Happy Birthday Christina!

  Montevideo, Uruguay
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Christina became a teenager today! We had a rainy day of sightseeing to celebrate Christina's birthday. Berinice from the assembly picked us up around 11:30 in her 12 passenger white van. She was a fantastic tour guide, driving all over the new and old parts of the city to show us the sights.

Christina's birthday lunch was at the old Market building where flaming wood burning grills roasted a variety of meats--chicken, pork, beef, cow cheek, tripe, blood sausage. Yumm, yumm! Well, we gave the tripe and blood sausage a skip, but the rest was delicious and between the fires and the blasting heaters we were not only dry but warm, too. Christina opened presents (very portable books, CDs and DVDs--now she only needs to convince Samuel to let her watch them on his lap top.) We had a tour of the Casa de las Leyes, where the senate and congress meet. It is a fascinating building decorated with 52 colors of Uruguayan marble.

Berenice took us home for a delicious supper including a typical torta (fruit pastel). After a long visit around the table we were off to prayer meeting at 8, well, Uruguayan 8, really 8:20, ending at 9:45. Beatrice and Daniel and their 4 sons then invited us out for a hamburger on the way home, but having to be at the bus terminal at 7 to catch our bus/ferry back to Buenos Aires we tried to culturally and politely decline. Even so, bedtime was 11:30.

Happy Birthday, Christina!