Navidad

Needless to say, Christmas felt a little different this year...

Rudi, Lars, and I celebrated the last day of work before the holidays on Monday the 23rd by going out to lunch with don Marcos at a soup restaurant -- also since he's retiring at the end of the year, so we wanted to celebrate him as well (we'd also given him a gift and sang to him at our team Christmas on the 14th). That evening, we were also invited to Rosita's mom's birthday party, which was fun. After that, we went to see the new Star Wars!

On the 24th, the Christmas Eve service started at 5pm, after which we attendees shared a small supper. I headed over to Aurora and Gustavo's daughter's house where our Nochebuena celebration started around 9pm. We were chatting and hanging out til around 10:30, when the tamales came out to tide us over until dinner at 11:30. Then at midnight we watched the fireworks going off all around and threw diablitos (bang snaps). By 12:30 it looked foggy from all the smoke! Our gift exchange started at quarter til one, and Karinita, who was my amiga secreta, went first so I knew then I would be last. But she was thrilled with her pack of Dutch Blitz cards, so I was happy! Amigo secreto is a game a lot like Secret Santa, but instead of the recipient opening the gift and then having to guess who gave it to them, the giver of the gift has to describe who their secret friend is and everyone else needs to guess who it is before the person receives the gift. (And the name of the game refers to the receiver, not the giver.)

Valeria and I entertain ourselves until tamal time

The clan sits down for dinner

Near the beginning of the party, all of the family units had their pictures taken by the tree. Here I am with my host parents

Me and Tía Vilma

I missed the memo that everyone usually takes a nap before the Christmas Eve-early Christmas Day party (even though I probably could have figured that out for myself... oops!), so by the time the gift exchange was done, I was really ready to head to bed. Aurora and Valeria were still going strong as Gustavo gave Karinita and her parents a lift on our way home through the "neblina."

Slept late-ish on Christmas Day (9:30 or so?) before desayunando with a couple of tamales before joining my fam for the gift exchange via video chat. It was lovely to get to see everyone's reactions to what I sent them! I did sense myself feeling a little uneasy with the extravagance of the gift exchange compared to the one the night before. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed hanging out with my family for a couple of hours, even if only virtually... and really missing being able to hug them. 

My host family had talked about heading to the beach at Puerto Cortés in the afternoon, maybe around 1ish, but it didn't happen. Instead, I chatted with Keyla and we planned a two-night getaway to Tela for just before New Years'. 

I enjoyed getting to experience the Christmas holiday from a Latin American perspective. There's something beautiful about staying up until the date we celebrate Jesus' birthday and ringing it in with excitement. I also found myself missing the "Silent Night" aspect of Christmas Eve that I'm used to, where the night is devoted to remembering and pondering the Advent and Nativity stories in the evening service, singing hymns and carols, and lighting candles (by comparison, the message and songs weren't specifically Nativity-oriented at the service at the church here). I'm also used to the presents being symbolically separated from the religious celebration by a good night of sleep, and it was a bit jarring to just head straight to the party, but probably not as much as if the service had been the reflective, candlelit service I'm used to. I noticed I chafed a bit at the noise and sheer amount of firecrackers and the smoke they caused, but that may have been because I was already trying not to be cranky due to my tiredness. I was, however, a fan of eating seven tamales in a little over 24 hours. It was wonderful to be included so fully and warmly in the celebration of my host family and their relatives, but at the same time difficult to be so far away from my family knowing the rest of them were all physically together. I noticed things I like and don't like about both ways of celebrating, and I'll continue processing the experience. I'm already realizing that I'll cherish future Christmases with family all the more.