There's so much to blog about in regard to our last couple weeks. We returned last week from the countryside where my mom's family lives. My mom is one of 10 children, who all have children, who many have children. My family is huge! The last time we had been to see them was in 2005 right before Aaron and I left Brazil. The last time I remember spending the Holidays with them was when I was 4 or 5. Our time there was emotionally loaded. Being reunited after so long was incredibly sweet. No one measured the time we spent away. All of my family, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc loved us without counting the cost of us leaving again. It's overwhelming. My heart was moved. I will go there in a post soon, but for now, we'll keep it light! Here's a snip it of our Christmas day.
I said
Thanksgiving was exotic. It paled in comparison to our Christmas day exotic! Most of the day was laid back without much activity. We had a Christmas dinner the night of the 24th with all of the family gathered (more on that later). So Christmas day was pretty low key. In the afternoon, my uncle "Tio (uncle) Alemao" took us to go picking raspberries. Yes, we found a few raspberries, but we found so much more. Throughout our time, I kept thinking, "This seems like what the Garden Eden must have been like!" Journey with me through our adventure!
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| Incredible scenery outside my Grandmother's town |
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| First stop - Raspberry picking with Mema's help |
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| Look what we found! |
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| From the tree to our mouths! |
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| Mangos! |
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| Pumpkin! |
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| Jack Fruit (you can't tell but the yellow fruit hanging from the bottom of the tree are bigger than my head)! |
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| Paprika Tree - that's right! It comes from a tree. News to me! |
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| Paprika - a closer look |
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| Paprika - apparently these little seeds are ground up and that's how we get paprika |
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| Guava orchard! |
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After getting the owners permission, we were told to help ourselves to the guava!
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| We collected guava by the bags full! |
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| Dad in front of one of the guava trees. |
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| Jonathan and Tio Alemao (or as the boys called him Tio Limao - limao means lemon!) |
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| Look at all that guava! |
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| Of course we were taste testing along the way :) |
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| Final Stop - Tamarindos |
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| Look at the size of these things! |
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| YUM! |
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| Free as a bird! |
We weren't even 10 minutes from my grandmothers house and these were all of the things we found. My mind raced as I pictured the Garden of Eden. We felt like we were in paradise as we had access to so much right there off the trees. What a precious Christmas Day among family enjoying the wonders of God's creation! Simply unforgettable!
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