Not much happening here...a 3 part series. Part 2.

Do you mind if I just scoot right past Thanksgiving? It was wonderful, the brothers & sisters were all in town together (also for Christmas...it feels like this is the first time that has happened in YEARS.)  Everyone was in charge of making one dish for the big meal so we started ours at 7am when the kids woke up and finished it right about 1030a...yikes.  Delicious...but took too long to put in rotation!  We all headed north a couple of hours to spend some time together in the woods.  Some of the boys went hunting while the rest of us hung around the lodge and hunted for pinecones, fed the fish, went exploring.  It was a peaceful holiday!

Here is Uncle Mack helping P ride his strider bike.  For some reason P has decided he doesn't like riding his bike, which is not helpful for me at all since I need him to be out of the stroller and out on his own - I want to get him on a pedal bike asap but am having no luck...any suggestions!?  Also, I wish I had the video, maybe one of the other brothers/sister will post it.  P made everyone race in the street to grab a flag from his hand - and you had to keep running the race until the last one standing.  I can't remember who was the biggest loser...but it was hilarious.

We picked out Christmas trees with the whole family.  P thought it was a huge forest.  Kind of sad really...since it was off the side of a busy street...but he loved running through all of the trees and accidentally made one fall over.  He had no idea that it was his fault, or that it almost crushed him.  His uncles helped save the day.

And here are the November birthdays for our yearly calendar..look at who is cheesin...quite unlike him.

The happy happy grandparents...P is playing the choking game with granddad and L is probably about to throw herself backward for fun, never a dull moment with these two (four!)

Ok.  So I guess Thanksgiving wasn't that hard to remember...yay yay took a lot of pictures to help.  Also, P went to his first UF football game in the swamp!  He loved it...next up, a trip to NC to cheer on the Wolfpack!

Christmas.  This picture was too perfect to not send out as a Christmas card.  I decided baby #3 would be here closer to her due date and so I could do a Christmas card and then a birth announcement.  hahaha.  Oh the plans we make...stay tuned.

Every year we put activities or books or fun events in our advent calendar...here are a few examples.  Gingerbread teepees / Christmas trees (P chose the neon colors) instead of gingerbread houses.  These were so much easier & the kids loved them and could do it themselves...less clean up, less candy etc.  awesome.  thank you pinterest.

The Holy Land.  P LOVES this place.  Though as a 4 year old he was more observant of the crucified Jesus & the scary parts of the Easter story so we had to steer clear of that.  But it was just as much of a success this year as it was last!  Except Jesus didn't talk to Peter this time...that attraction was broken. :)

Sweet P got to be Joseph in his school nativity scene.  Probably because the only requirement was to stand next to the manger.  Since that is all he would be doing.  He did shake his jingle bells when it was time, which is improvement from his Thanksgiving worship performance where he stood with his hands in his mouth the whole time.

Cannonball Express to see Santa!  One of our favorite adventures...cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas songs...the weather even cooled down a bit for us.

The first thing P says when he sees Uncle Bale is "can he throw me in the air like his helicopter!!??"  Pretty soon he will be too big...but Uncle Bale will probably throw his back out first.

Santa & the whole family on both sides pitched in to get the kids a playset for Christmas...the elves were up late in the night moving it from Santa's drop point at yay yay and grandad's to our house.

Happy boy discovering what Santa brought him.  Thanks to Aunt Theresa for doing the decorating!

It's not a Christmas day celebration without crackers & party hats!  I am unbelievably close to having a baby at this point. She is supposed to arrive in less than a week...

And so begins playset construction day...Aunt Theresa and Grandma Sue are perfect entertainers...but you will notice that our playset is not quite complete...our plans have gone awry.

Tune in sometime in the next month for the final installment of "Not Much Going On Around Here..."

as usual.  unedited and typed quickly.  At least there are pictures.

