Glimpse into our Life - Christmas Trees

Last year we were in the states at this time of year.  It was our first American Christmas since we were married and Eddy's first American Christmas ever.  There are several differences between an American Christmas and a Dominican Christmas.  I will post more about as we continue into the Christmas season but for now I wanted to show you this.

This is a picture of us buying our Christmas tree with my parents last year:

And this is a picture of us buying our Christmas tree this year:

Glimpse into our Life - Christmas traditions

This time of year, in the evenings, Eddy and I like to listen to Christmas music and drink hot chocolate (even though it only drops down to around 70 in the evenings.)  It's one of our Christmas traditions.

In honor of our family members in New York and Chicago.

I also love to bake Christmas cookies.  I plan and make lists and spend hours organizing and baking, and then I make plates of them and give them to everyone that I can think of.  Christmas cookies are not really a thing here in the DR.  (Typical Christmas desserts here are apples and grapes.)  However, everyone really gets excited about my plates of cookies and have so much fun doing it.

Candy cane kiss cookies.  Everyone's favorite.

Glimpse into our Life - Preschool Christmas Program

Today is our annual Preschool Christmas Program.  It is, without a doubt, my favorite day of the school year.  We started doing a nativity play as part of our Christmas program a few years ago and it is so much fun.  The teachers really get into, the kids are so excited about it, and the parents love it.  This year we did a dress rehearsal on Monday so I took some video of the dress rehearsal and made it into video.  Here it is:  (Prepare yourself.  The kids are so cute you might not be able to handle it.)



Christmas Program 2014 from Carrie Ramos on Vimeo.

Glimpse into our Life - sharing the road

If you have visited us in the DR, you know that it is very common to encounter dogs, chickens and cows in the road.  Sometimes you will even have to stop and wait for them to pass before you can continue on your way.  However, you may not know that sometimes you will also encounter other animals, such as turkeys or a small pink pig.  Although it happens less often; it does happen.

This was taken about a block from our school.

Glimpse in our Life - Home

Hi All,

I know it's been two months since my last post.  Sorry about that.  Over the last two months Eddy and I have been busy getting ready for our trip to the states, traveling to New York, Buffalo, and Chicago, and then traveling back and readjusting back into life in the DR.  We had a great trip to the states, and I'll write more aout that in future posts, but for today I just want to get back into sharing some glimpses into our life again.

When I traveled back to the DR I was really sick and the jetlag, time change, and climate change hit me really hard.  I got home around midnight on a Friday and then I ended up spending my first three days back sick in bed.  So that Tuesday, when Eddy I left the house to go to the school, as I walked out my door and looked out, the view actually stopped me in my tracks.

Our apartment is on the second floor of a building and the building is at the top of a hill so our view is very beautiful.  I wish a picture could capture it.  You can see over the trees all the way to the mountains.  But it wasn't necessarily the beauty that stopped me in my tracks.  It was the realization that I was home.  This view is what home looks like.

Glimpse into our Life - A Drive Around Santiago

At lunch time on Thursday, Eddy and I had to go into downtown Santiago to run some errands for the school.  I decided to video parts of our drive so that I could show you around the city a little bit.

Since most of this video was taken around 12:30 on a Thursday, you unfortunately won't see the crazy traffic that happens in the late afternoons.  (We intentionally avoid going into the city at that time of day.  But if we ever do, I will make sure to record that for you as well.)

You will, however, see a lot of cultural things as we drive through the city, such as people carrying umbrellas to shade them from the sun, motorcycles all around ignoring every single traffic law,  women carrying things on their heads, men pushing carts full of things to sell, the monument, people hanging out of the doors of moving buses, people selling water bottles at intersections, etc.

The last minute of the video shows us arriving in our neighborhood at the end of the day.  After we turn the corner, you will see a white building in front of us.  That is where we live.  Our apartment is the second floor of that building.  The video ends with us turning into our drive way. 

So, I invite you to take a five minute drive with us around Santiago.  I even added a Spanish praise and worship song for you to listen to while you watch.



A Drive Around Santiago from Carrie Ramos on Vimeo.

Glimpse into Our Life - School Video

This is a video that Joy made for us about a year ago for our last trip to the states.  In case you didn't get to see it or would like to see it again, I thought it would be a good idea to post it here.  Since the school has been a major part of our lives for the last several years, this video definitely shows a "glimpse into our life".

Bienvenidos a Caminito de Jesús from Joy Gort on Vimeo.