Adios Santa!

By now we're all pack up and settling into a short holiday vacation in BELIZE!

Hopefully this guy will still know where to find us!


Merry Christmas to all of you!
We hope your holiday is merry & bright!

We'll be back next week to tell you all about ours.

Making our Lust List

It might sound trite to those of you battling the storm,
but this December we're only lusting for 1 thing.......

Our current Must Have Lust

The Christmas Spirit
.....................
and for us it begins with SNOW!

Now we're not exactly living in the tropics like a lot of you think. Antigua has nearly the same altitude as Denver, but since we are a lot closer to the equator we can only dream of one day having snow. In Guatemala there are 2 seasons. Summer when it rains and Winter when it doesn't. Right now we are in "winter" and will be until about next April/May. Fortunately when the rain stops, it means it and we won't see another drop for several months. They say "winter" here is cold, but this crazy talk about cold is relative when you grew up with temps below zero! A while back I posted about the feeling of "fall" in the air, and for me that is what this weather is remniscent of. Basically in the mornings and evenings we need to wear a sweater or jacket, but mid-day it is roasty toasty. I love it. Since we know next year we'll be dreaming of escaping the cold and traveling to somewhere warmer, we're ok with accepting things as they are, but it sure does give make it difficult to "feel" the season.

In honor of our lust for a taste feel of winter and the Christmas Spirit, we rewrote some lyrics to a familiar holiday tune that's been on our minds!

Let it Snow (Remix)
(best when sung to the tune of the old classic!)

Oh the weather outside is far from frightful,
sunshiney cool breezes are delightful.
Central park is lit with lots of cheer,
But we still don't have any signs of the year!

The locals all dawn scarves and stockings,
in flip-flops we we Gringos keep on walking.
Temps are in the 60's & the 70's,
Oh how we wish it would snow!

When we finally do feel cold,
we bundle up tight in our fleeces.
Within minutes we start to sweat,
but at least we can pretend were at home!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

This Christmas

This Christmas we've really tried hard to get in the mood, but it's been just that - trying. It probably has a lot to do with 3 things. The weather. The fact that we are surrounded by poverty everyday. And that we really just don't need much. But that being said, we really want to feel like it's Christmas time, so we've done our part in searching out and providing holiday cheer.

1st we decorated the house. Of course this was fun for me. Not so fun was the purchasing of the decorations. Since we obviously are on a budget and won't be able to take much back with us, it felt a little frivalous, but we did our best. A couple of things were from Cemaco and the rest from the market, but finding non-tacky decor was exhausting.

Christmas is about the only time our awesome green & red plaid furniture works with the decor scheme.

Didn't the framed molas turn out fabulous?

It really does look pretty, especially a night all lit up.

What you also can't see in the photos is that we adorned both the patio and terrace with pretty white twinkle lights, which incidently also caused us huge headaches since we bought the cheapest lights we could find for Q10 each, and had to keep splicing (is that a real word?) them together each time they broke.


Next we threw a party. Of course once we put all the efforts into decorating, we had to share it with our friends! Plus it's something we like to do every year anyway. It usually does the trick.

Sorry I don't have the best photos.
It's hard to be hostess with the mostess and photographer extroidenaire too!

And if all those efforts weren't enough, we went out in search of holiday cheer and found it in an awesome concert in central park amidst the forest of white lit trees.

Christmas in the Park from Krista on Vimeo.

And even after all of our efforts,
we still don't truly feel like Christmas is a week away.
Next year we'll have to make up for it!


Stay tuned for tomorrow's completely expected Must Have Lust.

Gifts that Give

If you are feeling like we are this year and you & your loved ones don't really want or need anything for Christmas, you may want to consider giving a gift that keeps on giving. Supporting your favorite local charity is something you'll surely be able to feel good about and even see the results right in front of you in your own community.

While we most likely aren't local to you, Common Hope the Guatemala based NGO that I volunteer with, would certainly appreciate your support. We understand that it takes all kind of donors to make the non-profit world go round, so we offer you several choices.

Here are three ways to make the season bright:

A gift to Common Hope through giveMN.org will be free of credit card fees through December 31st so 100% of your gift will benefit our work. Last-minute shoppers can honor a loved one by giving an alternative gift through our gift catalog. Or for the gift that keeps on giving, ask a family member or friend to sponsor a child and begin a life-changing journey with someone who lives half a world away.

