C is for CAMPING

Photo from Roy Pequeno.

Being down here in Chile during Christmas is always a strange time. Not only because if we were to be back home, its highly probable that we will be with our families and loved ones, but down here in Chile that’s a little hard to do. Then if that’s not strange enough, it’s the middle of summer. That’s right – even for this TEXAN – its hot. I mean singing Jingle Bells, Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree, and Deck the Halls just don’t mesh well with 95º temperatures. I believe the only carol I related to was Dreaming of a White Christmas – mainly cause that would have meant this evil heat wave would be no more.

So instead of sitting around our house on Christmas, we decided to celebrate in a slightly different way. We went camping for two nights. After celebrating our wonderful Christmas Eve meal, exchanging our Secret Santa gifts, and preparing our camping food, we headed out early on Christmas Day. Christmas day was a day just to relax and have fun. Take a dip in the natural feed pool and relax. Day 2 included a small HCA: Retreat where we got to discuss the four pillars of our program, helping us focus on goals for the upcoming year.

Needless to say it was a great and memorable Christmas with 6 wonderful people.