Meet the newest addition to my family...

Oh, what have I gotten myself into??? I guess you could say she was a New Year’s gift to myself… Mia came to live with me early in January when she was just 2 months old. She’s a chow/cocker spaniel mix with a lot of energy. We go for walks and try to stay away from the big stray dogs. We walk up and down the stairs because that’s our most favorite new activity! And we’re trying not to chew on the furniture even though it tastes better than the Purina small dog dry food mix. But, really she’s just great, and most evenings she falls asleep on my lap while I’m reading – couldn’t ask for a more well-behaved puppy! Though she is afraid of almost everything that moves…birds, ants, and a stray cat who she often surrenders her dog food to,

we have big hopes that she is going to take a prize this year at the town dog show in November.

This one's for you, mom...

The one part of my family Christmas I couldn’t give up was the annual Swedish Christmas Coffee Cake passed down through generations on my mom’s side of the family. So, with some modifications to the recipe based on available market goods, I managed to design a Honduran version of the traditional coffee cake…and I just might say that this was one of the best…though I didn’t have the trusty electric blanket to help the dough to rise, the Honduran sunshine on my patio proved able to do the job. I delivered one of the coffee cakes to the mayor’s family, and the other one we enjoyed here on Christmas morning!

me and jerome at Oxigeno, the disco in la paz...











mis hermanitos...
paola, daniela, danilo, y aracely on christmas eve!

La Navidad, 2006

Ok, so its almost Valentines Day and here I am just writing about Christmas…you can stop holding your breath now! Christmas was quite wonderful and will be, I’m sure, one of my fondest memories of these two years in Honduras. I was ready and looking forward to a true Honduran Christmas, but I never imagined what fun it could be. The Christmas celebration here is observed with family gatherings on Christmas Eve that last until midnight, when the birth of Jesus is celebrated with fireworks and dancing that continue into the early hours of Christmas Day…just as I imagine it was 2007 years ago.

The mayor and his wife invited me to their Christmas celebration…a dinner for all 8 brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, children, and grandchildren…about 45 in total…packed around tables outside in the patio…eating nacatamales (tamales as we know them)…on a cool evening in La Paz. It was as perfect as it sounds, and I brought homemade Christmas cookies, too! Then, at midnight, as the fireworks started to go off, I delivered baby Jesus to the nativity scene at the church with the mayor’s daughters, thus making me…yes, the Virgin Mary…I know, hard to believe…I could hardly believe it myself when I realized that this was my Christmas Eve duty.

At 1:00 am, when I would normally be in bed on Christmas Eve, listening eagerly for the sounds of Santa’s reindeer on the roof, we headed for the disco. It was quite the party in town. While most families were dancing in their homes, the younger generation of La Paz was out at the disco. I joined up with Patrick and some other volunteer friends of ours that were in town, and we stayed out dancing all night long. I think we all finally fell asleep when the clock struck 7 am.

Christmas day was quite tranquil compared to the night before. I had 3 of my closest friends – Jerome, Erin, and Raul over for Christmas dinner. We woke up around 11 am, ate my family’s traditional coffee cake (read about that in the next blog entry) and lounged around the house before fixing a simple Christmas dinner of roasted chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Simple, but good…and a change from beans, tortillas, etc…In the evening we invited the mayor’s family over for dessert to finish off the day.

Looking back on this Christmas makes me very happy! Aside from being with my own family, my first Christmas away from home could not have been more perfect. Its what I imagine Christmas should be – no gaudy decorations or grandiose gifts, just time well spent with my closest friends here and a family that loves me like their own!