12th January, 2006 // Honduras
Christmas #2 in site
Hello everyone! Long time, no write, I know. But we have had our plate full! Not complaining, but because of that, we have had very little time to catch you up. With that said, I will attempt to dive back into my memory of 3 weeks ago, and recount to you our holiday events. Our second Christmas celebration in site was another very special time for us. We had organized set plans to celebrate with our closest friends, Will and Diani. They had the whole family in town, and invited us to celebrate with them.
It was really cute, because about 2-3 nights prior to Christmas, Nick and I invited them over to enjoy roasted marshmallows from our fire pit in the backyard. They had never roasted marshmallows before, and instantly fell in love with the entire thing; from roasting them on a stick, to stuffing the hot, melted glob into the mouth. They loved it, and it was pretty cool teaching them something that is so common to us in the states. With that said, they decided that night that they wanted to have a fire pit at their house Christmas Eve, and teach the whole family what we just taught them. Well, Nick and I decided to step it up a notch…and teach them the whole shebang – SMORES. So Christmas Eve, we brought over two bags of marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers – put aside for dessert.
Upon arrival to their house, we were greeted with big hugs from their kids, with little wrapped gifts for us, and a whole lot of food!! Will and Diani had set up their whole back yard to fit the occasion, with a tarp, decorated tree outside, stereo for dancing, and fire pit ablaze. It was really special. After two plates of delicious food – the music started blaring, and the dancing began. With 4 couples, kids, and Diani’s mom, Nick and I felt silly at first (like we were at a high school dance) slow dancing outside…but after some time, really began enjoying ourselves. Once the young ones started getting a bit antsy – we decided it was time for the SMORES. Man did they love them!! It was a huge hit and Will continued by saying that every year from there on out they would have a fire pit and make smores for Christmas – thinking of us the whole time. Knowing that this was our last and final Christmas in Cabañas – it meant a lot to us to hear that they would continue this practice that we all started together.
The custom in Honduras is to celebrate Christmas on the 24th at night – stay awake until midnight – and then once midnight comes, wish everyone a Merry Christmas and light fireworks. So once midnight came, the life came back into all the kids – ready and waiting to light their fireworks. The whole town came alive with sounds of fireworks and gunshots at 12 on the dot. And while it is cool that everyone is awake and celebrating this moment together – I could have done without the gunshots into the air. But that is a small, macho, Honduran town for you.
Finally at around 2:30ish Nick and I gave our goodnights and headed home. The following day (the 25th), Nick and I went visiting house to house of our closest friends, where we were greeted with HUGE plates of leftover food from the night before. From platefuls of chicken, tamales, and cake – we needed a tractor to bring us back home. Nobody had to work and everyone was out enjoying the sun on Christmas day. It was great. Once we arrived back to our house around 5ish…we were greeted with about 4 different children with platefuls of food sent over to us by their parents. So generous! I didn’t cook for three days straight.
Overall we had a wonderful Christmas celebration. It was a great way to end our last holiday year with the town – and although we so look forward to being back in the States next year, there is so much we will miss about the holidays in Cabañas. Asi es la vida.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well! Will update again soon with details of Nick’s birthday and Jason and Jodi’s visit! And pictures to come as well!
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