The Mayer Family

Happy New Year! Tonight we decided to bundle up and head to the center of the city to bring in the New Year. In order to keep the kids awake and moving, we watched a movie together after dinner. Towards the end of the movie, Ellie said she wanted to go to bed (not something we hear often!) but when we mentioned that we were going to go see some fireworks, she immediately lit up and couldn’t wait to go (Ellie loves fireworks!). As we were putting on our layers of clothes around 11 pm, we were talking about how exiting it is that a new year will be here, and Evan piped up and said “But Mom, I’m still not tired of 2007!” Well, it’s here whether we’re ready or not!
Here we are, prepared to face the cold and join the crowd for the big fiesta

It is tradition here to eat one grape for every chime of the clock at midnight for “good luck” in the coming year. Here is a clip of that event. I’m eating my 12 grapes and recording at the same time, which doesn’t help the quality, but it’s still cute. Kevin dropped one of his grapes, so I guess that means one unlucky month this year for him...ha ha. I was multitasking and didn’t get mine eaten quite in time, so I’m not sure what that means for me. Thankfully we are not held by superstition and luck or lack thereof and can look forward to 2008 and the new things God is going to do.

Unfortunately, Ellie will probably be traumatized for life by the fireworks she was anticipating the whole time. Check out her reaction here:

As I write, it is almost 1:30 am, and the fireworks are still going off strong across the city.

On another note, we had our Byler Skype Christmas on Saturday. It was a new way to celebrate Christmas together for sure. We hooked things us so that we could see them on our TV screen and enjoyed talking and opening some gifts together. Of course it didn’t compare with being there in person and spending time together playing games and eating, but it will have to do for this year. Here was our view of them from our couch.

-Wendy

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Christmas was different for us this year…our first time not being surrounded by family. We missed being with everyone a lot, but have been able to enjoy this time of year in a new place.

Christmas Eve day I spent in the kitchen making Christmas goodies, and then we delivered them to some friends that evening. We spent Christmas day alone as a family except for when the neighbor kids came to play for a few hours. I must admit that I really missed sharing the load of cooking the Christmas meal with family! I attempted to do a nice meal myself, and it tasted good, but just was a lot of work. Thanks to great technology, we were able to talk by Skype with some of our family members, which was awesome! On Christmas morning our landlady, Antonia, who lives in the apartment above us, brought down gifts for Evan and Ellie. Here they are opening the gifts.

Also on Christmas day, the newest reader in our house read the Christmas story. Here is a small and a bit amusing clip of part of that.

We have felt so loved and blessed by all the Christmas gifts, packages, and cards we have received! Thank you so much to each person who has thought of us! We are so thankful for each person who is a part of our lives. Since traditionally in Spain, gifts aren’t opened until Three Kings Day on January 6, we are spreading out the gifts a bit for Evan and Ellie, and allowing them to open one gift a day until then. If you are interested in knowing a little more about Christmas traditions in Spain, check out this video clip that Kevin and Evan did for part of the Christmas program for our church in Ohio.

I love the expressions when the gifts are opened.

Kevin with his new hat.

-Wendy

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We spent the last four days visiting with our friends Craig, Stephanie, Nathaniel (6) and Noel (4). We enjoyed getting to know them better and Evan and Ellie had lots of fun with Nathaniel and Noel! Kevin spent quite a bit of time with Craig in the workout gym they have, where Craig works every day. The gym has been a great way to meet people and build relationships by seeing the same faces every day. We are praying for wisdom to know if God wants us to move to that area to help with the work of the gym. The town is close to the city of Malaga, about a two hour drive from Granada. It would be hard to leave Granada and the relationships we have here, but we desire to be where God wants us.

At the gym

The Chanda family

Nathaniel and Evan

Noel and Ellie

-Wendy

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Today was a special day…Wendy’s 31st birthday! To celebrate, we enjoyed an amazing meal at a Moroccan restaurant and tonight some friends of ours stopped in for a few hours and we enjoyed spending time with them and eating tapas (appetizers) together. Thanks also to all of you who remembered her birthday today. Wendy was so excited because almost every time she checked email today, there was a new happy birthday message for her.

