We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Kellemes Karacsonyt! Happy Holidays! Welcome to our Christmas edition of the blog. It was a busy, busy week so we'll dive right in.

On Tuesday morning we had a little surprise when Mackenzie slept in until 8am! Can't remember the last time she did that. Luckily Kiersten also decided to forgo working out to sleep in as well so both mom and baby got some much needed rest. The girls went on a morning walk after Scott went to work and Mackenzie got really grumpy about half way through so Kiersten carried her the rest of the way and then when they got home, M took a 3 hour nap! Growing? Teething? Tired? Not sure why all the sleep but we are not complaining! Kiersten accomplished much while the child slept like prep two batches of cookie dough for our Cookie Party later in the week.

Wednesday our babysitter came over so Kiersten could go to her Spanish lesson. She waited for 30 minutes and her teacher never came so she got a chair massage which is offered at the Embassy's on Wednesdays. It was painful! She's got a lot of tension in her shoulders so... ouch! The rest of the day was pretty low-key.

Thursday was a very eventful day. It began with Yoga and ended with a work Christmas party that went into the wee hours of the morning. Kiersten and Mackenzie went to Yoga and didn't have a phone. On the way home Kiersten made a left turn onto a side street that happened to have two police officers working there who promptly pulled her over. After a 5 minute conversation that was very much one-sided in Spanish, Kiersten got frustrated with her lack of Spanish, them not understanding that she didn't understand, speaking sternly to them in English, crying and telling them she didn't have any money (which she thinks they were after a bribe anyway) or a phone to call for help was free to go. They didn't care that she had a US Virginia driver's license or diplomatic plates on her car or couldn't speak Spanish or didn't know that the left hand turn she made was illegal. It was very annoying. But they didn't record anything about her and she didn't give them anything so.... Anyway, she drove home and the next unexpected thing of the day happened; the garbage can was stolen. Remember how our garbage can is really just a metal basket on a pole? Someone had cut it, pole and all at street level and it was gone. No idea why!

Something in this picture is missing. It's our trash basket!

What good is a basket on a pole if it's not in the ground?!

The work party started late so Kiersten put Mackenzie to bed since Scott needed to be there early to help set up. Our sitter came and Kiersten took off and arrived a little before start time and was the first guest there. No one else really showed up until 8:45. Haven't we mentioned that start times are very lax here? Well the party started about an hour late and we didn't start eating until about 9:30.  The live music with keyboard and accordion began at 10. K stayed around until about 11:30 then went home to relieve the babysitter and go to bed. Scott got home around 1:30 after the party ended. They do things late here.

The party was catered. Here is the grill where ever available inch is covered with meat.

This was the meat appetizer. They brought out these little grills right to our tables!

Then we went outside to get MORE food, buffet style.

The next day Scott spent his whole work day at the party venue cleaning up. Kiersten spent the day baking cookies and making food for the party. Mackenzie took another long nap which was very much appreciated so Kiersten could continue prepping for their Cookie Party that night. Originally about 14 people RSVPed for the party but it rained and the roads were crazy and people got sick, etc., etc. so about half that came. It was still very fun and we had lots of cookies. We are hoping to make this an annual Jackson Christmas tradition because we love cookies and Christmas offers so many cookies, even the Big Guy (Santa) requests them for a snack on Christmas Eve!

We went out in the morning to get some supplies and got
stuck in this rain!

The roads turned into rivers! It was insane. So glad we have our big car.

The party spread. How festive, right?

We asked our neighbor to bartend for us. They provided the drinks
since we didn't know what to do in that department. Our first
party with alcohol. 

In the morning we all relaxed and didn't have any parties to be at that night. We ventured out and found the crowds at the malls and grocery store. Parking was insane at both places. We eventually made it home and made an impromptu baked ziti pasta dinner. We started watching a Christmas movie then went to bed before finishing it.

Sunday, Christmas Eve, was only one hour of church. Our normal Sacrament Meeting pianist wasn't there so Kiersten stepped up to play. Since she didn't know she'd be playing Scott graciously went home after the Sacrament to get her Christmas music to play after the meeting. It was very sweet. We came home and took some Christmas pictures then prepped for our traditional Jackson Christmas Eve feast of enchiladas! The sister missionaries came over later that day for two to talk with their families and then all three of them share a meal with us. It was so nice to share this special day with them. They even helped us place the presents around the tree after Mackenzie went to bed.

Adorable matching red.

The sisters playing Santa for us!

The next morning was Christmas! Mackenzie woke up bright and early not because she knew it was a special day but because she always wakes up at 6:30am. The whole family came down for a little breakfast then we opened the door for her to see what Santa brought us. She went straight for the stockings and loved the oranges. "Ba!" she squealed excitedly. It was her favorite toy until she opened a book. And then that was the favorite until she opened a toy and so on and so forth. Mackenzie got clothes, several books, a few toys and her first set of Duplos curtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Jackson. Kiersten got a set of pretty dishes and a Ninja blender. Scott got several new games, a book and a wireless mouse. More things are coming but sadly with the increased volume of shipping this time of year many things were stuck at port in Brazil. This just means Christmas will last a little bit longer for us.

"What's this?"

"It's a box!"

"What's in here?"

Mackenzie is very good at unwrapping.

Wooden fruit set.

The Duplo train was a big hit.

The bacchanalia of opening presents ended around 8:30 and both parents fell back asleep on the couches while Mackenzie played merrily with her new things for an hour! Later that day we FaceTimed with family and prepped our delicious turkey dinner to be shared with a few friends later that day. It was our first time cooking a turkey and all the fixings but it was surprisingly easy. Scott and Kiersten spent much of Christmas Eve and day in the kitchen together and there isn't really a better place for the two of us to spend time since we both enjoy cooking. It was a wonderful treat.

