the girls' Christmas party

The  girls, staff, and Director have all gone off for their holiday vacations.  Most will return about January 7.

They did not however get off without a fabulous Christmas Party for the girls, complete with  a tree, Santa, gifts, cake, and green spaghetti.


Thanks to the generosity of so many from within the Merida Community we had money to provide gifts for the girls, and some family gifts; like towels, blankets, palanganas (wash tubs filled with food items), and pinatas, but also each of the staff received a lovely scarf.  And we have a bit left to be able to stockup the pantry and maybe buy the girls those backpacks they need.

Thank you so much 

to each of you that donated money, gifts, or goods, 

it was and is so appreciated.

all the girls with Santa, yes, Santa is in there, look close - those smiles say it all!

the girls had prepared a few dance routines - very clever

and we all played Hokey Pokey

checking out some of the goodies

one of the families with a pinata.

When we first arrived at HNV, we got the tour of all the recent renovations - the girls are thrilled, and love the new colors, especially the pink and lavender, then the girls entertained us with a dance routine, they led us in some a few carols, we all played Hokey Pokey, Santa passed out gifts - we all enjoyed watching the girls open their stuff, then there was a fair amount of looking at each others stuff, a few trades were made, then playing with some of the toys like balls, hula hoops, jump ropes, and lots of candy eating, we then went to the kitchen and had green spagetti and cake.  It was a very fun evening -

The girls recently visited a nursing home

Among the many lessons the girls learn at Hogar Nueva Vida are caring, compassion, and giving.

The girls recently visited a nursing home

where they sang Christmas carols, danced, played lotería, and passed out Christmas cookies that they had made.

getting ready for Christmas

A group of  the "Friends" of Hogar Nueva Vida recently met at my house to create the gift bags for the girls Christmas party.  Charlotte and I went shopping a a week before, armed with our list of girls names, ages, shoe size, shirt sizes, and pantie sizes.  We did a lot of shopping and were quite successful.

Added to what we bought were items donated through the International Women's Club. AND  a group of friends threw themselves a 70's party, no, not a retro hippy kind of 70's, but all of them were turning or had turned 70 in 2012.  Ken made the offer of a ticket for a free drink to anyone that brought an age appropriate gift.  So we had that stuff as well. Not to mention a collection taken at the Merida Men's Club.  Donations came in all forms, and I wish I could Thank each of you personally, but you know who you are.

Thank You!

So these girls are getting a bagful of goodies, in addition we have a number of things that are for the 'house',  hula hoops, jump ropes, soccer balls, blankets, towels, great stuff all!  They are also getting stuff to give their families, and there was even enough to buy a scarf for each of the staff women.

hair doodads, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, y mas

shirts, and colored pencils, juice boxes, jump ropes

panties, and camis, and chanklas, oh my

soccer balls, complete with pump.

more school supplies, and toiletries

and there are rain ponchos, and school shirts, and oh so much more.  

Really, Thank you to everyone who gave!

all wrapped up with a bow!

Charlotte made these great ribbons with plastic cards with their names on.

Makes the bags look very festive!

Merida Men's Club organize A FACE LIFT

Roger from the Merida Men's Club recently initiated a work crew to do some repairs and freshening up at Hogar Nueva Vida.   A group, of not all just Merida Men's Club men, and not all men  recently spent part of a day scraping, sanding, repairing, and fixing a few things in need of repair around the house, then they scheduled a follow-up painting day.

Unfortunately, and I am famous for this, no pictures were taken that first day.  But this past week, on the paint day, a few photos were snapped, again not by me, I  failed to follow through on that.

Anyway, there were some much needed plumbing repairs, some scraping, filling, door repairs, sanding, sealing and painting done.

here are a few photos to commemorate the event.

Yes, they are happy with the new look!

gorgeous and fresh
 shower area

lavenders and pinks, these are HAPPY girls!

To all of you that helped with the repairs, painting, and donations of paint and supplies - 

Thank You!