Feliz Navidad

Christmas has come and just about gone and it has been quite the celebration.
Monday before Christmas we had a party for our donors at the Comedor. Father Lucian was here and he said a mass in the afternoon, followed by cake, a bilingual rendition of Feliz Navidad and a general looking around the Comedor by the donors, many of whom had yet to see the actual place. The party took some tireless planning but was well worth it to make clear our thanks to all the donors who have made opening up the Comedor a possibility.
Tuesday before Christmas, we held another Christmas party, this time for the women and children in our support group for women suffering from domestic violence. We cooked up spagetti for 75 and had a full house for the afternoon. There was lots of eating, dancing and even a little Christmas pictionary.
Wednesday before Christmas was preparation day for the 24th. The biggest celebrations here happen on Christmas Eve, not Christmas and so we had planned a big party at Comedor for the 24th. The moms were going to cook all the traditional Christmas food, nacatamales, rosquias in miel and ronpopo. After our usual lunch at Comedor, the moms got to work preparing the Christmas meal for Thursday. On Thursday, Christmas Eve, we had invited not only all our Comedor kids, but all of their many siblings, moms, dads, etc. for dinner. With over 200 nacatamales and endless other food, we spent almost all of Christmas Eve in the Comedor with just about everyone who lives in Nueva San Diego. As always, the party consisted mostly of eating and dancing and generally crazynesss.
We got back to our house around 7:30 pm, just in time to get ourselves together for the 8pm mass. After mass, I went over to my host family's house for dinner. While Jessica got dinner together, Enrique, Maria and I danced (are you getting the dancing thing yet?) in the living room and I was asked endlessly to sing the English portion of "Feliz Navidad". After dinner between the 4 of us, Maria and I ran out to buy fireworks, Jessica made a fire in the street and we spent the next hour "throwing fireworks". I left their house around 11:30pm and made it to another friend's house, Esperanza for more dancing and the big firework madness that happens at midnight. When 12 o'clock rolled around, just about everyone in Talanga was out on the streets lighting off fireworks. These fireworks are legal, of all different shapes and sizes and completely dangerous. Yet everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, sets off fireworks at midnight (and any other time in the Christmas season) to celebrate. Next stop in the big celebrations was at another house (Eva's), my roommate's host family. There it was more dancing (surprised?). At this house was also the biggest and most elaborate nativity scence in Talanga. We left Eva's just before 2am and went back to our house, where the dancing continued until 4.
On Christmas Day, it was back to Comedor to have lunch as usual, but also to hand out presents that had been donated to the Comedor kids. The kids were all smiles as they received tshirts, hats, dolls, footballs and stuffed animals. After Comedor, nap time happened and then Christmas dinner and gift exchanging with Father Lucian. I dropped off to sleep to end Christmas watching a movie with my roommates. Although it was just awful to be away from everyone at home for Christmas, it was without a doubt a great Christmas and one to remember.