Merry Christmas

I can honestly say that I have walked miles and sat in front of computers for hours to bring this video post to you. I miss my consistent high speed internet in the U.S.

Today has been mostly sunny. That is a nice change to the constant rain that we had for 3-4 days. Yesterday, we had strong rains all day. The rivers were running rapidly and the roads were flooding in places. Grandmadele, Annie, and Karissa arrived safely at their hotel. The hotel is really nice (www.hotelcasaturire.com). It is a 4-star hotel. Right now, we appreciate any hotel with stars. It is located 1.5 km (that's a mile) off the main road. The road is terrible. It took 10 minutes from the main road to the hotel lobby because of the holes in the road and the heavy rains. We all spent the afternoon at our house and opened Christmas gifts. It was a great day. We received many gifts from grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The children were very excited. I think Chandler almost cried when we she received an IPod. Early in the evening, we gathered two taxis and went to Casa Turire. We had a great dinner at the hotel.

I left everyone at the hotel as they were about to get in the pool. I was going to take a bus into Turrialba. The hotel is located near the halfway point between Tuis and Turrialba. While I waited at the side of the road, a few of the professors, Henry and Armando from our school drove by and picked me up.

Thank you for the comments and e-mails that we receive about the blog. The whole family looks forward to the responses. It has been fun to journal our experience online.