On another note, yesterday I was able to go to my third futbol (soccer) game with my friend Miguel. Granada played the number one team in their division and ended up with the final score being 0-0. I think maybe I’m getting addicted as I came home and I told Wendy I had so much fun…and the score was 0-0. She sort of looked at me funny and reminded me how much I made fun of soccer not too long ago because of all the low scoring (and boring) games.

--Kevin

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I (Wendy) was glad for the chance to take a 24 hour Silent Retreat, and chose to travel by bus to the coastal town of Almuñecar, about 1 ½ hours from Granada. It was so great to be able to sit in total silence for hours, taking lots of time to pray, journal and read. I especially enjoyed sitting close to the ocean and hearing the peaceful sound of the waves crashing on the rocks. I love the ocean. Tourist season is over there, so I was able to enjoy a lot of solitude and peace. It did get really cool at night, but the sun really warmed things up during the day.

Right now I’m reading Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, and looking at the beauty of the ocean and mountains and palm trees helped me envision what Heaven will look like, at least looking through these human eyes. I can’t wait to look through my new eyes someday in my new body! Here’s an excerpt from the book:
“We can only desire what we can imagine. If you think you can’t imagine Heaven- or if you imagine it as something drab and unappealing- you can’t get excited about it. You can’t come with the childlike eagerness that God so highly values.”
I can’t wait to see the incredible things God is preparing for us!

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Yesterday we went to an English Christmas service at the Baptist church we’ve been attending. Kevin was in charge of leading the music part. We enjoyed singing our favorite Christmas tunes and worshipping Jesus with other foreigners. Here is a video clip of the only song we did in Spanish.

This afternoon I met some friends at the playground to talk while our children played. Afterwards the whole gang (about 6 ladies and 8 or 9 kids…mostly around age three or younger) went and had hot drinks together at a restaurant close by. It was a really fun time and I enjoyed making some new friends. Thankfully the restaurant was empty and the kids could roam freely…which they did…they had fun. While Ellie and I were doing that, Kevin took Evan on a short hiking trip on the hills above Granada. Evan was a real trooper walking up and down the hills and he enjoyed the views of the city from above.

The snow is back on the mountains!

Enjoying the beautiful sunset

-Wendy

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So…I needed a creative title. Can’t say that’s creative, but…

Kirk and Karla Kauffman (actually that’s three K’s…but I think we’ll stick with two) stopped in for a visit this past week/weekend. We enjoyed seeing them!

Evan playing basketball with Kirk

Ellie looking at and “commenting” on Karla’s pictures

On Saturday we went to visit our friends Matilda, Manolo, Margarita, Miguel and kids. They ended up inviting us to stay for lunch. They ordered pizza, but also put out quite the spread of other things…like shrimp, octopus and etc. We had a really nice afternoon with them, and are thankful for their friendship and generosity!

Ellie and Elisa

Evan and Ellie just before bed tonight

-Wendy

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Congratulations to our dear friends Jessica and Jerry on the birth of little Jayce Carlton, born yesterday. We are so happy for you and just wish we could be there to help welcome the new little guy. Here he is…

-Wendy

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For those interested in the lives of our kids, here are some video clips of them playing with their friends.

Evan & Miguel building blocks…notice how when they say “y por este” they sound exactly alike. Our neighbors say that Evan speaks “Andaluz”, the region here…with the correct accent…unlike Kevin and I who struggle to get it right!

Ellie & Elisa having fun jumping on the bed

This afternoon Kevin went to a Granada futbol (soccer) game with our neighbor Miguel. He was interviewed by the local TV station, and thinks he made a complete fool of himself trying to talk Spanish on camera. We'll see when we watch the game tonight!

-Wendy

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