Escaping the Chill in Chile

As fall semester came to a close at HKS, the Boston area was in the throes of what would turn out to be one of the coldest and longest in history. I had signed up for a class in January during what's called the J-term that I was very excited about: a fast-paced and very dense all day course in Persuasion that would count for one credit. My excitement about the course wasn't enough to override my distinct hatred for the wind and wet, snow and sleet, and when a classmate mentioned a different J-term class that would take place in Chile, I eschewed a course with known benefit for one with, well, a LOT of unknowns.

A group of about 20 HKS-ers headed to Santiago Chile to embark on a course mean to rebuild communities post natural disasters. The Bio Bio region in central Chile was hit devastatingly hard by a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami that wiped out many communities of many different sizes. After a few days in Santiago learning about the event, its effects on communities, and the efforts that had already been undertaken to assuage the population and rebuild, as well as some team building and extracurricular bonding, our group split into three teams. 

Team Perales with our Advisors

The three teams were headed to Cobquecura, a town of about 8,000, Dichato, a town of about 3,500, and Perales, a town of about 500. The Cobquecura team was running a grant competition for small business, the Dichato team was exploring was to rebuild the town economy through aquaculture, and the Perales team was embarking on a needs assessment to determine what could be done to further assist the residents there. I was on the Perales team, and was dropped off with seven other students in an extremely remote coastal village, whose residents were often said to be descendant from gypsy survivors of a shipwreck.

Perales was decimated by the 2010 tsunami

Walking to the school to start the day

Hombres community meeting

We completely embedded within the town for the next ten days. We worked out of the school learning about the community and trying to figure out how best to approach the residents to reach our end goal of distributing $15,000 USD in the best possible way for the town. We held town meetings and went door-to-door listening to and recording the needs of each of the citizens in Perales and Alto Perales. Many of these conversations were emotionally heart wrenching, but it was also difficult to get people to move on from immediate personal or household needs to look at the bigger picture of community needs.

Mujeres meeting

Our classroom work space

Working outside the girls cabana

Work sessions spanned the entire day, including into the cabanas where at least we could have tapas and wine.

Many of the needs were about better warning and easier tsunami escape paths, and protection of the coastline from high water, but these proposals were already in progress by the government, albeit slow progress. We were finally able to ascertain that the greatest need was a long term solution for potable water for the residents of Alto Perales, who often went four days without potable water and whose water supply was being reduced each month.

The end of the water at the Pacific Ocean

Talking about the water flow with Oscar

The source of potable water for all of Alto Perales (150 people)

Discussing strategy

We ended up writing multiple letters and reports to government officials to increase the pace of government initiatives, as well as explain the water problem in Alto Perales. We offered the residents a step-by-step plan to pursue government subsidized well projects, and explained it to each of the water committees of Perales and Alto Perales. Finally, we gave our $15,000 USD to the Perales and Alto Perales water committees to help pay for technical plans and surveys needed to jump start the project.

Meeting with water committees

The experience was extremely difficult, but very rewarding. I learned a lot about human nature, both positive and negative. I learned about working in teams in an unknown environment, trying to accentuate each person's strengths and shield their weaknesses. Lastly, I learned that many of ideas of "helping out" are seen as unhelpful and too far outside the community; yet many want to complain about these aspects while being completely dependent on outside help.

Perales rugged beautiful but rugged coast

Fishing at sunset

Damage and hope

After the hard work, we returned to Santiago for a debrief. It was obvious that the other teams had a quite different experience than we did, but it solidified and strengthened the experience for our team. Later, a classmate and I joined up with a former classmate and fellow Morocco traveler to explore the Santiago area.

We enjoyed delicious Chilean wine in at a great winery, known for being a plantation whose owners shield Chilean forces in their struggle for independence against Spain. We explored the Andes mountains and then spent a day in Valparaiso checking out street art and eating delicious seafood lunch and dinner. We also spent some time at the beach at Vina.

Awesome tasting area with a bougainvillea that would make LTD jealous

The vacation crew

Underground barrels

Verdict? Delicious

Mike checking the color

Street art in Valpo

Vena Beach

Santiago castle

Chile was an incredible experience and an enjoyable country. I will definitely go back to enjoy the beaches again, and especially to explore the south and Patagonia.