Christmas in Brasil

5 days before Christmas.

Temperature of 100 degrees F outside.

Heat index of 110 degrees F outside.

90 degrees F inside our house.

Merry Christmas from Brasil!!

2

Dorks,

Today was Gi's last day of school. 

Mom cried after she hugged, kissed and thanked them for the great year. She said she was crying because they were such good teachers and so good to Quigs. She's right. They are awesome Christian teachers and God really blessed us this year with Ariane and Stela. 

On the walk home from school Gi shot this out: "I lay down and then wake up and then I lay down and wake up and then Bronwyn and Ansley are home!!" Thought you'd like that. 

As you guys know, it's family night in our house. Here's what we looked like as we watched Fred Claus.

I said "looked like" because it's 9:15 as I type and the movie is still on. Anderson is already in his bed. Mom, Garrett and Carys are asleep on the couch. Gi is the only one still wide awake. He keeps waking mom up and asking questions and she wakes up long enough to mumble an answer....usually wrong. Sounds about right doesn't it? His battery never quits and everyone else konks out.  

You guys get to pick the movie for our next family night. Gi and I will watch it with you while everyone else sleeps. 

2 more days!

3

1-Go to Dallas tomorrow.

2-Get on the plane on Saturday.

3-Get home on Sunday.

3 more days!

4........Time for some Isms

Goobers,

You will be home in 4 days so we felt like you might need a refresher course in some family isms. Here we go:

Gi: "Every day my breath smells like gray."

Anderson: (walking into the our building and smelling something good) "Mmmmmm, something smells really good! It smells like....."
Gi: "Paper sauce!"

Gi: "Why does God make bunda behs on people every day?"

Anderson: "What would our bodies be like if we didn't have any hair?"
Mom: "Smooth."
Garrett: "Hairless."
Mom: "Bald."
Anderson: "Bald. Yeah, I was about to say bald."

Anderson: (at Gerald and Nicole's house for house church) "Can I have a cup of water?"
Me: "I don't know where any is. You need to go ask Nicole, it's her house."
Anderson: "It's just that his house smells like pasta and it's making me thirsty."

Anderson: "Hey dad, can two black people have a white kid?"
Me: "No."
Anderson: "Yeah, I didn't think so."

Anderson: "If I have a son and I live in Brasil his name will be either Vinicius, Lucas or Eduardo. If I live in the states his name will be Michael. I guess it depends on what my wife wants to call him. It will probably be 70% her choice and 20% my choice."

Mom: "Kevin, can you go to our email to activate Anderson's lego account?"
Me: "Sure. Okay Anderson it's asking for your password. What is it?"
Anderson: "Okay, type 'Cake is so good' with no spaces.

Gi: "I wish I could be a rock style."
Me: "A rock style?"
Gi: "Yes."
Me: "You mean like Harry Styles?"
Gi: "No like Garrett and you."
Anderson: "Hey what about me?"
Gi: "Yeah, you too."

Gi: "My bunda beh hurts."
Anderson: "Your bunda beh?"
Gi: "Yes. I have a cold."

Me: (watching Anderson cut something out for mom for the school bazar) "Do your absolute best on that bud."
Anderson: "As if I'm working for God!"

Me: (putting the boys down for the night) "Okay look at your room. See how it is? Mom and Vera worked hard on your room so let's keep it like this okay?"
Anderson: "Okay. I promise."
Me: "So I have your word then that you will keep it clean? (lots of silence) Anderson, do I have your word?"
Anderson: "I'm not sure you have my word."

Anderson: "Dad, what does cactus milk taste like?"

Carys: "Have you ever tried pootenesque cheese?"

Gi: "Hey dad, that lady was wearing her naked costume!!" (driving by a mannequin store)

Gi: "Hey mom, smell my knee and see what it smells like."
Mom: "It smells clean."
Gi: "No. It smells like bacon."

Me: "Are you going to cry at Bronwyn's wedding?"
Anderson: "I have a secret emotionalism in my system. So maybe."

Anderson: "If we were millionaires could we buy Cup Noodles again?"

Anderson: "My favorite animal is a dog."
Gi: "Mine is a red zebra."

Anderson: "Gi, you are a children. I'm a kid. Childrens are 6 and under.

5

Girls,

Everyone is getting ready for your visit.

