Christmas

Our Christmas was a little different this year. Ever since we have been married we have always spent Christmas with family. This year we were all alone with just our little family. However, it turned out to be a very nice Christmas. Our kids were soooooo excited on Christmas eve. They opened the traditional PJ's from grandma and grandpa Christensen.
Then we attempted to sing Christmas carols - which consisted mostly of the kids choosing the carols and Andy and I sang while the kids wrestled on the couch and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Then we tried acting out the Christmas story - it's just not Christmas without doing it. However, it's a little tougher to do when 2 out of the 4 are reading the story and video taping which leaves us with just Mary and Joseph. Ethan didn't like his costume and felt the new Thomas PJ's were perfect for Joseph's outfit. So, our Christmas story was pretty much Lucy being a sweet Mary - sitting perfectly tending to her baby while Ethan raced from one side of the room to the next. OK - so it wasn't exactly how we had pictured but the kids were still having fun.

The next day was very fun. We spent the whole day together and played with the kids all day long. It was so enjoyable. It was also our first Christmas that was hot enough to go swimming. We made a couple of trips to the pool in our neighborhood and in between swimming we played with all the new toys. Ethan got some swimming rings from his cousin Lydia. They were a huge hit. He spent the whole time in the pool throwing the rings and and diving after them!

What a trooper!!

By now most of you have heard about Ethan. A little over a week ago he was drinking a ton of water and going to the bathroom a lot. By the second day of him doing this it really concerned us. So, we began to do a little searching around on the internet and just as we had suspected he had symptoms of diabetes. So, after many visits to the hospital, trips to labs to draw blood, and talking to several doctors it was confirmed that Ethan has type 1 diabetes. This came as a huge surprise and really bad timing given it was a week before christmas and everyone is eating treats and offering treats and suddenly we are told he can't have any sugar at all. Not to mention we felt we had a lot to learn about diabetes and not enough time given a baby could be coming any day now. Anyway, it has just been a crazy week. Ethan has been such a good sport though. We have to prick him and test his blood at least 4 times but usually 6 times a day. We also have to give at least 2 shots but sometimes 4 shots of insulin a day. For the most part he has been very willing to let us poke at him all day long. It's so hard to try to explain to a 2 year old why he can't have treats or drink soda etc. and yet he has been pretty accepting of the fact that he can't. At first we felt a bit sorry for ourselves given our lives have suddenly changed and we will be dealing with this for the rest of our lives. However, it hasn't taken long to realize that Ethan is so blessed and so are we. He can still continue to live a normal life. It's not like he has a terminal illness as is the case with many other families who have children with other health issues.
Here is a picture of Ethan holding his equipment - shots and the device that reads his blood sugar level. He is funny - he often sets up the stuff for us an then will say "mommy be sure to get a lot of blood" (he knows we have to do it again if we don't get enough the first time)




PS- Just thought I'd mention I'd make a horrible diabetic. I like sweets too much! One day Andy told me I should keep some treats in my purse just to have on hand on the chance that his blood sugar level went too low. I told him I had already thought of that but had a problem with it. I bought some candy - it came in a package with 3 rolls of candy and it was already gone - and not because Ethan's blood sugar level had ever dropped too low!!

Bad Day in Brazil!!!

