GRAMADO

After Christmas we took two days vacation from the mission and we drove up to Gramado which is a German town, famous for its Christmas celebrations and for its chocolate. As we got closer we told Meagan that there would be lots and lots of hydrangeas blooming on the sides of the road (she LOVES hydrangeas) but you can never really be prepared for how many flowers there actually are.

The city was decorated beautifully.

One of my favorite ways that they decorate here is with things made of recycled 2 liter bottles. See if you can see all of the ways the bottles are used. Even the poinsettias on the white trees are made from 2 liter bottles.

In Gramado instead of a "cow parade" they have reindeer painted in many different ways.

Of course my favorite is the nativity reindeer.

There are lovely churches in the center of Gramado, and the neighboring city Canela. They each have beautiful stained glass windows.

At night we went to the concert and fireworks extravaganza on the lake in Gramado. We had forgotten how LOUD it was, and when the show got going we were worried about Bennett being upset. But he just stared at everything wide-eyed, and sucked on his binky a little harder.

Here the choir members are walking in.

There are opera singers in each of the lighted gazebos on little islands in the lake.

That night we stayed in Canela. The following morning we found this great candle shop, where the owner gave demonstrations of how she made the candles.

I loved these flower candles. I had to buy a couple of them.

Afterwards we drove up to see the famous waterfall Caracol.

Here the intrepid hikers have just finished their trek down and then back up the 176 stairs to get closer to the falls.

Curt and I and Bennett decided to relax and wait for everyone at the top of the stairs.

It was a wonderful Christmas for us to have the kids here, and spend time together playing games, doing puzzles vacationing and just having fun. It all ended too soon. But it is time for us to get back to work and be missionaries again. Thanks so much for everything kiddos.