Gi even went to Eliane yesterday for his first check up and to get his teeth all purdy for you guys.

He didn't kick off his shoes and go to sleep in the chair like Carys does but he did great and was super excited about getting a toothbrush from her after it was over. He even took it to school today because it was so cool.

No cavities and he also got this certificate.

He was all smiles when we saw him later.

I was a little upset with his mom though. She and Carys took Quigs to the dentist while Anderson and I went to the grocery store at the new mall next door.

When they came over she told me that Elaine had fixed his chipped front tooth for R$20. I told mom I was upset that she fixed it without asking me. I told her that chipped tooth gave him character. She looked at me and said, "He has enough character."

She was right. My man does have lotcha character!

6

Winnie and Ans,

Last week we needed help from the kids to get ready for the bazars and to keep them running.

Leni, as usual, was an amazing help to us but at times we needed even more help.

Putting cookies in bags. Taking cookies to school. Even selling cookies. Little things like that made a big difference in how everything functioned and the kids helped quite a bit.

Any idea who our best salesperson was? It was Anderson.

He really did a great job.

Last Friday afternoon he wanted to stay with mom at Dohms to help out.

While he was there a man came in with a bird on his shoulder. Mom called me to bring Gi down to see the man and his bird. I made the mistake of telling him the man was like a pirate. He didn't want to get close to the "pirate" after that. At least not for a while.

But Anderson had no problem. In fact, when we walked in to the school the mans little parrot was on Anderson's shoulder and Anderson was loving it.

He even let the bird bite his finger. I tried to film him doing it again but he was a little timid the 2nd time around.
The bird was awesome. He was calm and stayed on Anderson's shoulder forever.

Even though Gi never wanted the bird on his shoulder he at least was willing to get close to it.

On Sunday you will enter Pirate Land.

Just don't tell Quigs.

7

Dear Dorks,

In 7 days you will be home. Hard to believe. We are ready.

Yesterday we did something that I know you guys would have loved.

We put together the Christmas tree. It's probably the latest time of the year that we've ever done it. We just couldn't get on top of things before the Christmas bazars.

Wished we could have done it sooner but everyone had fun putting it together.

Gi got the camera for a bit and did his thing.

As it was going up mom realized that our lights had either gotten lost in the move to the apartment, we gave them to someone or they didn't work so we chunked them. We had no clue so we had to go get some new ones yesterday. We had to go to 5 stores before we found anyone that had the kind mom wanted. She wasn't being picky it's just that everyone was sold out.

We finally found them and came home and finished the tree.

I picked Quigs up to put the star on the tree.

He freaked out. You know his fear of that kind of stuff.

So I put him on my shoulder for some extra support.

He still didn't like it but he got the job done.

After it was done he played in his toy world for a while. I love it when he does that.

I think mom and your little peeps did a great job.

Garrett and Carys were actually the main two that had ants in their pants to put everything together.

Mom told everyone how much she missed you guys when she was putting up your ornaments.

It was a good Blume family tradition day.

It ended with Carys wanting to sleep on the couch to be close to the tree. She made sure the tree was lit up.

Some things never change.

8

Goobers,

One week from today you guys get on the plane to come home. We are kind of excited.

Today was the first day in a couple of weeks that we didn't have to make and bake tons of cookies to sell and so we are enjoying a more laid back kind of day.

So no pictures or big stories in your countdown today.

But, we did want to go ahead and get your minds ready for Blume family movie nights leading up to Christmas.

So we will now share our favorite Christmas movies that we plan on watching with you guys:

Quigs: "Merry Madagascar."

Anderson: "The Grinch." (to which Gi said "NOOOOOOOO!" after freaking out earlier in the day from just looking at the DVD box)

Carys: "The Grinch."

Garrett: "Elf."

Mom: "It's a wonderful life." (to which Garrett said "Yuk" and Anderson said "Humbug."

Me: "Elf. Of course."

You guys ready?

9

Goobers,

Just a little video to help you matar saudades for the Beira Rio you know and the one that you will get to know in the near future.

As Garrett said as we watched it, "That's going to be so cool!"

I agree.

10........007 Style

Girls,

You know how the men in our house aren't big on dressing up right? Okay we hate it.

So it surprised us when Garrett said he wanted to go to a debutantes party at Sogipa. The fact that he wanted to go didn't surprise us but the dress code did. Especially that he still wanted to go after he found out what it was.

