For New Years we went right down the street to our neighbors house! I met this girl through a random sequence of events, and we’ve have become friends quickly! We didn’t even know we were neighbors when we first started talking, and it was so fun to figure out we lived right down the street from each other!! So she invited us to celebrate New Years with her family -she has three adorable boys- and a few other friends of theirs. I wasn’t sure if I could make it to New Years, this old lady and her pregnant self are usually fast asleep by ten-even sometimes nine!!  We just hung out and visited and when it was time to count down, the whole country did so with explosives! It was terrifying! Me and ElMary-the woman whose house we were at, hid behind the door. I don’t know, something doesn’t seem right when small children and drunk people are lighting things on fire… sounds like a great way to loose a limb or an eye! In fact, the fireworks were so loud and intense, that we had to wait about twenty minutes after New Years to even think about walking back home, since we didn’t really want to be impailed with a firecracker! Here we thought we were doing the safe thing by not driving on New Years-which is the safer thing in the States- only to find we would have been safer if we drove the car for protection! haha. We just waited a little while and then walked home.

Another tradition here is making fake/stuffed people. At first we didn’t get it, and finally had a kid on the street explain to us what was going on. It’s a joke. Kids and adults make these fake people, with some kind of illness or sickness, and a funny little sign explaining what is wrong with them. And that, we thought, was the end of the joke. UNTIL, we found out that then, on New Years night, they take this “sick” person, and because they are sick and going to die, they stuff them full of fireworks and light them on fire!! For real!! It was both a hilarious and terrifying thought-as I imagined all those things flying through the air!

 

We spent our Christmas this year in Nicaragua. It was the first time we’ve been away from home at Christmas time. It was strange for sure, but with it came the challenge of keeping old traditions and starting new ones- a challenge we gladly accepted and had fun with!! We had a great time overall, and would love to share some of the highlights from that lovely time of year. (Even though it was so odd to be celebrating and sweating!) I mean, San Diego is usually fairly warm during Christmas, but this was just down right silly!

 

This was at the church-they had a big celebration with everyone the Sunday before Christmas. I actually volunteered to help cook with the ladies (and funny thing was they put me on the duty of cutting/trimming the chicken. It was all I could do to keep my gags to a minimum-as raw meat already creeps me out and on top of that I have all these  pregnancy hormones that randomly make me gaggy!) But I held it together quiet well!  It was pretty cool because we had food for everyone, then the church had presents for all the little kids, and they even had a piñata  too! No celebration here is complete without a piñata!

 

 

And the hilarious part was I didn’t know what I could find, so at first I wrapped up some of Brandon’s ‘spare’ things-like extra deodorant, toothpaste, etc that I had brought from the states. He was so confused, like, “I’ve seen this before…” We both got a good laugh out of trying to be creative. Later I did find some fun things at the local store!

Later that day we went to some new friends for Christmas. It was strange to be celebrating Christmas with new friends-many of whom we just met that day-but also lovely too as we felt so loved and welcomed since people we hardly knew invited us over to celebrate Christmas with them-it was such a fun night!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great restaurant in town-it’s all grilled. So tasty!! It’s so fun to have places to eat out at!!

And this is a beach about twenty minutes down the road from us. Except this time we waded through the little river outlet and walked about a mile down the beach to do a little exploring. Not necessary per say, since the beach is already pretty deserted, but we like to check out new places!

Back at home I put Brandon to work-setting up the crib that his parents got us for Christmas!! Merry Christmas to us!! It was so fun to get something in her room, to make it officially ‘her’ room!!