well, our first christmas together is in the books.  it was the best christmas that i have ever had, by far.  in costa rica, most of the celebrating happens christmas eve evening.  the celebrations are comparable to what we do on new year's eve.  many parties, getting together, staying up till midnight....  during the day of christmas eve, we had a party for the guys in the center.  also families that are involved one way or another came so we ended up having about thirty people or so at our place.  it was great.  i cooked hamburgers american style, big.  and some hot dogs, but of course we had to also have some rice and beans which it seems you can't even get away from for one meal.  here are some pictures of that, even the monkeys wanted some of the action.

the guys really enjoyed it, unfortunately 3 of them left today so we are down to three.  it is a difficult time here as the weather is nice and there's lot of partying going on.  couple these facts  along with all the tourists that bring money in, and not many people interested in changing the destructive lifestyle.  when the weather is good, and the money is easy, finish the sentence....but it is normal, in my life or theirs, to wait for some discomfort before changing sinful habits or attitudes. 

a few days before that we had a hanukah celebration down in dominical.  that was very enjoyable as well.  we set off fireworks and watched a puppet show at our friend tim's place.

the rather interesting part of the trip was the fact that we broke half of the spokes on our back tire.  one broken spoke, no problem, two broken spokes and you want to fix them; three, and you're in real trouble, nine broken and you survive the road and hills we rode up, and it's a miracle.  really, it's unbelievable.  you probably cannot imagine these types of roads as i have never seen anything like them in the states, whether it be colorado or alaska, these roads are treacherous.  i still cannot believe it as i sit here and write.  but, tim drove us back the next day in his truck and it has not been ridden since.  i bought the replacement spokes but have yet to work on the bike.  the amount of wobble in the bike as we rode was unbelievable, still i didn't know what it was until i reached the top of the hill, without eileen, because two couldn't make it up together, and she told me she saw the back wheel wanting to come off as i drove away.  crazy.

it was very nice to celebrate my first christmas with my new wife.  it was very memorable and we started some traditions of our own.  here are a couple pictures of our christmas tree.

we went out to eat together at our favorite place for christmas dinner and watched the sunset together.

it was today that was not so good as i said earlier that three of our guys left the program today.  it can be very disheartening, but we continue pressing forward.