Christmas Eve and Day

For me, one of the hugest sacrifices I've had to make this year was missing Christmas with my family. It was the first time in my life I wasn't home for the holidays. The whole month of December brought a huge range of emotions and thoughts, but luckily for me, I had my period of sadness early on and for actual Christmas Eve and Day, I was in pretty good shape. To be honest, we were all working pretty hard, which was good because we didn't have time to let our minds wander back to our families at home. 

As hard as it was not being home for Christmas, at the same time it was a very special experience to be at NPHG. I got to spend Christmas with kids who really needed to feel loved, and I really tried to focus on and "live out" the whole idea/spirit of Christmas more than I ever had before. It was certainly a very special, unique Christmas I will always remember. It was a sacrifice but also a blessing, one of those experiences where I received a lot more than I ever gave up :) Here's a glimpse into Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at NPHG.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Santa's Workshop! All of Casa 4 was busy wrapping and packaging up little gifts for the kids. We were quite a busy crew!

wrapping paper explosion

Christmas Eve Mass! Perhaps my favorite part of the whole experience, it was a chance to take a moment to remember the spiritual significance of Christmas... you know, the whole "reason for the season" :) I loved what happened at the end. Our priest, Father Santiago, whipped out his guitar and we all sang "Silent Night" in Spanish, English, and German. First of all, I didn't even know the guy could play guitar. Second of all, listening to everyone singing with their whole hearts gave me goosebumps. It was incredibly special.

sing it, Father!

La Pastoral! Every year the volunteers traditionally put on the equivalent of a modified Nativity skit after Mass, called "La Pastoral". Our version this year seemed to be pretty well received- lots of laughs from the kids, which is what we wanted :) I played Mary and my housemate was Joseph. The volunteers got some good laughs out of the whole ordeal too!

Mary and Joseph/Maria y Jose!

Christmas Eve dinner! After Mass and la Pastoral, it was time to dig in. Welcome to the biggest Christmas dinner table, EVER. The volunteers served all the kids, which I thought was great. While it was faaaar from my mother's cooking, it was pretty good for NPHG, especially considering how many people they were feeding. I had to laugh a little bit that I still found myself eating rice and tortillas, even for Christmas. Ohhhhh Guatemala :)

volunteers serving up love <3

feasting

El Abrazo de Paz! I don't have any pictures worth sharing from after dinner, but we had a lot of fun. In Guatemala, the tradition is to stay up till midnight and basically ring in the New Year. Oops, I mean Christmas. But it was literally the same thing. We lit a big bonfire and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs while we waited for the hours to pass by. At midnight, there were a ton of fireworks in the sky and we exchanged the "abrazo de paz", or "hug of peace". Everyone hugs everyone and wishes each other  Merry Christmas. I really liked it, and I'm so glad I got to experience this Guatemalan Christmas tradition. I certainly felt loved when I crawled into my bed that nigh.

Vela! I volunteered to do vela (the nightshift) in the section on the night of Christmas Eve with another volunteer because I wanted the "full experience". If I couldn't be with my family, I wanted to be 100% with the kids. I'm so glad I did it. As I said before, for me vela is a very symbolic thing of keeping watch over the kids. There is nothing else I would have rather done with my Guatemalan Christmas Eve. My partner and I decided to have a slumber party in the section. We let the kids put their mattresses on the floor and sleep wherever they wanted because heeeeeey, it's Christmas right? :)

I love them.

CHRISTMAS DAY
Waking Up! First of all, my heart just melted when I woke up and saw my slumber party buddy all snuggled up. Sweetest child ever. What a great start to the day!

too. stinking. cute.

Tamales! Our Christmas breakfast was delicious and traditional- tamales, mmmmm :)

drooling.

Presents! Giving=receiving. All the other volunteers who worked in the section pitched in to buy each of our boys a new pair of socks. We asked them what their favorite soccer teams were and got them socks with the logo on them so they could support their team. The boys LOVED their socks and were really excited. It was a great feeling :)

JOY :)

Chilling. After breakfast, Christmas Day was pretty... normal. Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal in Guatemala, so most of the festivities happened the day before. We spent most of Christmas Day lying outside on the grass in the sun, which was just fine with me! :)

the boyssss :)

And that, my friends, is how I spent Christmas 2013. Definitely one for the books- love, love, love.