Christmas eve here began with everyone prepping the living room at around 7 at night by putting the grifts under the trees and finishing up cooking the christmas feast. We had lots of family staying with us, about 30 people in all. After everyone was dressed and ready to celebrate we took a ton of pictures and then champagne was given to everyone age 9 and up. After a toast, we all sat down to eat dinner around 11 at night. We had a baked turkey and then a few different types of rice and a pasta salad that I looooved. Right before midnight the kids (one kid from each family) took the family Jesus figurine and we had little parade to the front yard to place the Jesuses in the manger. When I asked my mom why we needed 4 Jesuses she said that just because you're not in your own home for christmas doesn't mean you can abandon your family's Jesus doll. So the whole night fireworks had been going off and at midnight the explosions became more frequent. We all headed outside and the sky was literally full of glittering thunderous fireworks. We even set off a few of our own! It was so cool to see all of this celebration from so many people for this one holiday. After the fireworks were done we all headed inside for the kids to open up presents and then it was bedtime, welcomed by everyone!!! In the morning on christmas day is probably a tradition I will bring home with me, Peruvian hot chocolate and pannettone for breakfast. Mmmmmmm soooo delicious. Besides this however, christmas day isn't really celebrated at all here.
New Year's Eve all of the exchange students headed over to one of our houses for a party with almost all of us together and we had a blast!!!! We got there and after hanging out for a bit we all ate turkey and rice (pretty similar to christmas) that the mom of the house had made just for us! So after we had all finished eating we turned up the music and started dancing and getting everything ready for midnight. When the time came we all headed up to the roof of the house with glasses of champagne, ready to ring in the new year. Again, as it came closer to midnight more and more fireworks were set off and we had an amazing view from up so high. We had our own little iPhone countdown to midnight and set off our own fireworks while yelling feliz año nuevo!!!!! It was such a great celebration and even though it was so hard to be away from my family for the holidays I feel like it made me grow up a little bit. It also made me realize I will NEVER be missing another family christmas if I can help it!!! I missed our traditions soooo much and i never want to go another year without them or my amazing family.
