Christmas Decorations

Costa Rica, as we have previously stated, is NOT an inexpensive place to live. Given that, it is very difficult to find ways to decorate for Christmas. As many of you may know, I go a little overboard when decorating my house for Christmas. As you also may know - we got rid of EVERY decoration we had before we left the States. This can be a lonely time of year, so one way we are trying to stay in the Christmas spirit is to add a little Christmas to our home. I'm playing songs on the computer, and Madison went to town to make some Christmas decorations including our Christmas "stockings". We actually couldn't find any Christmas stockings that didn't cost over $25.00 apiece, so we got creative. We found some felt Christmas hats that say "feliz navidad" on one side. We turned them over, and Madison decorated them with fabric paint. She also made the paper chains you can see in both pictures. We found the equivalent of a Big Lots, and found some dollar ornaments, and we decorated the tree. However, the weather has warmed up nicely, and instead of a very cold Winter we are accustomed to, we are dealing with weather in the high 70's, low 80's. Doesn't have much of the "feel" (from a weather perspective) Christmas season. Anyway - enjoy the pics of our Costa Rican decorations. Later I'll post pictures of how some of the local nationals decorate their houses for Christmas.

Old Friends, New Food

The "Churchill" drink of Puntarenas



Margaret and Jerry visited for the day. They arrived into Puntarenas off of their cruise boat, and we grabbed our own private taxi and toured the area seeing some great things (see the above crocodile). There is not much to see in Puntarenas, and the beaches are NOT very nice. So...that's why we got out of dodge. We also went to one of the highest points in the area and saw the entire bay - it was a site that only being there in person can do justice - no picture could take in the beauty! A great day of visiting and being with family! WooHoo!

We also had the opportunity to try a few new foods. The first was ceviche. Me GUSTA!! (I liked it very much!) Madison...not so much...to "citrusy". Ceviche is a Peruvian Dish, a form of citrus marinated seafood salad that originated in the northern region of Peru. The marinade used in ceviche is citrus based, with lemons and limes being the most commonly used. This being said, all citrus will work. In addition to adding flavor, the citric acid causes the proteins in the seafood to become denatured, which pickles or "cooks" the fish without heat. The result tastes more like a cooked dish and less like raw fish preparations such as Japanese sashimi. The other neat thing we tried was the Churchill. The Churchill is a frozen non alcoholic cocktail that contains ice cream, condensed milk, red sugar syrup, powdered milk and with a long spoon and a straw. Yes, as rich as it sounds, but oh was it good :-) See above picture. Don't know the history - if it was named after Churchill or not, but odd that it has the same name if it wasn't. If anyone knows - let me know.

All in all - a long two days, but well worth the trip.

Visitors

Tomorrow (Monday) the family is going down to a coastal town called Puntarenas. Margaret and Jerry, Mike's parents, are on a 21-day cruise through the Panama canal. They have a one-day stop in Costa Rica, and we are going to meet up with them. We are going to leave as soon as Madison is out of school tomorrow, catch a 3+ hour public bus to the coast, get into our hotel, and meet them at the dock the next morning (Tuesday). They will be in port for most of the day, and we just have plans to hang out with them. It's going to be a lot of fun, and we will be back late Tuesday night. So, don't plan on seeing any blogs for the next couple of days until we return. Have a great early part of the week!

School coming to a close

Well, it's been 3 months since we have been here, and with only 3 weeks to go until the end of this trimester, I wonder where the time has gone. The last week of school is primarily to wrap things up - typically all tests will be done, and most of our learning for the trimester will be completed - so learning new material will only be for two more weeks. We have definitely gotten into a routine of things. We know where to buy the best priced things. We know how to get where we are going whether it is walking, taking the bus, or going by taxi, paying our bills, going to the bank, etc. School has become a our daily routine of classroom lecture, homework, studying, test taking, and back for more each day. We have learned a lot, but only to realize how much more we need to learn! Things are going to end quickly as we still have much to do in these last three weeks. Thanks for going along for the ride this trimester, I look forward to seeing what next trimester has in store for us.

I have decided to take on the roll of music director for next trimester at school. These duties will include putting together worship teams, coordinating those teams to play in chapel twice a week, and possibly being the piano player for a worship team. I look forward to seeing how God will use me in this capacity. Please pray for this ministry and my involvement in it.

accion de gracias (Thanksgiving) part 2

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Costa Rica with six other families. There were 12 missionaries to five countries and three Costa Ricans. We had a very enjoyable time and greatly enjoyed the company of our new friends.

Take a look at the 2 minute and 20 second video to see what our Thanksgiving was like:

accion de gracias (Thanksgiving) part. 1

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it's a great time to reflect on what to be thankful for. The Pettengill family has so much to be thankful for it's hard to start. Our families are first and foremost. Their emotional support to us has been awesome - it keeps us going. Our friends, and our church are the other two important things we are so thankful for. The love we have received and are still receiving from friends are incredible! Friends that rush to send us stuff we are "missing" or "need" is awesome! Knowing that someone is praying for us everyday is such a huge blessing to us. Other friends we have met through our itineration process, and other churches that have picked us up as family without a second thought. God is good to bring so many incredible people into our lives. So for that, we thank God everyday.

So what is Thanksgiving in Costa Rica like? Well, as it's not a recognized holiday here, many, many people don't even know about it. The reason the school knows about it, and all of our teachers is because 90% of their students are from the USA. So, we still have school, I actually have a test tomorrow. Madison is in school, and I'm sure we will all have homework. However - we do get out an hour early, and Madison gets out 3 1/2 hours early! So, there are some good things.

So what about a turkey? Well, for a medium sized turkey that won't fit in most ovens because the ovens are so small, you can get it for about $40.00. We will be eating at our neighbors house - along with 5 other families. So - it's going to be a big "family" afterall. I'm making pumpkin pie (try that in a country that doesn't eat pie - so doesn't even know what a pie plate is), also try making it without evaporated milk (had to use condensed milk, and mix it with regular milk...hmmm...). The canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, and stuffing mix came from my awesome mother-in-law - she sure came to the rescue. Someone will be bringing green-bean casserole - try that without cream of mushroom soup, or onion topping, or for that matter, canned green-beans - only fresh ones can be found around here. Someone else is also bringing sweet potatoes - but of course you can't find those here either - there is some other type of tuber that (kind of) tastes like sweet potatoes, but it's white, not orange - should prove interesting. And marshmallows for the top? Well...you can find colored ones ANYWHERE - but white ones are going to be hard to come by - so we shall see.

All in all, it will definitely be an "American" Thanksgiving, but also definitely have a Costa Rican flavor to it. Now all we need are fried plantains and mango salsa. Stay tuned for tomorrow - I'll have some pictures to share from the event.

What DO Missionaries Do For Fun?

This past weekend we attempted to answer this question. We went and stayed near Arenal, an active volcano in the north of Costa Rica. This was another great opportunity to relax and enjoy much of what the Rainforest has to offer. We explored howler monkeys, crocodiles, leaf cutter ants, turtles, birds and more. It was also a great time to relax and enjoy the pools and ponds around Arenal that are naturally heated by the volcano.

Watch this two minute video and see what else we did near Arenal: