Christmas cookies

The kids all pitched in to help us decorate Christmas cookies.
Most of the icing actually made it onto the cookies!

Christmas

Well, we survived Christmas Eve! Folks arrived around 8pm and we ended up eating around 10:30. I think only one of them had ever had roast turkey before so there was quite a bit of anticipation.

We set the table, shared Luke 2, asked the blessing and then it was time to dig in!

It was like one of those gruesome scenes right out of Discovery Channel. You know the one where the small animal falls into piraña infested water? Oh the humanity! Just kidding.

We really did enjoy an excellent meal had great fellowship and ended opening presents at midnight.

Cleaned up a bit and finally got to bed around 2am.

Check engine

A few days ago the check engine light came on.  And stayed on.  Uh, oh.  I checked all the fluids that could be checked and all was well.  Not good.  Getting a 4Runner serviced here is, to put it mildly, a challenge.  I got on line and everyone said to take it to a shop to have the code read.  While someone Might have a code reader in the region I have no idea who and the nearest shop that did would be an hour from home.  Of the thousands of possible reasons the light could come on the most frequent is the MAS.  Now I had to research what a MAS in a Toyota is.  Mass Airflow Sensor turns out.  I followed the instructions to clean it, removing various parts to get to it, sprayed it with contact cleaner (only $8 a can here in town), disconnected the battery to reset the light and...IT WORKED!!  Needless to say we're pretty happy.

Annual car inspection

Well it was time to do the annual car inspection yesterday. We left Aysen around 8:30 and made it to the only car inspection facility in the region around 9:30. Waited in line, paid the $40 and waited the 30 minutes as they ever so slowly did the few tests. Efficiency isn't one of the strong points here. Finally they tell us the car failed. Seems it wasn't aligned close enough. Went to the tire place they said they could see me late afternoon. Good news is I saw the boss who remembered I bought $1000 worth of tires a few months ago and they squeezed me in next. Got the car aligned 30 min and $24) and headed back. Waited in line, went inside, waited another 30 min. Car passed, that will be $10 more for the second inspection. While I was waiting I noticed EVERY OTHER CUSTOMER FAILED the inspection at least once. Hmmm. I detect a strong odor of fish.

We arrived home late afternoon.

Late November we had our 4th District Convention. Not everyone could make it but we still had a good turnout and had a great time! Renato Silva (ex national president of A/G) and 2 other pastors came down and shared with us. Thank you so much for praying for this work at the end of the earth!