C is for...

Civil Unrest. Last week there was a huge riot on the corner of our street between two unions. One person was shot and 18 were wounded. Fortunately, we weren't home at the time, but here are all the police lined up about an hour later.
Cousins-Campo-Carne. My niece Victoria attended a private school focused on agriculture. On top of all the regular history/math/language type classes, she also had to work in the fields, learn about seeds, pesticides, watering, animals, dairy products, etc. Select Saturdays throughout the year she had to go help with the cows. She has very tan arms due to her field working. She graduated last weekend so we went to celebrate with her.

Victoria in the middle, with two friends

In a tradition I think the US should adopt, only the parents go to the boring diploma ceremony, and the rest of us jut go to a big dinner/dance/party afterwards. Because of the nature of her school, all of the food was locally produced at the school, with parents, teachers, students and directors cooking, serving, etc. (the students who help get out of one of their cow working saturdays...) we had pork, stuffed chicken and steak so tender you could cut it with a butter knife. The cheese on the appetizer plate was even made at the school, and it was all DELICIOUS.

Church Callings. Our church is run by volunteer assignments. We call these assignements "callings". Two weeks ago Mario was released as Bishop of our ward and called to be the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency. We both are having mixed emotions about it. He really loved being bishop, and I loved always having him in the ward. Plus, I used his position to thefullest and planned all the parties I wanted (i.e halloween)! He was only bishop for 2 years and 25 days and he was very sad to leave the position so quickly. His new stake calling will mean we hardly see him on Sundays, and it will be much more demanding on his time throughout the week. However, we both know that with new responsibilities come new blessings, and in this time of great unrest worldwide, we are particularly grateful for the promise that our family will always have what it needs. Saturday instead of leaving with us in the morning to go to Griselda's, he had to stay to attend a multi-stake leadership training meeting with a member of the quorum of the seventy. He really enjoyed the learning opportunity and the spirit that were present in the meeting, and took the bus to meet up with us in time for the party. And as the meetings were in our building, he was party responsible for preparing the building, food etc. He went over early to get everything ready, and even took some of my christmas decorations to decorate all of the tables. I am clearly rubbing off on him!

Mario and Franco

Christmas Trees. I finally have mine up, and Gabe is in LOVE with it. He waves to it, points to it showing me it's there, and TOUCHES it all day long. He points to the top and tells me "sta" for star, and then he points to the ornaments and says "Ba" and then he shakes his finger and says "no no no no no no no" because he knows he's not supposed to touch it. But curiosity overcomes him at times and he has to touch, and sometimes he has to take off the balls and throw them to see if they bounce. Good thing they're plastic!