King's New Years Party!

We had a very nice new year's!

Garth came out and picked us up and took our family out to the new orphanage site. Beryl had prepared some salads and the orphanage was bringing the rest of the food. Rich & Kris came too, so there were lots of people (kids).

They served rice & beans, turkey, stuffing, gravy, potato salad, & green salad. Followed by black cake (no chocolate here), white cake, cookies & ice cream. We didn't even get to the Belizean tamales or chips and cheese dip because we were so full. Some of the kids snacked on the chips and dip.

The women served all the kids and men and then we all jumped in and served ourselves. Of course we don't eat the turkey but the other food was good too. Our dogs and John's dog got in on the turkey and rice & beans that were left. They sure like that stuff.

A gentlemen (Toby) comes every year for christmas and new years and buys lots of big fireworks. He had come for the last 12 years. This year he spent a lot of these huge fireworks and some big dynamite blocks (those were just loud). The ones they shot off in the air were nice, of course not like the big ones back home but still it was nice.

Next, they had 2 huge pinata's filled with candy, cookies, chips, etc. I have never seen such a brawl when they knocked it down. Kids were lying on each other and wrestling to get the most candy. Lots of fun there!

Last to close out the evening Leonie called each child in by themselves and gave them each a gift. These are donated shoe box gifts that have toys, flip flops, toothpaste, toothbrush, wash cloth, soap & shampoo, candy, gum, t-shirts, etc..  So the kids all had a really good time.

We had a good time too just really busy with all the orphanage kids there. Oh, it was raining off and on the whole time so we had to crowd in the volunteer house breezeway or out under tarps where we ate. The rain didn't damper the fun any.

I personally had my knee and ankle twisted really bad by John's exuberant 8 month old dog thats half rotti & half doberman. Not mean at all just a BIG pup. That hurt and still does, next I stepped on a nail and my foot was bleeding and hurt the rest of the night. The same foot the dog hurt. But my other foot was attacked by a horde of fire ants in the dark that I didn't see. So even though I had a few mishaps I did have fun.

The kids loaded on the bus and left around midnight so we didn't crash until late too. We enjoyed our time there.