Feliz Navidad!!

When I sort of woke up from the Bariloche trip, I showered and got dressed. We ate lunch at my grandmas house like usual. After lunch I talked with Dad about my trip. And then I got busy wrapping presents for my family, grandma, aunt, cousin, and Moncho's family.

In Chile, presents are opened Christmas day sometime after 12 a.m. So there's none of that "go to sleep kids, so Santa can come!" business.

At 9 (it was suppose to be 8, but we're always late. <---no rhyme intended), we went to Moncho's house for a nice Christmas turkey dinner.

We talked, ate, and drank cool drinks with fresh fruit in them. Mmmm. 

Earlier, I talked to my host mom and told her that my family would be talking to Benjamin on google hangout at 11. She said that we'd be at Moncho's house but that it'd be fine if I talked with them for a bit. But as it got closer to 11, they talked about going to a church service at 11. So I didn't mention it. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to talk with him, since he can only talk with skype twice a year. But we'll chat on Mother's Day. And I'm only in Chile for Christmas one time. So I went to the church with Mariela, José Victor, Victor, and Javiera. I didn't understand much but all churches talk about the same thing for Christmas. The miraculous birth of Christ and Christ's love. They sang some songs and I was happy to be able to sing the chorus of Angels We Have Heard on High.

We got back from the church at 12:20 and then opened presents at their house. They got me big box of chocolates. :) Just what I need! Haha. So that was nice of them.

When we were done there, we went to my grandma's house to open presents with my grandma, Ely, and Francisca.

My little cousin Francisca:

They got me a nice beach towel, perfume, and some suuuuuppper comfy pants. There's pictures below. They are made of really light material and they are everywhere here. I will definitely be buying more. :)

At 2:30, we left their house. Yes, 2:30 in the morning. And yes, I was dead tired.

When we got home, there were the presents under our tree to open still.

Stockings!

They got me some perfume (are they trying to tell me something?? haha), two cute shirts, and face wash and cover up.

Dad sent me presents for them and they liked them. Green Bay Packer jerseys for Felipe and Vicente, a picture frame of us two for my mom, and a photo book from the Ironwood/Michigan/Wisconsin area for my dad.

After that, we finally got to sleep. :)

We slept in and when I got up at about 11, I went and put Santa things downstairs. I was going to set an alarm for like 5, but I just couldn't do it.

My Christmas breakfast. Hot milk and little empanadas.

After breakfast I called Dad! And talked with James, AnnaMarie and the kids, and Michael and the kids. That was great!

For lunch we went to Sergio's mom's house for lunch. We had some really good soup and meat.

After lunch, we went to buy some watermelons (sandias!)! And they are pretty massive. And so so so good.

Don't I look so tan!?

The lady at the place let us sample some and she took a picture of me for their website. She somehow realized I'm an exchange student and then told us that her niece went to the U.S.. 

 Those. pants. are. my. favorite.

We took the watermelons and ate them at my grandma's house. We each ate a quarter of one. We stayed there for a long time talking.

When we eventually went back home, we relaxed a bit. I called my Katie friend and we talked for an hour and a half and caught up. So that was wonderful. I love her. :)

We had a relaxed rest of the day...

Just a couple of things going on!

On the 23rd there was a Rotary Christmas dinner. I missed it though, because I was still in Bariloche. but my dad went. And they had these posters for each student. :) Again; the picture's sideways. I just don't know. But it's a letter from my favorite Dad along with pictures. So my dad brought it home for me. :) That was nice.

At said meeting, they discussed when we will be changing host families. There has been some drama with when we'll be changing, but I won't get into that. ;) They announced that almost all areas of Chile are switching between the 23th to the 28th. But in the meeting they asked who would like to delay that and my parents said that it would be better to wait until after summer vacation is over. Because families have trips planned and things. So luckily I didn't have to pack up everything and move out two days after Christmas. I still think "the move" is going to be before the end of February, but we'll see how it goes. My Rotary counselor is in Argentina and when he get's back, we'll try and set a date. So right now, I'm just taking things as they come.

Oh. And here's some pictures from a few weeks ago we took at the mall. They have this big Santa chair up in the food court for Christmas.

So it was a different Christmas! It's weird to experience a holiday without all the traditions you have grown to associate it with. For me, a few are: Christmas morning opening presents, strawberry pancakes, setting up the manger set and Dad reading Luke 2, singing lots of Christmas hymns, and lots and lots of SNOW. But this year, I celebrated Christmas for the first time without these things. It wasn't better, it wasn't worse, it was just different. I'm so grateful to have had the experience of Christmas in Chile with my Chilean family.