It’s Christmas eve, everywhere, even in Belize. Jenny and Mike decorated their place. Even spring the extra energy for a Christmas tree, LED lights of course. I asked if they’d tried LEDS on their normal lights, and they had. But the lasted only 2 weeks. Having spent $40 Belize ($20 US) on each, they won’t try again until quality improves Maybe our FTC team can travel to Belize and sell light bulbs, since those are holding up nicely in my house. 
That afternoon a family checked in with kids Maeve and Theo’s age. Theo and Maeve spent no time introducing themselves at the pool.
The kids were actually from 2 families. We’d overheard one of their mother’s was a ultra runner, her personal record being 114 miles. I thought, that’s nothing our friend and neighbor, Ryan Dexter, does 200+ miles. Funny, I’m at that point in my life where I take pride in other’s fitness, I guess. Actually, Kate and I have been doing pretty well as of late. She better than I, but she’s been stymied by an ankle injury that we fear may be lifelong and require surgery. She’s been wearing a brace when she can and toughing it out when she can not. A real trooper. My excuse? I took almost 2 months off from nearly every other day runs with Ruby so that I could focus on work and getting ahead for our big Sabbatical trip. I’d intended to bring my running shoes, but I forgot them. Maybe my new low key self intentionally forgot, as I haven’t missed them much. I’ve spent my free time instead journalling.
We enjoyed our downtime at the pool, and then forced FOB time on our kids. They all napped and so did Kate and I. The plan was to wake in time to head into San Ignacio for a meal and some Christmas time downtown, before driving back to Joyce’s Anglican church in Georgeville, the village on the Western Highway where we turn off for Gumbo Limbo. Joyce is the daughter in law of Mike and Jenny, and is quite involved in her church. Hodas came highly recommended by our hosts as well as Francisco our ATM guide, so we’d been wanting to get there. Nearly everywhere we drive, the kids fire up their electronics. We ask them to find a saving point and turn them off as we near our destination, or if the drive is long like Caracol, we force them to put them away and gather in some of the scenery. Modern parenting, I guess. We made them put away their electronics early as we were struggling with directions, and sure enough, Zeke calls our Hode’s take a right. I just followed his command, and asked how he’d known. He’d spotted a sign that neither Kate nor I had seen. We were surprised to see Hodes was more of a bar like you’d see on Spring Break, not at all local Belizean as we’ve been searching for. Big open warehouse like. Stil, the food was good. And the best part for the kids, they had a TV! Had to get this picture of them in veg mode. The funny part is the locals were not immune to this disease. Kate and I laughed as a little girl and boy stood by our table jaw ajar seemingly unable to blink. I would not have been surprised to see drool running down his chin, as Nickelodeon entranced him.
(Janie spotted me and did her best Sue imitation from The Middle)
Francisco had told us of the modern dams built upriver to protect San Ignacio from flooding. Found this good photo of the dam in a series of historical photos hung at the bar. Our server said this dam was only approx 10 years old.
From Hodes we circled back around through some of the rougher area of San Ignacio back to the central downtown. We killed a litlte time walking the downtown area. Kate forced her Christmas present on me, A $20 Bz ($10 US) Tshirt of an Aztec ruin and Belikin beer. I’ve often said I have spending issues, and true to form I resisted. But I love it. Thanks Kate! We wandered down to the new concert square (Marlynn at SI hotel, had said it was only a year old). We couldn’t resist taking this photo with Santa who was doling out candy to the younger kids. Kate and I chuckled again over News she brought back from her book club. Evidently a Fox news lady had commented on air that ‘Everyone knows Santa is white, that’s a fact’, and caught a lot of heat over it to the point where she was required to apologize. She was either quite thoughtless, or perhaps she was trying to express that Santa Claus is commonly portrayed as white. In fact, the Coca Cola poster just below their central square fake Christmas pine tree, had the class white Santa on it. It also reminded me of the beautiful painting we’d seen earlier on our trip of the last Supper. Had I been more religious, I’d have been tempted to purchase it, even though the price was probably near $1000 US. The artist had portrayed Jesus and all the apostles as if they were really born in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. Wish I’d have taken a photo of it. Gorgeous painting. About 3’ x 10’.
A family band was playing music, that was much too synthesized. The first song lasting 15 minutes, or perhaps there were 3 similar songs all mixed in their together, hard to tell. We listened to one more song, while Zeke came to the realization that a great way to round up the town drunks would be to host a concert. Anyone dancing within 10’ of the stage, was like a little over the limit. I was hoping for more of a family scene, but it was still entertaining. We then drove the 15 minutes back to Georgeville, to arrive about 10 minutes before 11. We pulled up to the parking grass area of the church we’d located area, and given the proximity of the service, were surprised there was no one else present. I jumped out the car, and walked up to the steps, only to find a young man in black robes with a white collar evidently rehearsing and preparing, but no one else around. I didn’t interrupt him, and instead we drove around behind the building looking for the 11 pm service. Finding nothing, we drove back and found the young man waiting for us at the door. He introduced himself as David. I apologized and said we must’ve gotten misinformation, but had heard there was an 11 pm service. He said there was, and he was very glad to have us. He also said we’d missed the 7 pm service, and that he was expecting only 1 or 2 more people tonight. He was very kind. He asked Theo to participate by doing a reading, and asked Zeke to run their new projector, a brand new experiment for that mass. Janice, one of the members, joined us and was also quite warm and welcoming. So the 8 of us had service together. There are people in your life that you bump into that astound you with their faith. David was one. An American from Indiana practicing in Belize. Rehearsing for an 11 pm mass, where there was good odds that no one showed up. Faith like that is powerful. As I said, it was an Anglican church. I found that much of the worship and prayers closely fit the Roman Catholic church. So much so, that several of the prayers came back to me nearly word for word. We finished with Silent Night, as we rounded the corner for the last verse, some fireworks went off in the distance. Pastor David had warned us that he was trying to keep things moving to finish ahead of the midnight fireworks, and we almost made it. I really enjoyed the service.
After mass, we drove the 2 miles up the road to Gumbo, and quietly crept back to our room. Theo and Maeve hung up the paper stockings they’d made earlier in the day. 
It wasn’t long before everyone was asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads (honestly, does anyone know what a sugar plum is??)
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