Things That Made This Christmas Special

1) The water came back on on Christmas Eve morning (which is celebrated like Christmas day here), after being off for a few days.  Having no water always leads me to bathe in the river, which as it happens isn’t half bad.   I just have to keep an eye out for snakes.

2) My PC friends from neighboring San Ramon came in on the 23^rd to go hike and drink really good coffee at the ecolodge just up the road from my site.  It was great to speak some English and go hiking with friends!  I was also able to take my ‘bath’ under one of the waterfalls, which while a bit colder, beats my normal Christmas Eve’s Eve shower. 

Hiking up to the Ecolodge

While cold, it was definitely a scenic bath!

3) My family here has a small Christmas tree and Christmas lights in the living room of our house.  We were even able to set my iPod up to their speakers and listen to some English carols while setting them up, followed by carols in Spanish. 

4) I live very close to a pine tree reserve, and there are also several species of pine trees and bushes in my town as well (pretty strange to see in Central America).  But it’s great to be able to pluck a little piece of a branch from a bush in the front of my house and smell it.  It smells just like a Christmas tree/Christmas!

5) I’m currently a bit cold (I’m wearing jeans and a light jacket) at 68 degrees.  While that may be a drastic departure from the December weather I’m used to, it’s great to still be a bit chilly on December mornings, regardless of the actual temperature.

6) The rain up against the mountain in front of my house kind of looks like snow sometimes.  That coupled with the “cold” temperatures makes it almost a white Christmas.  Definitely beats the 20 below windchill in Chicago too!

7) I finally received a cell phone chip that will work in a place other than on top of the rock by the bus stop.  Now I can occasionally send texts from a corner in my room and sometimes call from my backyard.  It’s great, and arrived just in time to make it a pseudo Christmas gift.

8) Last Christmas Eve I was pestering my mom to stop taking iPhone videos at the family Christmas party, but I just came across them while going through pictures on my computer, and I’m definitely happy she took them now.  I have to say, Santa had some pretty good one liners last year!

9) The rumor of Christmas care packages.  I don’t even need real “gifts” anymore.  The mere rumor of getting a package gets me pretty excited!  The contents don’t even matter; my Christmas gift standards have gone way down (i.e. I’m really excited for the FLAVORED rehydration salts or hand sanitizer that my mom is sending me).

10) Watching a bunch of kids tackle each other over piñata candy in the casa comunal (community house) on the 24th.  It’s like fishing for children.

It´s like fishing for children

11) Poorly translated Christmas carols.  It doesn’t make sense to me though… they were in English to begin with…?

12) I’m planning on making a cake for my family over a wood fired stove.  I’ll have to get back to you on how this turns out. 

13) My host brother lent me gel to do up my hair in the typical Nicaraguan fashion for the 24^th.

My hair with A LOT of gel!

14) I was able to go for a dip in the town river Christmas morning.

15) And finally, I’ll be in a hot place surrounded by awesome looking volcanoes and a nearby beach for New Years with a group of PC friends.  I had wanted to go for a swim over New Years for the past few years, but this won’t involve a polar plunge in MN sub-zero temperatures, which is always nice.