There are some days that I just LOVE living here and there are also those days that I just don't like Brazil very much. I am not trying to be a pessimist in writing this blog but I do need to share my VERY BAD DAY in Brazil. I have told a few friends about it already because I had to vent right after it happened so if you are the few I've already told - sorry you have to hear it again! Andy knows some guys from his mission who are from the united states and are also living here with their families. I've never met them but was going to get together with their wives and kids to make Christmas cookies. Sounds fun huh?! (I was especially excited to spend the day speaking English and expressing myself without playing charades!) Well, one of the girls lives about an hour away so we were all meeting at her house since she is in the middle.
Before leaving I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for even attempting the drive given I had never been there. Driving here isn't always the easiest thing to do here especially when you aren't familiar with the area. Anyway to make a long story short, I left with the kids at 9:00 am and 4 HOURS later, 3/4 tank of gas later, many many many tears later, and way too many phone calls to Andy later I made it back to my house having never made it to the girls house. Our 1 hour drive turned into a 4 hour nightmare. Road signs are HORRIBLE here and don't match up very well to the map. Now I can't claim to be the best map reader in the world but I had very good directions and always knew exactly where I was on the map but the signs were just not helpful!!! Let's just say by the time I arrived back home I could not think of one thing that I liked about Brazil!!!! I have gotten over it ... kind of. Just thought you might like to know about my bad driving day in Brazil and hope it never happens again!

Our Christmas Tree

From what I have noticed people don't really do Christmas trees here. They might have a small one on their table or something but that is about it. You see them in stores for decoration but not in homes. Well, I couldn't imagine Christmas without a tree. So, this is what I ended up finding. It's a total Charlie Brown Christmas tree but we like it. The first time I put the star on just to see how it would look the tree toppled over. Yeah, it's not too sturdy! It's pretty much a stick with a few branches sticking out. It's funny but will do for this year. Also, notice the stockings in the background - nobody has stockings here. That is not tradition here. Also, we are learning that on Christams Eve here the people eat a big dinner like around 9:00 or 10:00 and open presents at midnight. People don't wake up on the 25th to open presents as we do in the United States. Interesting huh? I can't imagine keeping the kids up that late and then expecting them to go to bed after opening all their presents!

Sharing some traditions with the Brazilians

It seems that since we arrived I am constantly asking people how to get to places, where to shop, how to cook..... So, it has been nice to share a few things finally and do some things for other people. For Thanksgiving we had a family from our ward come and experience a Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't a full on Thanksgiving meal as we didn't have some of the salads I typically like to make (for lack of ingredients here) and instead of a turkey we had chicken (because they only sell turkeys at Christmas time). However, we did have homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, chicken, gravy, rolls, veges, and best of all homemade apple pie! It was the best meal I've had since we arrived. It was fun to share it with a Brazilian family. Our kitchen was sooooo hot and I was so sweaty by the time we sat down but it was all worth it. (notice Ethan isn't at the table. Too bad he was still taking a nap - we could actually enjoy our meal!! sorry ethan!)


We had Fernanda and Camilla over to make salt dough Christmas tree ornaments. They were pretty fascinated with the process. A week later we had them over to do almost the same type of thing - make sugar cookies and frost them. The kids LOVED it and Ethan seemed to think any cookie he frosted he had to eat before frosting the next one. When I finally told him no more cookies he seemed OK with it.I looked over at him a few minutes later only to find his hand full of sprinkles. He had dumped almost the entire jar into his hand and was happily eating away!!




Brazilians don't know what waffles or pancakes are. Fernanda use to live in the United States. One day she told me she LOVED waffles and pancakes. Come to find out she was talking about frozen waffles and pancakes. She had no idea you could make them. So, she was very happy to learn how to make them and even had her husband buy a waffle iron on a trip he took to St. Joseph not too long ago.


When we first moved here I did whatever I could to get syrup sent to us. It became a big hassle and got held up in customs. Since then we have had it delivered to us from people who come to visit from St. Joseph for work. Anyway all of Andy's co-workers somehow became very aware of his wifes desperate need for syrup. So, we had some work friends over to try waffles, pancakes and the syrup they had heard soooooo much about. We did a big breakfast dinner with pancakes, eggs, bacon, waffles, syrup, and juice. It was really fun and they all seemed to like it.

Camilla is such a sweetheart! She came to our waffle party and is expecting her first baby in April. Before leaving she really wanted a picture with the moms to be! (so for those of you who keep asking to see a picture of me pregnant...here I am at 8 months pregnant and feeling pretty huge!!)