Catching up - Christmas!

Happy New Year! We have had a wild week, most of it great, and there's so much to catch you up on. We returned from Chile to find our vonage phone not working - so sorry to those who have tried to call. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

We'll start with Christmas. Living in a new place and a different culture, it is sometimes difficult to decide how much we can adapt to the traditions here, and how much we will stick with the customs that we know and that make sense to us.

As our normal celebrations go, all the excitement is supposed to build toward a peaceful morning of December 25th. In Peru, (and I believe in much of Latin America) Christmas Eve is when all the celebrations happen. Some of our dearest friends, Robin and Elita, invited us across town to join their family that night for the traditional party - starting at around 9pm and culminating with fireworks and a turkey dinner after midnight. We wrestled with the implications for Noah, who is usually asleep at 8, and for an exhausted Christmas morning. In addition, I was not feeling well that morning, so the whole thing seemed completely unrealistic. Nevertheless, we decided it was worth it to try and go for as long as possible and I could not be more glad that we did. It was such a special evening, and they really made us feel like part of the family.

We arrived around 9:30 and brought Noah's crib. The evening started with introductions to their whole family - grandparents, uncles, etc., followed by some praise songs, prayer, and the traditional Peruvian Christmas snack - Panetone and hot chocolate. Laura got the honor of being the "madrina" of the panetone.

We then opened presents - in "secret pal" fashion, which is very typical here. By then it was about 11, and Noah was very tired, so we put him to bed in a back room. He did so well! All of Robin's family is musical, so the next hour was spent jamming to traditional Andean music with guitar, charango, quena, and good singing.

Throughout the evening we had been hearing various explosions and fireworks, but as midnight approached, the big show began. I don't know exactly which fireworks are illegal in Peru, if any, but it is apparently very easy for anybody to get anything, even the large sky-filling variety that professionals in the US use on July 4th. And as Christmas day officially starts, the whole city begins to explode. I have never seen anything like it. We went up to the roof to watch, and everywhere we looked, there were fireworks, sparklers, children running through the streets with crackling noise-makers, all accompanied by thumping Latin music. We wished one another Merry Christmas and enjoyed the chaos.

When we finally all came inside, we ate what we could of the big turkey they had prepared, and shared in wonderful fellowship. At around 1:00, we decided we needed to go home, so we got Noah up and said farewell to the family. I don't know how much longer they continued to party, but we were exhausted. I really can't express just how thankful we were to be there, sharing Christmas Peruvian-style.

As for Christmas morning, we all slept in and did get to enjoy a peaceful celebration just the three of us. Noah woke up to see all the presents under the tree (we hadn't put any out beforehand), and was very excited. I made pancakes for breakfast (trying, somewhat successfully to make Christmas shapes), Noah's new favorite food.

Afterward, we had a sweet time of family worship - singing carols, reading the familiar scripture passages from Luke, lighting our advent wreath and reflecting on the wonder of God's plan in sending Jesus.

We opened presents, which Noah seemed to understand much better, and spent the rest of the day talking to family and relaxing. In the evening, we went over to the Ross's home for a dinner with the rest of the MTW team. This being our first Christmas ever away from our family, we missed them all very much, but we praise God for granting us a very special Christmas in Lima.