December 1st, Full of Firsts

Today was a big day. Caroline's 10th birthday, my first soccer game here, our first Christmas tree in Paraguay. We found a cute little Charlie Brown tree complete with decorations for about $2.50, and it's now on top of our fridge. (By the way, these "during" and "after" shots are taken from opposite directions, so you can see both our front doors and our back. We've learned that the optimum house plan has the front door aligned with the back and you just open both during the day, so that the air moves right through, ideally.)

Caroline had a friend from church come by to play all day, and now she's spending the night. They're watching ELF in Spanish as I type. I made a cake with a box mix I found here, and traditional dulce de leche for icing (caramel). The gal next door (Carolina) reminded me often that I wasn't cooking like her aunt does. So I kept reminding her that I'm not South American like her aunt is. She laughed.

Tonight, the community guys let me in on their soccer game. I'm very new at soccer, and the only time I've ever played was in Peru, at church camp. Those Peruvians were nice Christian fellas, quite chivalrous on the field, and careful not to injure me. It took about 2 seconds to realize this is a whole different ballgame. I came away with only a whack to the face and a bruise on my arm, but I was one of the lucky ones. Can't wait till they let me back in! Ken is elevating and icing his ankle right now (but not with dulce de leche--haha!) after his soccer game yesterday, which included stepping in a hole. These young guys keep meeting in our front yard each night to play, though, and they are a wide open mission field. So we'll take a few bumps and bruises to open the door to getting to know them. Say a few prayers for us, and for God to pave the way.

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