So, I have been commissioned to post our next post in the blog. It may be because everyone knows that I am a wonderful writer, an original orater, the grand-master of grammer if you will, but I think the actual reason is because everyone else is too tired to update the blog, and we are 3 days behind.

Let me first preface by explaining that because we have not posted in 3 days, our pictures are a little out of order, so I will start explaining what we did today and work my way backwards, so try and keep up.

Today (12-26-08) started out by waking up at the crack of 8:00 AM-which is a ghastly hour when you are on vacation in Panama, let me assure you-which was followed up by a 90 minute crammed car ride to the new LDS temple near Panama City. Keith, Kathy, Annie, and I then attended a morning session in the beautiful new temple that was just dedicated in August. Peter and Cassan hung out on the grounds while we were in there. The grounds of the temple were absolutely stunning. Set in a lush tropical setting with a view of the canal in the background, it was enough to make anybody wanna set up camp and live there. Also, it was very fun meeting all of the native Panamanians who helped us during our visit. It truly transcends all boundaries when visiting a temple anywhere in the world, you just can't help but feel good.

After our delighful trip to the temple, we headed into the "old city" named Casco Viejo, which is were much of the gold during the day of the pirates used to filter through before being shipped up to Europe. It was a quaint little peninsula that was full of many old buildings and a lot of history. Here Kathy is making friends with a local Kuna native after purchasing some of her wares in the local shooping district. We had a wonderful time walking around and seeing the sites, purchasing some snow cones and enjoying the perfect concoction of humidity, temperature, and cloud cover to aid in our enjoyment. After spending the better part of the day in Casco, we then started a journey to the local mall (Albrook) that happens to be the largest one in Central America, and certainly the largest that I have ever been to. While trying to navigate for Keith, we quickly realized that a short little jaunt on the surface streets was not to be. After about 30 minutes of circling the same 5-block radius, we finally took a road that by all logic seemed as if it was not the proper way to go, only to be surprised by the fact that it led us right onto the doorstep of the mall. Panama needs a new road system, muy rapido! The mall itself was huge and pretty fun to walk around in, especially the day after Christmas, but it was still a mall and I quickly remembered how long one Williams girl likes to spend shopping, multiply that by three and you have a lot of boring time spent sitting with Keith and Peter waiting for our women folk to satisfy their insatiable appetite for "good, cheap clothing" :) After, we went home and prepared for our Canal tour the next day by hitting the hay nice and early.

Okay, try to switch gears now, let me describe to you one of the most relaxed, upside down Christmases I have ever personally experienced. We started out the day by waking up nice and lazy-like with no intention of getting up earlier that 10:30. We then had some of Kathy's delectable sausage fondue, with the local variation of sausage, which was very good. After we were all sufficiently stuffed to the brim, and reading and discussing the Bible story of Christmas with everyone for an hour, we proceeded to have our scavenger hunt for presents. We each picked names out of a hat a few days earlier and purchased one present for that person. We then all created clues for our person and hid them throughout the house and the beach for us to find and lead us to our present. In the morning we put the first clue in each person's "stocking" or sandal as we normal folk like to call it. This took about an hour and a half and was very entertaining, especially when Keith realized that the tide had come in and washed away Cassandra's clue that he had buried in the sand. After that we hung out and swam, read, did some video chats with most everyone who will be reading this, so no surprises there. I do have to tell an interesting story that happened to me later that evening.The waves started picking up right around dusk, so Peter and I decided to do a little bodysurfing, unbeknownst to us that there were creepy-crawlies ready to hunt, the menu-my foot! After some really gnarly waves and some very tumultuous spills, I felt a sudden sting on my foot that immediately progressed to the point where I felt like someone was holding a red hot needle to the top of my foot and adding 1 PSI of pressure every ten seconds. The initial reaction was that it was a jellyfish sting, and we all know what the ancient remedy is for that. Needless to say, I was desperate, so I decided to give the remedy a shot, lucky for me I am a boy, because it made the application of this particular remedy a lot less awkward than if I had needed assistance. After that offered zero help, I took an Ibuprofen and rested for the evening, and it eventually wore off. We are still uncertain of the culprit, whether jellyfish or stingray, but rest assured that I am on the case and will hopefully create a better world where nobody ever has to resort to such measures to fix their pain as I did that night.


This is our Christmas Tree! "Estacy" said that we needed to decorate a palm tree for Christmas and send her a picture. We were already going to to do that...so here it is! We all took turns making (and hanging up) one ornament out of anything that we could find. We made things out of shells, flowers, sandles, white lacy plates, and golden cereal. We thought it looked lovely!




















Panama has the Wierdest Hot Dogs!!! First of all, the panamanians have this things about American hot dogs! You see hot dog shops everywhere--the hot dogs have unidentified hard chunks in them--, but when buy them in the grocery and make them at home, thats when it gets even MORE wierd! Several times we have been "forced" into buying hot dogs and both times they have come with plastic casings. Both times we have FAILED to notice this and have BBQed them with the plastic on! Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time desperately removing plastic before putting them on the buns!


The next photo shows Peter out on one of the two the wave-runners that we rented the day before Christmas. Kathy and Peter went out first--ignoring the rain--and then Keith, Annie,and Chris. YES, despite email warnings from the Skillmans, we took a vote and decided to allow Cassandra on a wave-runner! After her little accident in Mexico several years ago, where the Mexican authorities "detained" several of Kathy's students until a whole lot of money was paid, Cassandra was allowed to try it again...we just removed all other vehicles from the water first!

Chris DeBeikes