Christmas in Bolivia is always a challenge. Tank top weather and palm trees, no matter how hard I try, will never help me "get in the spirit" of Christmas. We tried going to one of the main plazas a few days before Christmas to see the lights, but the magic was overrun with gimmicky Santa hats, high-pitched Christmas toys and WAY too many people. Sigh.
On Christmas Eve, we were able to maintain some of our own Christmas traditions by doing an advent calendar with Matias. He loved it and learned some new numbers (11-24). Most of the concepts he seemed to grasp, except that Mary was just a human (See Mary up in the sky with the angels, placed more in Catholic than Protestant position).
We also did an advent wreath each Sunday leading up to Christmas, which has always been one of my favorite traditions growing up and holds lots of meaning for me. Matias loved the songs, repeated much of the Scripture passages, and when we were done lighting the candles, he'd say, "We're waiting for Jesus?" Below is a video from the last advent service:
And nothing says Christmas more than a burnt pumpkin pie, right? Matias mixed all the filling, so I suppose I could blame it on him... I swear I've made half a dozen pies that have all turned out much better than this one. The part of the crust that didn't sink down into the pie was burnt to a crisp, no matter how hard I tried to wrap it with aluminum foil. I blame it on my finicky Bolivian oven.
Christmas morning, we had a Stewart sibling/Matias tradition of Austrian pancakes called Kaisershmarm, which Matias pronounces perfectly. I'd even saved a handful of the precious few blueberries I'd found in a store here a month ago, and we mixed them in with powdered sugar and strawberries. Yum!!
The fun continued when we opened our stockings and found a creative use for sticky notes. Matias took his "elephant nose" seriously and wore it for a good part of the morning. We even got Nana and Poppy to play along when we skyped with them!
Now THAT'S flexible family fun!
Liz and Maria, our two little neighbor girls, came over mid-morning to give us Christmas hugs, and then it was time to hand Matias over to Brianna and continue our own Christmas celebration.
Despite a smashed in door, broken windows and a slightly bent wheel hub, we were still able to go for a drive in the mountains Christmas afternoon. We ran out of brake fluid from a leaky cap (had extra in the glove box!) and went over a pothole that knocked a connection loose, but both were fixable and we had no major problems. It almost seems like getting hit by a dump truck stopped the streak of major car problems every week or two. Who'd've thought?!
There are lots of lakes and reservoirs tucked up in the mountains behind my house and endless roads to explore them. It was nice to actually feel cold on Christmas, even though the snow was far away on peaks on the horizon. It's the first time we've really been able to explore the mountains since we got the car and it felt SO good to get out. On our way back, a couple Quechua ladies and their kids flagged us down, needing a ride from their community into the city to sell potatoes. They piled in the back, and Collin and I practiced our Quechua with them, evoking lots of laughter and confused looks from the women.
After our ride we went over to Collin's friend's house for a grill out. It felt more like a summer celebration than a Christmas one, but it was a pleasant way to end Christmas. I miss the snow. I miss the traditions, the turkey on the table, the short days, the collective sense of celebration throughout the surrounding community instead of business as usual on Christmas Day, the caroling, the yummy Christmas cookies instead of dry, dry Bolivian fruitcake... But I'm here. So I need to learn to make the most of it.
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