the most wonderful time of the year

Now I know what they mean in that Christmas song when they say "It's the most wonderful time of the year". When you move away from everything you know...your family, friends, and work, things become a little more, ummmmmm, PRECIOUS! We haven't updated the blog in several weeks simply because we have been enjoying every sheer moment of our time here in Oregon. Here are a few of the highlights....


1. My traditional Christmas Eve-Eve lunch with my friend, Ronelle (a 14 year tradition that I forgot to take a picture of...FAIL!)


2. The Bryant kid traditional Festivus dinner (another picture fail on my part. Sarah, would you mind sending me a picture to post on the blog)


3. The traditional Christmas Eve pizza at Papa's (geesh, we have a lot of traditions. I LOVE them all!!!)

4. Christmas morning at my parents

traditional "in front of the tree" picture

sweet Peruvian-made puppets for my classroom

Check em out  http://perupuppets.com/

the traditional Christmas morning brunch

5. Christmas evening at The Bryants

we smuggled tequila & margarita glasses across the border

sweet home-made gifts from Wendy

5. Christmas Around the World
(My wonderful mother in law had the great idea to celebrate Christmas with the extended family by bringing a variety of dishes from around the world and discussing where we've all traveled. Wish I could've been able to name off a few more countries....maybe next time)

i set a 10 second timer and told everyone to hurry up. this is what resulted

the Schulenberg clan

7. Lunch Date with the ladies

my little BFF

Holy crap, I am so thankful to be "home for the holidays". Am I too mushy-gushy to say that my family and friends mean the world to me. We are so blessed!

los bryant outlaws

Well, yet another “first” for Los Bryants. This weekend, we officially got kicked out of Mexico. 

That’s right, on Saturday afternoon, Wes & I tried to cross into Mexico, but were officially denied. Here’s the story: I encouraged Wes to bring his dirt bike with us in the back of the truck, as I knew the kids would love riding it around the desert. Well....Mexico is notorious for its inconsistent border crossing rules and the lady at secondary decided that she simply would not let us into her country without seeing the bike’s registration. Awesome, did this lady think we were criminals!?!?! We turned around, drove the 20 miles back to Yuma, and grabbed the registration, and headed back for a second try. Ironically, after wasting our precious afternoon getting paperwork, on our second time through we weren’t even stopped and were simply waved through. So much for the “you need your registration” policy.

I was absolutely right. The Vieyra family LOVED Wes’ dirt bike. Wes was such a trooper and drove everyone around through the desert, including Papa Arny & Mama Lety. I’m not kidding, Wes probably made 25 rides in a matter of a few hours. Here’s some pictures of everyone’s rides.....

gamas

samy

papa arny

magui (can't believe our baby girl is almost a teenager)

 

selene

mama lety

dirt biking in a falda

Oh, and did I mention the real purpose of our trip!?!?!? The original purpose of our trip was for Wes to fix Papa Arny’s car. When he wasn’t taking people on joy rides, Wes was under the Vieyra family car, fixing the starter. 

Due to auto stores being closed on the weekends, we had to make an additional trip on Monday for Wes to finish fixing the car. It felt so crazy that we were making just a quick evening trip to Mexico, considering it used to take 20+ hours to make a trip down here in the past. While making dinner with my sweet little Magui, who has literally grown up before my very eyes, I realized that Wes & I lead quite the unique life. I mean, c’mon, how many of you can say you were spending your Monday night hanging out in a small low-income community in Mexico cooking with the cutest 12 year old you ever did see?

We are so blessed.  

safety first!

wes told the boys they could ride it if they could start it. they failed.

dq with da boys

wes' "thanks for fixing the car" gift

another teacher milestone

There are certain milestones in a teacher's career. One of those crucial milestones is the receiving of teacher-related Christmas gifts. You know, mugs that say "#1 teacher" or ornaments in the shape of chalkboards or apples. What can I say, I'm the prodigy of a teacher and I've seen a few too many of these in my lifetime. Ironically, I was always taught to just "hide these ornaments on the back of the tree".

Well, today I officially received my first teacher Christmas ornament....

a Snowman snow globe, complete with a light that changes colors.....Awesome!

