Live blog update: Feliz Navidad (Happy Christmas)!

It's 9:25am here in La Paz, Bolivia (1:25pm in the UK) and we've just started the first of a few Skype/FaceTime conversations with family and friends back home. We're not sure if chatting to people back home is making us more homesick or less, either way, we're grateful for amazing technology that helps us keep in touch with our loved ones.

As we sat here this morning in our La Paz apartment with no Christmas decorations, presents or lavish dinner cooking it was suddenly so much easier for us to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Over the last 24 hours we have had homesick tears but this morning our thoughts have been focused on Jesus who is so easy to forget in the hustle and bustle of the shopping, wrapping paper, charades, family celebrations or for some, terrible loneliness and pain of loved ones not with us.

By no means is this post meant to push our Christian faith on you but I hope you'll allow us to continue our very open and honest posts as we try to give you, not only the highlights of our travels, but also let you into what's going on in our heads, our thoughts, emotions, highs, lows and sometimes crazy stories from the archives of our brains!

With all the usual Christmas mayhem (most of which we absolutely love) stripped away today, we sat together on the old, uncomfortable sofa in our apartment and remembered that 2000 years ago, God sent Jesus to earth as a baby to be our saviour. 

His mission was one of pure love but he was mocked, misunderstood and eventually crucified by those he came to love and save.

You all know the story, as do we, but it can so easily be lost in the Christmas chaos. Hidden under the mountain of presents under the tree. Buried in our haste to baste the turkey.

As Christians, we have often forgotten the true meaning of Christmas and this year, although we're terribly homesick, we are strangely glad that we've had this stripped back start to the day which has enabled us to take time out to be grateful to our saviour, Jesus on this, the celebration of the day he was born in a manger in Bethlehem.

We may well post later too but would love to hear from friends and family today if you can spare 2 minutes to comment on the blog or maybe write on Lauren's Facebook wall if Blogger is still playing up!

We are so grateful for all our friends and family and genuinely wish you the best Christmas Day ever. Enjoy your day and whatever you're doing, remember the true reason for the season.

All our love

Gareth & Lauren

XxX