It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Who are we kidding, ya’ll already know I’ve had Christmas up since October, but it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Vinde now. With camp over, we can start working on the christmas party decorating that needs to be done. But we’re not doing it alone.

A group of ladies from 12 Stone Church are here to help. They brought 200 candy canes down for the kids here for the party. Lesley took care to bubble wrap the boxes. How sweet.

This is the first time, we’ve had an all ladies team. They were so sweet and a hoot. They kept me laughing.

These ladies, dove in and did what needed to be done. The prior week the weather had been cooler but this group brought all sun with them. It was so hot but they persevered.

Their schedule was a little different from other groups as it was the last week of the semester and party week. In the mornings, after devotionals and testimonies, they worked on Christmas related projects for the party. But the afternoons were like normal.

Devos, testimonies, home visits, and activities kept these ladies busy.

Of course, there’s usually a construction project going on. They are working on a building that will house metal, woodworking, and electrical vocational spaces to teach our teens. The hope is to help get them some skill training before they age out of our program. They were also working on remolding one of the houses for our new coordinators.

The last day for Vinde meant it was Vinde McFeliz for lunch (Trevor cooked hamburgers and fries for the kids while the ladies prepped and served the food) and it was also time for the kids to “spend” their points they had been earning this semester at the Points Bazaar. The ladies helped set up and organize the bazaar for the kids.

Can you guess the theme this year? Kevin, Sarah, and Carol worked super hard on making the candy canes come to life all wrapped in color. The ladies worked on getting the rest of the room set up for the 400+ people we expected over the next two days. With the Imperial location growing this year, there was no way to host both locations on the same night. So this year that meant we needed to have two parties; one Friday and one Saturday.

The party looked beautiful as did the ladies that helped make it happen.

I was so proud to see my boys and the interns translating for the team.

The ladies served the Imperial families on Friday.

Then they got up and did it all over again on Saturday for the Sede location families. They worked so hard. After the party they, along with the rest of the staff, cleaned up. Tired, they packed up and got ready to leave bright and early Sunday morning. They were a wonderful group of ladies, that worked well together to uplift and support one another. It was beautiful to see them be there for each other.

After the clean up, my kiddos and some of the other staff went out for ice cream. Trev and I did not. Neither did the team. It had been a long week and we needed rest.

I have to admit this week was pretty stressful for me for various reasons. It was hard. To work so hard for months for things to go smooth and then one thing after another went wrong all week long. It stretched me almost to the breaking point. One of those weeks where you wonder if you’re in the right place. Of course, I know I am but some days it makes you question your life choices; like, “Are you sure I’m hearing you right Lord?“ kind of weeks.

In the end things worked out, thankfully and the team and the party were a success. But there was no time to slow down. Trevor dropped the team off at the airport early Sunday morning while I worked on cleaning out the rooms and kitchen and organizing some of the Christmas supplies.

Monday we woke to a morning of packing for Campos do Jordão. Our family, Liandro’s family, and Sarah took the teens and the interns on an overnight trip to see Christmas lights. Decorating for Christmas isn’t the same as in the States but there are a couple of towns that do it up big and Campos do Jordão is one of them.

In true fashion for the week that I had, we didn’t even make it out of the city before the van had a flat tire. But everyone took the hour delay in stride and took it as an opportunity for an ice cream break and a jam session at the tire place. I have no idea how Liandro found a guitar. The guy at the tire shop fixed the flat for free (what a blessing) and we were back on the road.

With my Christmas shoes on, I was ready to go see Christmas lights, unfortunately, so were my hot flashes. Yep, that’s Dawson holding a fan on me as I sat there and sweat in the car. I am officially the old lady of the group. What a sweet young man. I’m sure he was wishing he was in the van instead of the car with this crazy lady.

Look at how much Mason had grown. Tuck is catching up and it won’t be long before he’s taller than me too. I love my men.

Our hotel looked like something out of a movie. In Brazil it’s not standard to have two queen beds, usually it’s twin beds or one queen or one twin and one queen. Finding a room for four can be difficult. So we had to get a bunch of rooms to fit us all. After Trev and I sat our bags down, we went next door where Dawson and Tuck were staying. Tuck barely opens the door and was acting weird. He had a queen bed only in his room and we had a queen and a twin, obviously they had switched our rooms. Tuck said Dawson was in the shower, hence the being weird part; he didn’t want the door wide open while Dawson was showering. We told them about the error and that we needed to swap rooms. We asked Tuck why didn’t he say anything when he saw one bed, and he said him and Dawson just thought that’s just how it was and they were going to roll with it. We assured them we wouldn’t do that and if he had to share a bed we would have had him share one with this brother. Oh me. Boys.

Anyways, with the room situation sorted out, we set out to find Christmas lights.

And find them we did.

This year Campos do Jordão had a Mickey Mouse theme, which was great for Davi and Sarah, both of whom are big Disney fans.

We took the teens to a fondue place for dinner. Although the restaurant was struggling to get us the right number of fondue pots and food, everyone was having a great time. The musician playing music was singing in English (which I have seen oftentimes in tourist places like this). So halfway through our meal, it was almost a sign along show.

The teens and interns enjoyed it and that was the hope.

We had a good time walking around in the Switzerland looking town all decked out in Christmas lights.

My advice, go on a weekday. The crowds are so much smaller. We were here last year, just me and Trev, and the place was shoulder to shoulder crazy busy.

Granted not all of the shows are going on so if that’s more your speed, you’ll need to stick to the weekends.

The next day we hit up the chocolate store. Look how sweet we are. Twenty-two years later and I still love this man with all my heart.

Look at this quirky cafe we went to. It was fun to wonder around in here where the chairs have socked feet.

With that, we had to get back to Atibaia. Giovana was graduating the next day. From a six year old starting Vinde to a 17 year old young lady starting her adult life; so proud of her.

With that, Vinde is over for the semester. That doesn’t mean we get to slow down. Time to get laundry done and repack for our adventure that starts at 9pm.