we left on Friday afternoon, Flora was very relaxed and used to being cared for by Dave and I.

Maria and Mihea resting on the stoop after playing ball in front of Lidia's.

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Flora

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Diego dressed up as Spiderman

THE US CELEBRATES NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 17TH

Families often wait months for docket space to finalize their adoptions, due to an overburdened court system. Today, courts and judges from all over the U.S. will be devoting the entire day to finalizing thousands of adoptions.

We received some more pictures of Flora today. I am so thankful for our wonderful foster mother in Guatemala. She regularly sends us pictures. It helps so much to know that Flora is being cared for in such a loving environment. She is just so beautiful and getting so big. I can't wait to visit her over the Thanksgiving holiday. Only 16 more days until we see her again!!

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Mayan Indians believe that the spirits of their ancestors can return to their homes on earth for one day each year. Family members welcome the spirits with flowers and their favorite foods. They spend the day visiting with the spirits in the cemetery. This tradition is called Day of the Dead, el Dia de lo Muertos. Itakes place on November 1st. In two mountain villages in Guatemla, the villagers add something special to their welcome. They make giant kites, barriletes, from tissue paper and bamboo. The kites are bright and very, very big. Some are more than fifty feet wide. The sun shines through the layers of tissue to make the kites glow. Their beauty sends messages of love and respect to the visiting spirits.

On the night of October 31st, the strongest young men in each village dig holes for the poles to display the giant kites. The poles are long and heavy. Everyone must be careful not to drop a pole. Early the next morning the kite frames are wired and tied together. Quickly the kites are pasted to their frames. They are raised on the poles for display. With tails and kite lines, some are ready to fly.

By midday thousands of people have crowded into the field, campo. Everyone admires the kites. They look like stained glass windows in the sun. People buy special food and cotton candy for the children. The kite makers compete for prizes. Judges from the village award trophies for small kites, medium kites and large kites. Even the small kites are eighteen feet wide. They are the kites that may fly. The others are too heavy to lift into the air.

Enjoy the video. It captures the spirit of the day.
Stephanie

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Here's Grandma with two of her Halloween munchkins. Charlie was a fireman and Maria was a ladybug. Charlie was already digging into the candy, and of course Maria wasn't very happy about wearing her costume!
Here's Maria again. The picture isn't very good because I took it with my phone, but oh well....she's still cute as a bug!!

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Here is another picture of Flora that her Foster Mother recently sent us. We brought this outfit with us to Guatemala for Maria Rene when we visited the first week in October of 2006. Flora is wearing it here on October 15th, so they are pretty close in size. Isn't she beautiful! I just can't get over her big sparkly eyes!

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This year we again would like to offer you the opportunity to
sponsor one or more Guatemalan families with a CHRISTMAS TAMALE FOOD
BASKET We have many families, mostly single, abandoned & widowed
mothers, who simply cannot afford to provide the traditional
Christmas celebration meal for their family.

A tamale is a traditional indigenous food consisting of steam-cooked
corn meal dough with or without a filling. Tamales can be filled with
meats and sliced chillis or any preparation according to taste. The
tamale is generally wrapped in a corn husk or plantain leaves before
cooking, and during Christmas holidays, tamales of rice flour are a
special treat for Guatemalans. The preparation time of this type of
tamal is long, due to the amount of time required to cook down and
thicken the rice flour base.

One food basket costs US$30 and will provide a Christmas Tamale
celebration meal for a hungry and needy family of 12 or more.

The food for the Christmas basket will include:

A bottle of oil and 15 lbs of rice to make the tamales
a loaf of bread with which they eat the tamales at midnight
5lbs of meat
1lb of coffee
a block of drinking chocolate (a traditional drink taken at
midnight)
raisins for the tamales, grapes, tomatos, apples and sugar
leaves to wrap the tamales, cloves, pepper, sesame and pumpkin seeds.

These are the requirements to make the midnight Christmas meal of
Tamale.

The plastic basket that holds all the food will also have many uses
in the home such stacking and washing dishes, holding food or going
to the market.

We started this project last year because it was brought to my
attention that two children that we sponsor to go to school had been
very miserable. These two children from San Jorge had no food in the
house on Christmas Eve, they were crying because they would not have
the traditional Christmas tamales to eat at midnight along with the
drinking chocolate. At midnight they went from house to house hoping
someone would give them a tamale. It made me wonder how many other
families could also not afford to celebrate Christmas, once we
started looking into it, we realized there were a lot of families who
would not be able to afford to buy the ingredients for their Christmas
meal.

So this year once again we are hoping to give out as many baskets as
we can.

Last year we were fortunate enough to buy, make up and distribute
215 baskets. We are happy to say that we already have 60 baskets
sponsored for this year. However, we would like nothing more than to
send out more baskets than in 2006.

If you would like to sponsor one or more baskets for Christmas 2007,
please choose the amount and click the 'Donate' button below. This
will take you to our on-line payment service which will process your
credit or debit card quickly and securely. If you wish to dedicate
your donation to someone, please email us on
instructions@mayanfamilies.net, include your online transaction number and let us know the details
of your donation. Alternatively, if you would like to send a check,
please download and print this form

. Once completed, please include this form with your check made
payable to Mayan Families and mail to:

MAYAN FAMILIES - 2609 Hartford St. San Diego, CA. U.S.A. 92110-2315.

Already donated a basket or two?

If so, I thank you sincerely for your donation and if you would
like, I would be very grateful if you decide to forward this email to
any of your friends and family who may also be interested in providing
a needy family in Guatemala with a great Christmas Gift.

Thank you so much for all your support. Everyone here at Mayan
Families is grateful and proud to put your donation to effective use
with our Christmas Tamale Basket program

Best wishes,

Sharon and the Team at Mayan Families

$30.00 - Christmas Tamale Basket 2007
$60.00 - 2 x Christmas Tamale Baskets 2007
$90.00 - 3 x Christmas Tamale Baskets 2007
$120.00 - 4 x Christmas Tamale Baskets 2007
$150.00 - 5 x Christmas Tamale Baskets 2007

N.B. If you wish to donate more than 5 baskets, please email us
directly on instructions@mayanfamilies.net