Merry Honduran Christmas...

Christmas here in Honduras is a little different from the celebrations that I'm used to.

For starters here the big celebration occurs on the 24th of December instead of the 25th. 

They also don't have all the pre-Christmas celebrations.

For us the day started off pretty normally. 

Wake up, have breakfast, get showers, child #2 down for a nap, play with child #1, child #2 wakes up, hang out at Abuela's, have lunch, child #1 goes down for nap, play with child #2, get child #2 to go down for second nap..... in the meantime Abuela started working on the tamale's the night before and is busy getting things ready to finish up...

Tamale's are a VERY big part of the food here.  I think that every single family made tamale's (it's kind of like that party you go to where everyone brings a 7 layer dip).  

I will do another post with the Honduran tamale how-to.

After the kids woke up from their naps the festivities began....

We ate.... oh boy did  we eat.  

The tamale's were delicious.... 

So was the chicken that was cooked down the street in a neighbor's outdoor orno (oven). 

(Abuelo finished our orno in the backyard this morning so we'll be able to use it for New Years.  I'll post pictures later.)

THEN.... the power went out.  The first time the power was out we had just started getting ready to eat.  We bring out the candle and without fail Maria starts to sing "Happy Birthday".  Each time it is a different persons birthday. 

The power was out most of the night 5ish to almost 10.  It came on twice for a little bit only to be turned off again.  

We kept things interesting though.... 

The computer's battery worked long enough to give us a good variety of music.

And we played with sparklers.

Maria and her cousin Luis Gustavo did most of the playing with an occasional cry from Cooper when there were no more sparklers for him to see.  

haha... these two look SO happy don't they.  They are.  really.  no joke.  They enjoyed the sparklers so much.  Maria so much that she didn't even notice she'd burnt her finger until after all the sparklers were gone.  

We also watched the neighborhood fireworks for a little while before it was seriously time for the kids to go to bed.  

I have really missed all of the festivities going on back in Washington, BUT I would not trade my Honduran Christmas for anything.  I am so glad that Marco has FINALLY had the opportunity to share his families traditions with us.