Why? It was a "smoking".

And he was excited. Weird right?

He and some friends went to pick them out one day. I went to pick him up from the store later and he said, "Dad, it was so cool. When I put it on I felt just like James Bond."

The night of the party came and I told him to call me when he was ready to come home and I would pick him up. He called at 5:00 and said he was on his way. I told him to wait and I'd walk to him since our street still had people hanging out and who were, most probably, a bit liquored up.

I got to the apartment gate and saw my son, bigger than me now, walking slowly up the street. Jacket over his shoulder. 007 style.

I started to get on him a bit for not waiting for me to come to him but then told him I understood because he was in 007 mode and he felt a little bigger, stronger and braver than usual. He just smiled.

Here is what he looked like at 5:00 that morning.

He was tired, ready for bed and wasn't happy with a 5:00 a.m. photo shoot but Mom made him promise to take a picture with his smoking on. We were in bed when he left and she was still asleep when he got home so I knew this was my only shot. He may never wear another one again in his life.

Remember how he dressed up when mom and Carys got home from taking you two goobers to college (click here for those that are still reading but don't remember)?

I can't promise he'll meet you guys at the airport (in 10 days!) with his smoking on but who knows?

We may all show up as secret agents......

......or as models.

11

The other day Carys called me into the den.

Gi was standing beside her and he was super proud of his work.

What work?

He had written something on the floor with a piece of chalk.

Since we only have 11 more days until you guys get home we thought his art work was appropriate.

You have to admit, those are some pretty sweet one's!

12

B e Ans,

Yesterday afternoon mom and I had to go do some shopping to get ready for the bazars this week.

While we were gone Tamara Whitenton brought over our Christmas stuff. She had gone to Dee and Laura's house and taken our stuff out of their garage because she knew how busy we were. Super thoughtful and kind of her to take care of us like that.

Anyway, we got home and Carys took the little guys to Sogipa to play.

While they were gone I found our Santa. I took him out and put him by the front door. You guys know the one.

Carys brought the boys back to the apartment a little bit later and started going up the stairs. She stopped and said, "Gi, you won't believe who is at our house!"

Gi saw him and said, "NO WAY!!"

He quickly wanted to take some pictures by his buddy.

On the way to school today we opened the door and he said, "Hey, he's still here!" Like he thought he might have gone back to the North Pole during the night.

12 more days girls.

It's going to be fun.

P.S. It was 97 yesterday. You guys ready for that?

13

Dear Winnie and Adwee,

Only 13 more days until you get home and get this kind of stuff every day.

But hey......who's counting?

Okay, we are!

Retreat Ministry

"Jesus had what many scholars call his 'Retreat Ministry,' a period of time that was dedicated completely to the disciples, when he retreated to places the crowds would never follow, when the disciples could be immersed in relationship and have complete access to Him. Here's the interesting thing: Most people think that at least eighteen months of Jesus' public ministry was this time.

That means at least half of his time was spent with these twelve guys.

He believed so powerfully in discipleship that he basically put all of his eggs into that basket. (It's worth nothing that it paid off.)"

Mike Breen from Building a Discipling Culture

Our Week

It's been a crazy full week.  We know most of you won't be that interested in what went on but there are a couple of girls in college who like to keep up and ask us for details. If the rest of you would like to keep reading here are some highlights:

Gi helped his teacher, Ariane, celebrate her birthday. He gave her some cookies from American Cookies as a present. She had already bought some before, loved them (who doesn't love my girlfriend's home made cookies?) and was happy to get some new flavors as a present. We love Ariane. 

My girlfriend worked at the bazar for three days. Sales were, as expected at a first time bazar, slow but it's part of the growing process of our new business. She also had to deal with the heat. It was about 85-90 degrees inside the building where she worked. This is what our little booth looked like. 

Man is she good looking or what? 

We got to share some new ideas for Christmas presents.......

.........as well as sell cookies and muffins. 

I stayed with her a little bit the first day to help her get set up and sell but the kids get out of school starting at 11:45 so I needed to be home to help with lunch and take to soccer practices, etc. So in the mornings I made cookies for next weeks bazars. 

Leni helped my girlfriend the last two days. She really is a great sales person. I think she gave one of our business cards to every person who walked into that building. 

