So...The other night my husband and I were driving in the car and listening to Christmas music on the radio. A commercial came on for a grocery store and the announcer said, "Be sure to stock up on our gourmet cheeses for the holiday season".

"What?!" My husband exclaimed. "Gourmet Jesus?"


So, yes - - here's wishing you all a healthy helping of (gourmet) Jesus this holiday season.

Seeing is Belize-ing!

So many of you know that we recently took a cruise vacation to the Caribbean - Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Bahamas - - all amidst the hub-a-bub of buying a house and preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I suppose, then, it was what you would call a much needed vacation. (Though, we did take all the kids with us).


My son was most excited about riding on an airplane....










...though he was pretty excited about the big boat...

and his bunk bed he got to sleep on...

Our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico, but we hopped on a ferry and went over to Playa del Carmen, followed by a long bus ride to the ruins at Tulum. The ruins were cool there.......and excitement abounded.....

Okay, it was a long day for the kids with a lot of transfers and travel. But if we could get through that, I think we could probably get through anything with them..

Our second stop was in Belize, which, agreeing with our native tour guide, was un"belize"able.
After a tour of the city it was off into the interior for a spicy native lunch followed by a speed boat ride up a crocodile-infested river to Lamanai.

We hiked through the rainforest, climbed Mayan ruins, and saw a toucan and howler monkeys in the wild. Here we say, "Don't eat yellow snow", but there they should say, "Don't drink yellow rain". (Monkeys mark their territories). The jungle was awesome and the climb up the temple is not for those with vertigo or a fear of heights.











(Can you see the little people way below in the photo on the right? I wasn't even at the top when I took it.)





Our third stop was in Hondorus where we went down zip-lines in the jungle. (Our kids went to feed and pet Iguanas with the Grandparents).



Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the family at a beach and observed some of the local animal life....jellyfish, hermit crabs, stray cat and dogs, and biting bugs that left tons of big red spots all over us.

After another day at sea, our last stop was in the Bahamas. There we got some fresh pina coladas and hit the sunny white-sand beach.

It was a great way to cap off a vacation.