Family of Five Christmas

I'm not sure why this post has taken me so long to write. Maybe because I don't like the pressure of feeling like this is my first post of the New Year. Like there's some sort of expectation with that first post. I should be writing about my hopes and dreams for the new year, my goals, resolutions, how I'm going to be a better person, blah blah blah. Sorry, none of that here.

I want to share about our first Christmas as a family of five. And it was our first Christmas where it was just "us". I had so many mixed emotions about it, but it ended up being really really great. We did what we wanted to do, when we wanted to do it. It was just about our little family and starting some traditions of our own. We love our extended families, but since we were married so young, we were quickly swooped up into the Christmas traditions and expectations of our parents and never really felt the freedom to create our own. Advice to young married couples? Put your foot down now or you will find yourself at age 30 still taking a Christmas morning picture on the stairs in matching pajamas with the other kids. Not a manly sight.

Anyway, back to our Christmas. I think what was so evident was how calm it was. We truly enjoyed the month of December. Everything slows down anyway and the weather was wonderful, so there was a lot of down time for us to just hang out together. We did go Christmas shopping for the kids one night when my parents were in town and that was a bit stressful. Everything costs double here, so this was probably the most we've ever spent on Christmas. Shocker. And of course there were fireworks every night in December that jolted the kids awake constantly, but we're over it now. And we really enjoyed Ally's first Christmas. I had to take a picture of her in her three Christmas outfits:

 

 

She was 2 months old on Christmas Day. It feels like that around 2 months old the newborn fog starts to lift. She's eating better, sleeping better, smiling, and just a lot of fun. What a difference a good night's sleep can make to a mama!

Now you won't see this on Pinterest, but I don't care. This is the Christmas Eve lunch I came up with for Emma & Jack. Coke in Christmas mugs, PB&J cut like trees, marshmallow snow, random candy cane tree, molasses cookie moon with chocolate chip smiley face.

What's hilarious is they were thrilled! Keepin' it simple

Then Jack helped me make a Cinnamon Roll cake for Christmas morning breakfast which was an epic fail. Let's just say I used waaaaaaaaaaay too much butter. I'll try again some other time, but he had so much fun helping me.

We wore pajamas for our Christmas Eve dinner and each of us got to pick a favorite food to have. This is what we came up with: rotisserie chicken from a man down the street, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans wrapped in bacon, corn, pineapple, and bread. It was a hit!

And Emma baked with me on Christmas Eve as well. We made a Mississippi Memories pie, sugar cookies and molasses cookies. Just making those 3 things took us all day, but it was fun.

Some of our decorations: Christmas cookie candle, stockings hung on the china cabinet

Little tree in the corner, paper snowflakes on the wall

Ready to wrap gifts

Looks like Santa is ready

And that night Santa came and filled the stockings

And left presents under the tree (each kid gets 3 presents each), ate his cookies, drank his milk, and left the kids a note. Jack's note said he needs to obey his dad more.

Christmas morning toy assembly

Can be confusing

Ally wiped out from too much excitement

Emma enjoying her bead making kit

Jack with his Thor hammer and sucker

Jack enjoying his new Lego Star Wars Wii game

Making Christmas morning breakfast

It was the way Christmas should be. Nice and calm, but full. We baked on Christmas Eve, skyped family, had a nice dinner, kids went to bed early, and the parents wrapped gifts together. Christmas Day started early, put together toys, played, ate Christmas breakfast (without cinnamon roll cake), and played some more. All with Christmas music softly playing in the background. We loved it. At breakfast Emma asked if we could have Christmas like this again next year. Probably not. But we soaked up the memories of this little "Costa Rica Savell Family of 5" Christmas we had. I'll never forget it and am so thankful the Lord showed us so much love through each other. I know we had many people thinking and praying for us far away this Christmas season. Just know that your prayers were felt and we appreciate you remembering us. We enjoyed it more than we could have imagined.

Border Run to Panama

Every 3 months we have to leave Costa Rica to renew our visas. The last time we left was the end of September, so we were due to leave again at the end of December. Our biggest issue this time is that we have Ally who doesn't have a passport yet. After spending a day at the Registro Civil and the Caja Amarilla, we finally received her Costa Rican birth certificate...isn't it cool?

So we have her birth certificate from Costa Rica, but now we have to go to the US Embassy and get her US citizen born abroad birth certificate, her social security number and her passport. Then we have to get a letter from Costa Rica saying that we are allowed to take her out of the country. Oh yeah, to get her stuff from the US Embassy, we have to get a hand-written letter from the doctor who delivered Ally saying that we are her parents. We've heard this is a whole other long process at the embassy, but that's for another day.

