Hugo and I went to Christmas Eve service and I was kind of surprised by the experience. First of all, I'm used to people getting all decked out for Christmas Eve...little girls in brand new dresses, little boys uncomfortable in clean clothes. Here, there were more people in jeans than anything else. Which..was unusual. On Sundays, everyone is usually very formal. So formal, that it is almost inappropriate for a woman to wear pants. However, on Christmas Eve, people were more casual than I had ever seen them before. The pastor's shirt wasn't even tucked in! And I'm used to a packed house on Christmas Eve...all the C&Eers coming out in droves. Here, the church was less full than a typical Sunday morning. And...the pastor's sermon wasn't even the Christmas story! Strange all the way around!
After church, we had a nice dinner at home (despite the loud, distracting bangs happening right outside our front door). After we ate, Hugo asked what I wanted to do. He said the loud music and fireworks were going to last at least until midnight. People stayed up til 12 to ring in Christmas day. Because it would be entirely pointless to try to sleep, he recommended we go visit some family and friends. Hugo's uncle (and wife and 3 year old son) lives about a block away, so we started there. We spent about an hour watching Jamito (the 3 year old boy) oscillate between being terrified of the sparklers and loving them...and back to hating them again! After awhile, we decided to move on to Lucy's house (the girl who owns the cyber cafe and has become a friend).
Lucy's house was an example of a dance party in the street. Everyone was all dressed up and ready to party! Mayra, who loves the camera, immediately recommended we take pictures to remember the occasion. Here are some of my favorites...
This one cracks me up! This is proof positive of who does the laundry. After church, Hugo stripped out of his formal clothes immediately and opted for something more comfortable. I, on the other hand, was very aware that a change of clothes meant one more thing to wash. So, I was completely fine staying in my dress.
This one emphasized just how white I am! Good grief!
This is one of about 20 pictures taken with this group of girls in this pose. After each click of the camera, Mayra would say, "Another." Like I said, she is fond of photos! This one is my favorite.
After all the group shots, Mayra wanted to pose in front of the Christmas tree. Like America's Next Top Model, she worked all the angles...many, many times. When she was finally done, she said, "Jessica, don't you want to pose by the tree too?" Ummm...not really, but I didn't think I could tell her no. So, I told her I would do one. I tried really hard to make it look like I had a baby belly...but baby really isn't ready to make an appearance.
After our photo party at Lucy and Mayra's house, we went home. It was late enough that I thought I could sleep...even with the continuing blasts and loud music. I passed out shortly after eleven. At twelve...I thought I was going to die. It sounded like the house was caving in. I've never heard noise like that before in my life! Luckily it only lasted about 20 minutes. Then, all the craziness died down and I was able to sleep again. Christmas morning, the ground was COVERED in little bits of newspaper. Apparently, firecrackers and whatnot are made of newspaper? I have very little knowledge about explosives. All I know is...the ground almost looked like it was covered in snow.
Fast forward a week and you could practically hit repeat on Christmas Eve. New Year's Eve offered the same amount of noise and craziness. However, Hugo and I were not as excited to repeat it again. This time around, we stayed home and played board games...exciting I know! Again, I passed out before midnight. However, this time I was fully prepared to be woken at midnight. For some reason, the New Year's Eve explosion wasn't quite as obnoxious as the Christmas Eve one. However...it lasted much longer. I kept waiting for the craziness to ease up...but it didn't. In fact, the people in my neighborhood thought it would be a great idea to party ALL NIGHT LONG!!! In the morning, the first words out of Hugo's mouth were, "Stupid people." Mine were..."I want to punch them in the face." Over all...not one of my favorite Salvadorian holidays.
All in all...it was a good Christmas and New Year. I appreciate how laid back and family oriented (and I hate to mention it...but non-materialistic) everyone is here for the holidays. Hope you all had a good Christmas too! :)
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