Most know Debbie and I spent the week before Christmas in Belize.  Bro. Danny wanted to bless and encourage us by sending us to San Pedro for a little down time.  What an incredible gesture and gift! You may have financially partnered with Bro. Danny and the choir to make this possible.  If so...thank you.  We had a wonderful time.  It just went by too quickly!

It had been 7 years since we had been to San Pedro.  We did a mission trip with over 40 teens in 2000 in this tiny little island town.  Ambergris Caye has been hit by a couple of hurricanes since then and the island has changed a great deal because of it.  But even with the changes we saw it is still the laid back and sleepy little island town sitting in the Caribbean Sea just off the coast of Belize.

We arrived at Ramon's Village Resort Monday afternoon.  The first part of the week was really cloudy and even rained all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday.  The sun would break through the clouds for short teasers but it mostly stayed pretty overcast.  No worries...it was great weather for resting, reading and chillin' out.  Thursday afternoon the clouds broke and the sun created a scenario that made it hard to remember we were just days away from Christmas.  I managed to get in a couple dives on Friday morning before flying home Saturday afternoon.  Here is a picture of me holding a shark.  Yeh, I know.  It's dangerous...diving and holding sharks.  They call me the "Shark Whisperer."  Seriously, Nurse Sharks are plenteous in the area and basically harmless.  At one point there were 16 or 17 sharks around us along with Sting Rays, Sea Turtles and a plethora of beautifully colored fish.  I appreciate Greg and Cathy Lewis for sending this picture to me.  They are a very nice couple from the LA area that we met while in San Pedro.  I enjoyed diving with them Friday.

It was really strange sitting on the beach or under the thatched covered deck of Ramon's feeling the Caribbean breeze and listening to the waves mixed with sounds of Christmas Carols from the speaker system!  And all this at 87 - 90 degrees!  When we left home Monday morning it was 35 degrees and had been snowing a little bit a couple of days before.  Aaahhhhhhh, it's Christmas!

It was also a bit strange seeing the palms and landscape of the tropics decorated with Christmas lights, candy canes and Santa Claus.  It looked like Christmas.  It sounded like Christmas.  It didn't feel like Christmas.  Here are a couple of pictures of San Pedro decked out for the Christmas season.

This blog will not allow  space enough for all I wish to write about.  Nor is there space for all the pictures I would like to share with you.  I will sum it up simply by saying we had an awesome time and thanks to everyone who made it possible.  I especailly want to thank Bro. Danny for making it happen. 

 The sunsets were pretty spectacular as well.