Chilean Adventures

Hola! It seems hard to believe it, but we have already gone to Chile and come "home" again to Spain. We are now in Madrid, soon to head back to Granada, with Nathan's family along with. :)

But before I get into the latest adventures, here is an update on our trip to Chile.

Teatro del Lago
Nathan spent a week rehearsing at the Teatro del Lago, which is a new theater in Frutillar (close to Puerto Montt on the map below). The project included 60 or so musicians (choir, orchestra, and soloists). The first concerts were performed at the same theater, followed by another concert further north in Temuco, and finishing with a concert in Santiago. I flew in to Santiago in time to see the final concert in Santiago and then we had a few weeks to explore Chile before flying back to Spain.



As always, this music project was a great opportunity to make new friends and new connections. By the end of the project, Nathan had been invited to stay with multiple different people in Santiago as well as elsewhere in Chile and in South America. :) We were delighted to get to spend part of our time staying with these new friends in Santiago as it is always nicer and much more interesting to stay with locals rather than in hostels.

Santiago is a huge city, but it has a good metro system so it is pretty easy to get around. Everyone we met was very friendly, but the one big drawback while we were there was the smog. As Santiago is in a valley, smog is easily trapped. There were some days where it was so hazy we couldn't see the surrounding mountains, so we were looking forward to getting out of the city so that we could breathe a little easier.

We stayed pretty close to the Santiago area during our time in Chile. Some of the highlights were visiting the Isla Negra (one of Pablo Neruda's houses), seeing all the colors and murals of Valparaíso (World Heritage City about an hour away from Santiago), and camping along the coast in Pichilemu at an awesome little campground (Pichilemu is famous internationally for its surfing championships).

Chilean Spanish
I was very curious to see how Chilean Spanish sounded to me, after spending an extended time in Spain, and especially in Andalucía. Chileans are famous for speaking quickly and "eating their words" (which means dropping syllables or final consonants). However, we were pleasantly surprised that our "training" in Andalucía had us well prepared. Chilean Spanish seemed to be no more difficult than understanding the 'Andalú' of Granada. :)

However, vocabulary was another thing. It was fascinating to once again be at a stage where we would pick up a menu and hardly recognize/understand a single thing on the menu! Many vegetables and fruits have different names in Chile, and Chile has many special food dishes that, of course, have their own special names as well.

Some vocab or expressions were the same as in Mexico, and it was funny for me to have to revert back to vocab that I have been working so hard to replace with vocab from Spain. :) So many words that Spaniards have corrected for me, that I then had Chileans re-correcting me back to the original word. Sigh. ;) For Nathan the new words were just new, as his vocabulary was strictly from Spain.

Chilean Food
Chileans seem to be really into sweet food, at least when it comes to beverages and breakfast. We stayed at a hostel with bed and breakfast and were served, not only bread with a variety of jams and sweet spreads, but also cake, sweetened fruit juice, jello, sweet yogurt and fruit!

We enjoyed sampling a few Chilean specialties such as Completos (fancy hot dogs that come with a ton of different vegetables and sauces, usually heaped with some kind of guacamole), Empanadas (pastry stuffed with pretty much any combo of vegetables, meat, chicken, seafood, and cheese), and Mote con Huesillo (a drink made from peach nectar that also has a small canned peach and a good serving of boiled wheat, which is like barley... which might sound strange, but was actually delicious!). We also ate a LOT of avocados, which are called "paltas" in Chile. The mother of the couple we stayed with in Valparaíso gave us a couple of paltas off of their tree. Seriously, this has been a good year for avocados. :)

Pichilemu
Our original plan had been to go surfing at Pichilemu, as it is world renown for it's surf. However, we were there just in time for some of the biggest waves they have seen this season (as it is currently fall, nearing winter in Chile)... and as we met a few locals who were fairly good amateur surfers who were NOT surfing because the waves were so big... we decided my one weekend worth of experience, plus Nathan's one weekend from 8 years ago or so, was not quite sufficient to brave the waves. We'll have to go sometime this summer in Spain, as we have been told summer in Spain is good for beginners as the waves are always small. :)

The advantage of the big waves was the opportunity to watch the professionals surf them! We rented bikes one day and cycled out to Punto de Lobos, the spot with the biggest waves where there are usually people on jet-skis accompanying the surfers to rescue them if they fall.