So there you have it, my friends. I've reached yet another important teaching milestone....now if only I had a real tree to hang it on. 

a day of thanks

What a weekend it has been. As much as we missed being home for Thanksgiving with our dearest family and friends,we managed to keep ourselves plenty busy  this weekend. We are so thankful for our family, friends, and the people down here that allowed us to join their families for Thanksgiving. Here's a quick look at our weekend events

Wednesday: We started the weekend by heading to our weekend resort home....

just kidding! We housesat this beautiful house and took care of the family Shih Tzu,Priscilla.

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!

Even though we couldn't make it home for the holiday, we are blessed with amazing friends and co-workers who let us celebrate Thanksgiving with their families. We started Thanksgiving early this year, with a brunch with some of my sweet co-workers. We made my grandma's amazing crescent rolls and enjoyed the "Thanksgiving Brunch". After a quick stop to check on Priscilla and to grab our homemade pumpkin cheesecake, we headed to another friend's house for the official Thanksgiving meal...Mexican style! Our friends, whom are originally from Mexico, invited us to their Thanksgiving meal. Thus, we spent most the meal conversing in Spanglish and talking about Damay's upcoming quinceaneara. I must say, it was the most unique Thanksgiving we've had in awhile and it was a blessing just to be a part of other families traditions. Thank you Swope and Vieyra families! 

Friday: Picacho State Park with Carl & Sally

Not only do we have great friends, we also have great neighbors. Our sweet neighbors, Carl & Sally, invited us to join their family out a Picacho State Park for some "off-roading". Although their off-roading world is SO different from mine, I kindly accepted the offer and knew that Wes would love to opportunity to ride around the desert. We rode dirt-bikes, buggies, and quads all over the desert and enjoyed the amazing sunshine...in NOVEMBER!

my little dirt bike boy

it's hard to see in the picture, but this areas is called "The Names". Since the early 80's people have been using the dark rocks to write their names throughout the desert.

driving Carl's Samurai

Saturday: Christmas decorating and Duck game

We spent the morning decorating for Christmas. Wes worked on the outside lights, while I decorated the "tree". Wes was so happy that this year he would be putting up the lights in the beautiful sunshine. Such a different experience from years past, when he's had to brace the rain and cold.

Wes putting up lights. Is that the sunshine I see to his left? Why, yes it is!

funny story: While decorating inside, I peaked out the window to check up on Wes & this is what I saw. Welcome to Yuma winters!

Another funny story: I LOVE Christmas and decorating the tree. However, this year is a bit different, since we are nowhere near our beautiful Oregon nobles. Wes & I considered getting a fake tree from the store, but we just didn't feel like it would ever be the same as going up in the mountain and getting our own. We also aren't terribly rich right now and didn't want to waste our precious money on a fake Christmas tree, especially knowing that we'll be in Oregon in just three short weeks to enjoy the real Oregon trees. So.....this is what happened. I decided the "tree issue" wouldn't effect my Christmas spirit one bit, and decided to decorate the house plant....awesome. It's been to look a lot like Christmas?!?!?!

The "Christmas" tree

After a morning of decorating, we spent the late afternoon cheering on our Oregon Ducks. Priscilla joined in on the fun too.

Priscilla says "Go Ducks"

Go Ducks...and Happy Thanksgiving!

full of hot air

The joy of living in a place full of snowbirds is that the winters are filled with fun events. This weekend the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival is going on. The BLUE skies (that's right Oregonians, the skies are still blue and sunny) have been filled with several hot air balloons. 


My first balloon sighting was yesterday at school. The balloons happened to be leaving from the field just next to my school. Due to the fact that I go to work every morning at a god-awful hour, I was able to watch many balloons take off. Here's a few pictures from just outside my classroom window.

The balloon on the left is "Spidey-Pig", a Spiderman balloon in the shape of a pig. The kids LOVED this one, of course.

Second sighting: This morning Wes and I decided to wake up early and go to another one of the lift-offs. I think it was the first time we both officially felt "cold" in Yuma. Sadly, it was only a whoppin' 51 degrees. It was fun watching the balloons take off literally 5 feet in front of you....especially when the Applebees' one collided with the fence. Dang it, why wasn't my camera on the video mode. I could've had a Youtube hit. Here's a few pictures. 

If you look at this picture closely, you can see a ripped banner on the left side of the balloon. This was due to the collision with the fence. Suckers.