The perfectly cooked first turkey for this little Jackson family.

We don't have a roasting rack so we used a roll of tin foil. Worked perfectly.

All the fixings on one plate minus the wonderful Casa Rica rolls.

The meal was spectacular and spent with wonderful company. For dessert we had what is becoming our own family Christmas tradition of Peppermint Bark White Chocolate Cheesecake. Yes it is as good as it sounds. Our guests cleaned up the dishes and then didn't stay too late which was wonderful because we were able to get to bed early and get some more much needed sleep.

So beautiful!

Now it's Tuesday! We are a day late writing the blog so we hope you'll forgive us. Scott took the day off to spend with his girls and rest and relax with us. We had plenty of leftovers so no cooking was done all day! We slept, read books, swam in the pool, played, ate delicious leftover turkey sandwiches with all the fixings and watched the first episode of Planet Earth 2 on Netflix. It's awesome! Oh and the landlord's contractor installed a new trash basket for us in the front of our house. Hopefully that means our trash will be picked up more regularly.

We moved our stockings over the quincho which seemed more appropriate since
fire does go here.

Rockin' her new pjs.

Loving her new suit. I said smile and this is the face she gave me.

Misadventures in Baking:

• We did a lot of baking this week. Still need to watch the oven temperature because if you open the door it drops the temp 25 degrees and takes forever to come back up! In Kiersten's whirlwind of party prepping on Friday burnt the oatmeal carmelitas. Not too much but they were not the beautiful golden brown we've come accustomed to.
• For the party we made five different desserts: chocolate chip cookies, Mexican hot chocolate cookies, Russian Tea Cakes (AKA Snowballs), Oatmeal Carmelitas and fudge. Then we provided some savory items as well. A vegetable platter with Ranch dipping sauce, Caprese skewers with balsamic drizzle and pesto, and a bacon, jalapeno and pecan cream cheese ball with crackers which was a big hit.
• Kiersten deems cheesecakes the divas of the baking world. They require a lot of time and attention and you need to baby them so they turn out right. The effort is always worth it! This year Kiersten needed to do more prep for this cake than usual because she needed to make peppermint bark (which was easier than she thought) and cool whip which is basically whipped cream but with gelatin. In the end this was one of the best Peppermint Bark White Chocolate Cheesecakes she's ever made! (For those curious, this was her third such cheesecake.)

  

  Homemade peppermint bark.

  
  

  

  And now it's inside the cheesecake! Best cheesecake ever!

• Potato Casserole is a Jackson family classic which goes back a few generations. Scott was adamant that it have the requisite yellow cheddar cheese for the top so it was the right color. Luckily for him one of his Christmas presents from Kiersten was sharp yellow cheddar cheese from Washington State University. It was perfect. Also for this particular recipe Kiersten needed to made the required Cream of Mushroom soup which was super easy and will probably be homemade from now on as it is definitely healthier and contains less sodium than store bought.
• The cranberry sauce and stuffings were both healthy, tasty and easy. Sadly during the reheating process of the stuffing it got a little more browned than it should but still tasted great! Whole wheat, 7 seeded bread and all.

Quirks of Paraguay:

• At this time of year everyone gets gifts. We learned about it when we first moved here that the trash collectors will knock on your door at some point in December telling us they'll come back on a certain day for their gift. They came by on Tuesday saying they'd be back Thursday or Saturday and we had their money waiting for them all week but they never came back. Maybe because our trash basket got stollen? Maybe now that it's back we can give it to them this week? We'll see.
• Coco de flor. All month long we've seen people selling this canoe shaped log with wheat inside in the intersections and on the side of the road. Kiersten asked one of the Brazilian sister missionaries what it was and she told her, "Coco de flor." Coconut flower. People buy it at Christmas time for the smell for their houses. Only in Paraguay. She said they don't do this in Brazil and the Argentinean sister confirmed it isn't done in neighboring Argentina either.

  

  Coco de flor. Maybe next year we'll need to get some.

The Mackenzie Update:

• She learned some more words. "Santa" was said a few times this week and she now has a two word phrase that she says all day long which is, "Dada away". Yup, he's away at work. But she also says it even if he's home but not in the room. She has also started to say, "Mama away" or "baby away" when Kiersten leaves the room or if she or a baby doll aren't in the room. She's catching on!
• She learned a new action from the American sister missionary on Sunday night. A double armed 'yes' pump! It was very unexpected but completely adorable. (Sorry no picture of it yet.)
• Every liquid is 'wawa'. Soap, chemicals, juice, milk, soup. Basically if it's in a bottle, it's 'wawa'. The other day she ate some sunscreen because it was identified as, 'wawa' and she could unscrew the cap. It didn't seem to bother her at all. Luckily Kiersten noticed her white tongue immediately and wiped it off.
• Scott took Mackenzie across the street to our little park on Friday so Kiersten could keep party prepping and Mackenzie climbed up the jungle gym somewhat unaided by Dad. She was very proud of her accomplishment.

  

  Don't worry, Dad is literally standing by.

  
  

  

  She even took the big kid swings for a spin.

We had a lovely Christmas holiday and hope you all did as well. We missed everyone during this very special time of year but that just makes the times we spend together all the more wonderful. Next week we usher in the New Year and we'll have our regular blog but with a twist. Tune in next week to find out what it is! Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!