Anyway...

So we have to leave the country, but we can't take Ally. That's an issue. We heard about a town at the border of Costa Rica and Panama that is actually between the two countries so we are able to drive there with our own car, park, and walk between the two countries (check out of Costa Rica, walk across town, check into Panama, walk to the next window, check back out of Panama, walk across town, and check back into Costa Rica). It really shouldn't have been that big of a deal. But we never know. This was our only option this time since the 4 of us had to technically leave the country, but Ally technically cannot. The drive was nice down the coast of Costa Rica and we found an easy parking place right in town. This border town is called Paso Canoas and it looks just like a dirty border town out of the movies. The people were really nice and helpful....but the town was so dirty. And as soon as we arrived, it started to rain...hard. It became a complete downpour and the streets began to flood. There were people everywhere and now there were rivers of trash flowing through the streets. The town was probably the size of half a football field, so we had to walk back across town to our car in about 6 inches of flowing water. I just knew I would see a rat swimming by my feet or something. And, of course, my children were great. They know exactly what to do in those situations. They both become quiet and grab the end of my shirttail and follow. Perfect.

Checking out and back in to Costa Rica was actually no problem at all. It took us a few hours to figure everything out, but the lines were short and the people were nice. The man checking us back into Costa Rica even gave each of us a 90-day stamp, so we're good for another 3 months. Whew. Oh yeah, there was even a separate line for indigenous people who were all dressed in full Indian dress. There are Indian tribes that span through the south of Costa Rica and the north of Panama, so they must have separate rules for them crossing the border. It was very interesting and Emma recognized them immediately from our home school studies of Indians in Central America. Very cool.

We had a hotel on the outskirts of town and it turned out to be a nice clean place. We got there at sundown and Will grabbed us a pizza for dinner. We left the next morning and drove back to stay in Jaco at the beach for two more days. At crazy trip to the border turned out to be a very nice few days away from home. Thank you Lord.

I snapped a few pictures on our way out of town the next day to document the town of Paso Canoas. So, picture all of this with a downpour of rain!


The road to our hotel

Turning right out of our hotel...this was the edge of town

The road going into the town of Paso Canoas

Downtown Paso Canoas

Car wash station to Panama

Road at the other side of town

Since this town is between countries, everything is tax-free. So there is a lot of shopping going on in this town.

Middle of town where we walked back and forth

Parked over on this side

Trucks lined up to enter Panama

This was our walking path through town

Police station

Car wash entering Costa Rica. Every country has these bug spraying wash stations that I don't understand. Can't bugs just fly back and forth across borders???

Costa Rica check-in and check-out station

The line to check in and out of Costa Rica

On our way out of town. These trucks are in line to get into Panama. There's no telling how long it will take each of them to be approved to cross. Border crossing is a crazy thing.

Christmas Visitors - Daniel's

Our next visitors were my parents a few days later. Ally had just turned 6 weeks old and was really starting to interact, coo, and smile. Such a fun time with her!

 

 

 

My parents stayed for 12 days and we enjoyed having them here. The weather was great so they were able to get out with the kids a lot and take them to the park every single day. Emma and Jack loved this! They also picked Jack up from school and took the kids to gymnastics for me. It was really nice to just be able to relax at home with Ally while they spent time with E&J. We didn't have much on the agenda, we just did a whole lot of Christmas and hanging out.Will and I even went on a date night to dinner at Smash  Burger, to see the last Twilight movie (thanks Will) and to Christmas shop for the kids. Very nice.

In front of our house after a walk. Ally loves that sling!

Nana snuggling up with Ally

Pappy and Ally sleeping the day away

Christmas celebration with grandparents...lots of good stuff

Group picture after Christmas program at church 

Went for a drive to the top of Irazu Volcano. Of course it was cloudy by the time we got up there and couldn't see a thing. Mom got a little scared when we decided to off-road a bit on the edge of a volcano!

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to take Emma to see the Nutcracker. She loves that ballet! 2 years ago I bought her this Nutcracker when we went to see it in Memphis at the Orpheum. Mom brought it with her and I surprised both of them with tickets to the Nutcracker here. Emma was shocked! Mom asked if it was going to be in Spanish (hehe...it's a ballet Mom).

Emma, "Prince" and Me in front of the National Theater in downtown San Jose

Hanging out on the balcony on a sunny day

 

So fun to have them here

Pappy and Jack played baseball at the park every day

The girls...they're buds

Packing to go home!