Garrett's team lost the semifinal game in the penalties and then won the third place game 5-1. They got a trophy and were happy about it but, obviously, disappointed to not play in the finals. Garrett wasn't able to play because of his hurt leg. 

Anderson and Carys had their soccer and volleyball practices as well as some extra babysitting duties because of our cookie responsibilities. They did great. 

On Tuesday we had some great conversations with our old teammates Sascha and John/Sam. We love the Ooma phone and how it brings us closer to so many people. 

On Wednesday night Anderson had a musical called "Who is Jesus? Who am I?" It was the coolest Christmas musical we've ever seen our kids be in. Anderson did an amazing job. Every song the kids sang was about Jesus and His love. The director got up before it started and talked about Jesus. Our kids go to a Lutheran school. Our kids have gone to other religious schools here in POA before but we have never heard what we heard on Wednesday night. At the end this Christian singing trio got up and sang three songs. They were great. It was just a really uplifting night for our family. We love this school. 

Forgot to mention that Anderson was dressed as a shepherd. As we walked out the door to go to the musical Gi said, "Cool Anderson you look like Kobe-Wan Kenobi!" I guess he did. 

We had an end of the year school party for Carys' class scheduled for last night but it was cancelled because of the threat of rain. I can't say we were sad because we were all worn out from the busy week. It didn't rain so we just hung out as a family and did a little cook out. It was the best, most relaxing way to end our week. 

It was good to get a break from the craziness of the week but the busyness continues. 

Anderson has a semifinal game today and if you know him you know it's the biggest, most important game in the world. 

Gi has a birthday party to go to tonight. 

House church tomorrow and Garrett has a quarter final game in the last championship his team is involved in. If they win then they play again tomorrow afternoon. He went to practice yesterday and didn't complain about the leg. Don't think you can keep him out of another game. 

Next week we will be doing 2 bazars (one, at the kids school, where we know we will get slammed with business and the other is another new one where we probably won't sell as much) at the same time and, once again, Leni has agreed to help us. She's a real blessing to us. 

We would appreciate prayers for the Spirit's calming presence to overwhelm our house as we try to have fresh cookies made daily while we continue to take care of our other responsibilities. 

Our stand up freezer is stocked full of frozen cookies but the last time we did the bazar at the kids school in October we, literally, ran out. On the last day I would bake a batch, take them out of the oven, put them under a fan to cool off, bag them up then run them down the street (we live almost in front of our school) to my waiting girlfriend who would then sell them immediately. Our oven was turned on that last day from six in the morning until three in the afternoon. 

So to do that bazar again while trying to do another bazar at the same time, well you can see why we are asking for the Spirit's overwhelming presence. Great problem to have for a new company. We just want to make sure we let the Spirit be in control and keep us calm in the middle of all the stuff. 

After this week we only have one more week until our two big goobers get home from college. We are a little bit excited. 

All in all, a great week for our family. 

Fridays

Every Friday Gi and his classmates get to take a toy to school.

Guess what he took today?

May the force be with you on this Friday.

Game Time Redo

Remember the big game last week? If not then just click here.

With one minute left, and the score tied 1-1, Garrett's team had a free kick close to the goal. If the game ended like it was we would have gone to the penalties to see who moves on to the final so we were, obviously, hoping to score on the free kick and end it.

As we set the ball up for the kick the other teams coach came onto the field, grabbed the ball and kicked it into the trees. He, apparently, didn't like the fact that we had chosen to use our ball instead of the ball they brought. Serious stuff right?

Some of our assistant coaches then bumped up the stupidity as they ran across the field and exchanged words with their coach and one of our assistants gave a slight push to their coach.

Everyone separated and then I saw the refs leaving. Like bags packed and going home type leaving.

Our team just stood on the field as the coaches talked to the directors of the tournament. Then everyone left.

We found out they suspended the game and would tell everyone the next day what the verdict was.

The next day we found out that both teams were eliminated from the tournament which, I thought, was a stupid decision. Punish the coaches, not the players, for not setting the right example and doing the right thing.

Anyway, after practice yesterday Garrett told me that the decision was reversed and the game is going to be finished today. They will play 5 or 10 minutes and, if no one scores the deciding goal, they will go to the penalties. The championship game will follow immediately after.

Great for Garrett's team, bad for Garrett. He didn't practice yesterday because he had a hurt leg. It feels better today and he's going to go to the game and see if he can play.

