Christmas at the Mission Home 2011

We celebrated Christmas at President Ronald and Sandy Heaton's home of the Montevideo West Mission. They kindly included us even though we are in the other mission. They invited the president of our mission, President Da Silva and his wife also. We had a pot luck dinner. Sister Heaton had set the tables so nicely. Here is an example of one of the tables.

Jerry has changed, but not that much. This is Elder Goates and Elder Diaz, two of the temple missionaries. The ladies are always invited to fill their plates first, so the men are waiting patiently. Pres. and Sis. Da Silva are in the background (in the mirror.)

The temple missionaries are amazing cooks! They all raised large families and know how to feed a crowd. Yum!

The young missionaries treated us to a Christmas hymn as a special musical number.

Elder Diaz played Santa and had a special treat for each couple. He was so kind. He made a great Santa!

After a Christmas Story, and some crazy gift exchange games, the young elders and sisters went home. We older folks sang Christmas carols and songs. We felt the Christmas spirit.

At midnight, we went out to watch the fireworks. There were even more this year than last year. It was awesome!!

There are at least 12 sets of fireworks going off at the same time in this picture.

This was my best action shot!!

These fireworks were in the opposite direction from the temple.

After forty minutes, the fireworks ended and we went to our room at the hostel. We got special permission to stay there even though it was closed. Hna. Barney stayed there also. On Christmas morning, we went to church at the chapel next to the temple. We had another delicious pot-luck dinner with the temple missionaries and took a taxi home. What a wonderful way to spend Christmas!!

For the pot-luck dinners, I took an orange jello salad, and for Christmas dinner, cheese cubes with marachino cherries on the top. But after all that good food, I was still really hungry for pumpkin pie.

A few days after Christmas, I made one--from scratch. First I cut up the pumpkin and baked it.









Then I blended it, mixed up the pie filling, made the pie crust, and baked the pie. Sister Broadwater's parents had come to pick her up from her mission. They came to share the pie with us. They appreciated American food after a week of Uruguayan food.

She and her mom helped by whipping the cream with a wire whip in a mug. It takes some work, but it is worth it.

Big bite!! Pumpkin pie and whipped cream! Now our Christmas was complete.