Christmas & Mexico

The Christmas tree is finally up! Our 4.5 foot $15 Big Lots Christmas tree took us 2 days to put up but we're ready! It took us so long because we decided to rearrange the living room. It feels more home-y and *hopefully* we will be able to keep it cleaner. No promises.. we're slobs. :)

The Christmas tree is to the right, outside of the photo. It looks pretty but having it decorated makes Clint and I a little sad because that means Molly isn't here to tear it down and break all of our ornaments.

Anyway, for Thanksgiving, we went to Mexico with Jed as our tour guide and it was AMAZING. I don't know how to recap the entire trip because there was so much to document. I might take a few days to do it.. Hopefully I don't get lazy. I still need to get most of the photos from my mom but I can make do with what I've got.

So to remember the trip as it was happening, I didn't want to take the time to write EVERYTHING down and take an hour everynight to journal everything because I would just get tired of it and by day 2, I wouldn't do it anymore. So to substitute, I decided to write down phrases of things to help me remember what we did each day and if I had time later, I would elaborate. Mostly it's there to just help jog my memory. For today, I'll just start with Saturday and Sunday and maybe I'll tackle more later.

So, to preface, we left Saturday, Nov 22, took 3 flights to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, and immediately took a 30-45 minute taxi ride to our hotel.

Saturday

Lines on the road really don't matter to ANYONE

Honking is not a rude gesture; they honk at ANYTHING

Heartburn after each flight SO bad

Palace Inn looks cheap on the outside

Dad/Mom/Jed's room smells like smoke - ours doesn't :)

Yummiest hamburgers for dinner from some guys garage - Cost: 20 pesos

Sunday

Church in Coita

bumpy 45 minutes bus ride to church - Cost: 10 pesos each

Everyone shook our hands at church because we were Jed's family - weird, they must have liked him ;)

Church outside by mango trees

Jed gets asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting (HAHAHAHA)

Heard roosters, not birds, during church

Mom had a fetish with taking pictures of doors

Dad doesn't like the word fetish

Visited 4 different houses

Ate dinner at 4 different houses

#1: Dinner (fried chicken, beans, tortillas, salad, & YUMMY watermelon water)

#2: Homemade bread & Coke

#3: Visit Violet and brand new baby and drink Orange water

#4: Best empanadas EVER!!!

This was the home of the family that fed us first. They were so sweet and the cutest little girl in green was there. While we were at church, during Relief Society, she walked up to me and wanted to shake my hand just because she didn't know who Mom & I were. She was SO cute!

This was outside of the last house we visited. They have a 2 story home and they live upstairs and let the missionaries live downstairs for free! I didn't take many pictures the first day but there will be more to come!