Happy Birthday, Papi!

Today is Louie's birthday. Last week when we talked to Rosita, he told her that the only thing he wanted for his birthday was to hear that Catalina and Gus are coming home. I hope he gets his wish.

To celebrate his birthday tonight, I'm cooking dinner and we are putting up our Christmas tree. I wish the kids were here to be part of that process, but, there's always next year. Hopefully, though, they'll at least get home in time to enjoy a few days of the Christmas decorations. Or, maybe we'll spend Christmas day in Guatemala. I can't imagine a better way to spend the holidays, except maybe spending them with the kids at our home with my parents and brother and sister-in-law here. Again...there's always next Christmas.

So, in honor of Papa's birthday, here are a few of my favorite photos of him with the kids.










That last one is extra-sweet. Louie wasn't able to join us on our last visit trip, but we talked about him all the time and every night Cati and I called him to check in. After the first call, Catalina started picking up the phone in our hotel room and pretending that she was talking to him throughout the day. She told him what she had been doing and a few times she asked him to bring her lots of chocolates!! On the last day of our visit, I was on the phone ordering room service. When I hung up the phone, she got really mad at me because she thought that I was talking to Papa and that I hadn't let her talk to him. Isn't that the sweetest thing?