Well Christmas is my favorite Holiday of the year. It is such a wonderful time to just take a look at the whole year and center our lives in Christ and just feel peace and love all around us. I always have a hard time during Christmas time because this is the time when I miss my family the MOST. I have been here for 5 Christmases and I haven't spent it with my parents once since I moved up here. I just miss the festivities in my country and just being with my family and hearing my dad's lame jokes :) We do things A LOT differently in my country. It all starts with Christmas Eve. Every year you get a new outfit for Christmas eve. You dress up and go to a dinner/ party at around 9 pm. Usually what is served is hayacas (similar to TAMALES but much, much better mmmm), some turkey, a special bread filled with ham, my family always makes lasagna and lots of dessert. So we end the year getting fat cause we eat a ton. Then at midnight baby Jesus comes and leaves gifts under the Tree. Everyone gets 1 gift. That's it. I had some culture shock when I saw the Christmas trees here. And the gift you get is the thing you wanted the most. My family focuses on spiritual gifts more than material things. My mom always taught us that Jesus gave us a lot more than we can imagine. We would sit around and talk about the many wonderful gifts the Savior gave us that year. After we open the gifts. We usually dance, listen to my dad's jokes, play games, and the party ends at around 2 0r 3 am. The next day we go on a trip. To the mountains for a picnic, to the beach those that are close to it, etc. I absolutely LOOOOOOOOOOOVED IT. Every single year I just couldn't wait for Christmas and it remains the same. I hope I can teach Blake what Christmas is really about. Wait till you read what we do for new years. That should be coming up next. Christmas was amazing with Blake this year. He loved every second of it. He was so much more into it. And he is just the best gift we have received. We love him so much. Feliz Navidad!!!
thanks for that post, I always like learning about other peop;es traditions.
ReplyDeleteDane and I stick to the one gift thing, but getting the grandparents to go along is a WHOLE other thing.
I like your traditions better. Maybe we will switch to yours. :) Got the recipes on hand?
I can't imagine how hard it must be to be away from your family and to celebrate things so differently. Hopefully over the years you can find ways to incorporate more of your traditions too.
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