If it's a personal connection that you are looking to have, then I highly suggest sponsoring a child. We offer 2 types of sponsorship: leading ($60/mo.) and guiding ($30/mo.). With your donation, your sponsored child and her or her entire family gain access to education, health care, housing and social work services at little to no cost. Since we look to partner with families who have already placed an importance on education by sending at least 1 of their children to school, our sponsored kids are very likely to continue their studies through high school, and will remain affiliated and supported by Common Hope as long as they remain in school.

In Guatemala, education is said to be mandatory & free, neither of which is necessarily true. Between inscription fees, school supplies, and uniforms, we estimate that the cost of 1 year of education per child is about $100. Now considering the fact that the families that we work with earn around $150/month and have an average of 5-7 children, you can quickly realize how education isn't an option for everyone. Nationally, of the children that enter the 1st grade in Guatemala, about 50% of them graduate from primary school and only about 24% from high school. Studies have been done that show in developing countries like Guatemala, secondary school education will afford students an economic equivalency twice that of their peers who do not have a high school degree.

Think about the effect you can have. How rewarding would it be to see your donation make that kind of difference in a child's life?

With Common Hope's affiliation process we double the national statistics and we can proudly say that over 50% of our affiliated students will graduate from high school. Because once a child becomes affiliated with us, the whole family is eligible for our services, we estimate that we are working with about 8,000 Guatemalans, from 2,400 families.

Check out some highlights from 2009:

• 2,576 students attended elementary, high school, and university because of your support
• 113 high school students graduated, ready to embark on professional careers.
• Our medical clinic averaged 692 visits per month and 2,147 prescriptions filled.
• Affiliated families worked 4,553 sweat-equity hours to earn running water, stoves, and homes.
• Social workers made an average of 300 visits each month to our 1,302 families.

Now who wouldn't want to be a part of all of this?

Since beginning my work with the organization back in May 2009, we've been waiting for the right opportunity to become sponsors ourselves. Due to the economic crisis this past year in the US, many NGOs have been negatively affected, including Common Hope. Currently we have around 400 students who are affiliated, but do not have sponsors to cover the cost of their services.

As a Christmas gift to each other, this January we have decided that we will become sponsors of a child in need and would like to invite you, our friends and family, to take this journey with us. It's actually quite a neat experience, picking your "godchild". Since there are literally hundreds to chose from you can take your pick of sex, age, location, birth date, etc. Wouldn't it be awesome for us to sponsor siblings together? We totally understand it is a huge commitment, so we wouldn't want you to jump into things too quickly, but think it over and let us know by January 2010 if it's something that feels right for you. We promise that you will never look at poverty the same way ever again.

Sharing Traditions

In my adult life I have adopted the annual event of exchanging cookies with my co-workers and friends to help share the spirit of the holiday. Normally I invite a group of girlfriends to come bake desserts with me in my kitchen. We listen to holiday tunes, we watch our favorite seasonal movies, we drink wine, laugh and bake! And then we all get to leave with an assortment of yummy treats that can then later be gifted, shared a parties, or indulged on at home. In addition, since beginning to work at the Holly's I've also joined in on their annual cookie exchange, where we again all go home with a plate full of deliciousness.

This year though, it's been a little hard to get into the mood of the holiday for me (it's not even cold here, let alone snowing!), so my co-worker Abby and I decided to organize an old favorite American Cultural activity for our Guatemalan co-workers this season......the 1st Annual Common Hope Holiday Cookie Exchange.

Baking isn't a very common part of the cuture, but we had a plethora of interested ladies who found joy in partaking in an American tradition. Granted about half of the cookies were store bought, but the majority were carefully decorated, adorned and presented beautifully. The whole idea of the event was a success. For an hour or so during our lunch break, a group of us gathered together in merriment while sipping hot cocoa and nibbling on our sweet morsels! One friend even shared with us that she'll remember this day forever....and that made it all worthwhile!

The sisters Garcia enjoy a taste of their take home treats!

Ready, Set, Let the exchanging begin!

Our only male participant is still too young for cookie eating!

A girl after my own heart, Lisa made sure the arragement was perfect.

Lucia & Xiomara pulled out all the stops with their cookie gun!

Rosi and her daughter didn't waste any time sampling the goods!

Here's to sharing tradions!