Right now he is at school studying with a friend for a test. Studying two hours before his game? I don't even know who he is anymore. His priorities are so messed up.

Here's hoping that the next post about this tournament will also include Garrett's team holding a trophy.

Cookies

House a complete mess with cookie ingredients and craft stuff everywhere?

Check!

Super cute girlfriend using her amazing creativity to expand the cookie menu as well as making crafty stuff (like mustache pillows that sold as fast as she could make them last time)?

Check!

Updating our facebook page to announce where we will be over the next few days. (You can like us at:  http://www.facebook.com/AmericanCookiesPOA)

Check!

Carys following Gi around with the Ipad setting up pictures of him for Instagram marketing? (Carys set everything up and said you can follow us at americancookiespoa)

Check!

Working on our website (www.americancookies.com.br) to make sure everything looks good?

Check!

Sixteen year old running to the kitchen any time he hears that a cookie got burnt or broken with the question, "So can I have that one? You can't sell that!"

Check!

Staying up until 11:00 and getting up at 4:00 to keep up with cookie demands?

Check!

Then it must be school bazar time in our house.

Over the next 10 days we will be working at three different schools selling our stuff and, hopefully, growing our new business.

We would appreciate your prayers for our family and for American Cookies.

Engaged-The Revision

You know how there have always been jokes about mothers-in-laws and sons-in-laws and how they don't get along?

We won't have that problem here? Why? Because my girlfriend is already protecting her future son-in-law.

Yesterday I did a blog about the newly engaged couple and I "accidently" put a picture of Ansley (who was wearing Stephen's hat and glasses.....so you can see it was an honest mistake) in the place of Stephen.

When I showed my girlfriend she laughed. She thought it was funny.

Then she started worrying about Stephen. That maybe he wouldn't think it was as funny as we did. That maybe he got his feelings hurt. Then Garrett got home, saw the blog, and felt sorry for Stephen. I knew what conversation was coming and I was right. My girlfriend said, "You have to do a new blog and put a real picture of Stephen on it."

So here is the new picture and what Bronwyn's new fiance actually looks like:

If I'm being completely honest my girlfriend was very much worried for Stephen but she also confessed she didn't want people to think that B's future husband looked like her sister.

And if you are curious, I called B and found out that Stephen laughed when he saw the blog. Nice job Stephen. You'll do fine in this family!

So welcome to the family Stephen. You already have your protectors and your main one is your future mother-in-law.

Engaged

On Thanksgiving day our oldest daughter, Bronwyn, got engaged at my parents house.

We wished we could have been there but are thankful for skype and our Ooma phone to keep us close. We were kept up to date with the minute by minute happenings, first by grandparents and then by Bronwyn. It was fun for all of us.

They are thinking of a May date and everyone here is excited.

We are also excited to have Stephen as part of our family. He's a Christian, he treats our daughter the right way and he has survived prolonged periods of time with our family and our loudness and wildness didn't scare him off.

So welcome to the family Stephen.

"If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples."

Mike Breen from Building a Discipling Culture

Thursday

Dear Winnie and Adwee,

We had a good Thanksgiving day.

Mom worked in the kitchen most of the morning getting ready for supper. I continue to be amazed at her ability to make everything from scratch. No "cans of this" or "ready made that." She is, as you guys already know, the best.

Anderson had been ready for a few days for mom's food and for Thanksgiving.  So ready he decided to make a turkey hand drawing and hang it up on the wall in the hall.

The kids spent the afternoon, after Anderson got home from soccer practice, getting their cookies ready.

After I picked up Garrett from his soccer practice we came home for Thanksgiving supper. All Garrett could talk about on the way home was the food he was about to eat and how he remembered last years Thanksgiving in Memphis.

Gi didn't want to eat anything except one bite of the Bourbon store cooked chicken (too hot to do turkey) before he got some cookies and pie. He and I had some words about the food situation. He didn't like the conversation. I wasn't fond of it either. He finally ate a little and mom let him off easy and gave him some pie. You guys can imagine how all that went.

Garrett, in the middle of supper, said, "I sure wish Bronwyn and Ansley were here."

Typical family pictures. You gotta love Garrett.

After supper the boys got to watch a little American football.

And we were all in bed by 9:00 with full stomachs.

Only thing we missed out on was having you guys here.