Wednesday, January 12, 2011

An Exercise in memory part II




Mom and Dad surrendered to the call to missions. I don’t remember many details of this next phase in my life either. I know we were in Richmond, VA for orientation and I remember one day of preschool lice classes there. I also remember there being a man who could talk like Donald Duck, but that is all. We also went to Costa Rica for a year for language school. My memories there begin to get a little clearer, but not too much. I remember a few days at Little Lights, my preschool. I remember eating rice and beans with every single meal (and I loved it—I still do.) I remember the rain being punctual every day and that you could outrun it or simply cross the street to the dry side. I remember walking to school every day while dad would tell us parts of the Lord of the Rings. I remember getting a new baby doll for my birthday. She had beautiful black STRAIGHT hair. I told mom and dad I would take perfect care of her…a few days later they scolded me for finding her on the floor :(. But by far, one of my absolute favorite memories of all time was Christmas.
We had nothing at all to decorate with. Mom has always made Christmas in our home very beautiful, and very special. We bought a tree and then we bought lots and lots of paper. We made all the ornaments for the tree. We made a fireplace for the wall with a fire and even the silhouette of a black cat off to the side. We hung some of our socks over the ‘fire’. I loved it. It was very special. I must mention, I do not remember it, but Jeff has never let me ‘forget’ the boy I was found hiding behind the couch with kissing.
I seem to remember no one in my family really caring for Costa Rica, but I have no bad memories that have stuck with me from that period of time. And as I have already mentioned, I was and still am very fond of the black beans and rice :).

4 comments:

Janis Dietz said...

Do you remember being crammed into buses, with people hanging out the doors? Remember the stalls set up in the plaza at Christmas with all the lights and ornaments and trinkets and cheap gifts for sale? I loved going; Mike hated it! :-)

Becky Dietz said...

What a fun Christmas---no wonder you remember it!

NonModern said...

I for one enjoyed Costa Rica very much. I was always a little bummed out that we didn't get to see more of the country. The summer camp that Jeff and I got to go to was great. The largest beetle I have ever seen in my life was in Costa Rica, and they had these really cool "acid spitting" toads. Th harvest ants were everywhere. (They are still one of my favorite animals.) Best of all, I recall we had a lot of freedom to spend in the huge park near the house called El Bosque:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=parque+El+Bosque+San+Jose+Costa+Rica&fb=1&hq=parque+El+Bosque+San+Jose+Costa+Rica&hnear=parque+El+Bosque+San+Jose+Costa+Rica&cid=3639581805630291211

The market they had at the crack of dawn on Saturdays was cool too.

amy wright said...

Oh my goodness! I would remember that fireplace, too. I guess I didn't see the pictures the first time I read this post and just imagined a dinky little drawing of a fire. Impressive, Aunt Janis! :)