Return to Spain
We finished off our trip in Santiago once again, and had a lovely last gathering with all of the choir friends who live in Santiago. We tried to convince our friends that we had become very tanned while we were at the coast... and we were heartily laughed at. Even though it was true!! But in Chile we are both extremely "rubio", and apparently our change from very white to still quite white wasn't very noticeable. ;)

We then flew back to Spain! Landed in Madrid with a few days to try to get over jet lag and prepare for the visit from Nathan's family. But I will save our Madrid stories for my next post.

Overall Chile was lovely and the culture of hospitality and warmth was one of the strongest impressions we had of the country. It is not a cheap place to travel (prices are very similar to Canada actually...), but worth seeing for sure. Who knows? Maybe Nathan will get invited to do another project at the Teatro del Lago and we'll have another excuse to come back one day.

Love and blessings,
Candyce

Off to Chile!

How the time is flying!

A lot has happened in the last month. Nathan finished his choir project in Germany and Tunisia. We made a brief and unexpected trip to the United States for a family funeral. And amidst Spain’s extravagant preparations for Holy Week, we packed up the apartment, had farewell visits with friends here, and then left for Chile!

To be more accurate, Nathan left for Chile and I am currently leaving… Nathan has been in Chile for the last week and a half and I am writing this blog post from the airport in Madrid while I await my flight :)

Chile Choir Project

Nathan has reported that the project in Chile has been fantastic so far. The music-making is at a very high level, and he has been enjoying getting to know new friends and contacts. Most of the people in the choir are Spanish-speaking, and many are from Chile. From the sounds of it, we have several invitations from his new friends to stay for a night or two in their homes while we travel in Chile.

Spanish Colds

One thing I have NOT been enjoying in Spain, is my apparent susceptibility to colds and flus here. Maybe the strains they have here are different than in Canada? I don’t know, but I have spent way more time sick here than I have in years! Definitely an unromantic aspect of living abroad! This last week I was suffering from another wicked cold, but I am thankful that my health has returned just in time for my flight to Chile!

Surprise Party

Our friends very sweetly threw us a goodbye party. Our friend Loli had been organizing a night for the 3 of us to get together, and due to my cold and a bicycle trip we were trying to plan, it was not easy for her to drag out a commitment to a specific date and time. However, when we walked into the café/bar and saw a big group of our friends, we suddenly understood why Loli had been so aggressively insistent that we hurry up and confirm our plans :) We feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people here.

Next Plans

We will be spending the next 3 weeks or so in Chile, and then we will fly back to Spain. Our time in Spain isn’t over, but our time living in Granada has come to an end.

Only a few days after we return to Spain, we will welcome Nathan’s family who are coming to visit us :) We are looking forward to spending a couple of weeks with them and introducing them to Spain!

Following the McDonald family visit, we will start our long-awaited bike trip, first destination Galicia!

I will try to write again soon, especially as I have many photos to share of Holy Week. La Semana Santa in Spain is super intense. But I will save my stories to go along with the photos :)

Wishing you a blessed Easter!
Candyce

Surf y Planes

Hello! I am writing today from our sunny living room, with the terrace doors open wide to let in the sunshine and warm spring air :) It seems spring has arrived and we have more of this delightful weather to look forward to!

It has been an exciting last few weeks! Namely, that Nathan heard back from another audition and has received an official invitation to do a project in April... in Chile! After mulling it over for about 2 seconds Nathan sent his acceptance and I bought my plane ticket. :) We didn´t think there would be a Chilean chapter in this Spanish adventure, but we are pretty stoked about the addition of Chile to this year´s plans! We will be in Chile for about 3 weeks before we will then head directly back to Spain! (We still have an epic bike trip around Spain planned for the summer, so we definitely have to come back for that...)

Germany Update

Nathan is still in Germany and is enjoying the Bach festival & choir project very much. He has had the chance to reunite with some World Youth Choir friends as well as meet many new musicians and conductors. Several of the choristers are also going to the project in Chile, so Nathan will get to sing with  them again next month :)

The festival has published a few videos of the concerts on youtube. Click on the link below if you´d like to check out one of the concerts (around the 5 min. mark they zoom in on Nathan´s section):

Bachwoche Stuttgart 2014: Werkstattkonzert 2 -- Fürchte dich nicht

Surfing

Another fun adventure that happened recently, is that I went surfing! I was invited to go on a girl´s weekend with some friends in the province of Cadiz, and with Nathan away in Germany it seemed like a good opportunity to try something new and keep myself busy :) The plan was to take 3 surfing lessons, 1 paddle surf lesson, and spend one afternoon on horseback at the beach. The horseback riding sounded amazing, the paddle surf sounded cool, but I must admit I was pretty nervous about the surfing. Strong waves are intimidating, and I´m not that great of a swimmer, but the weekend sounded like too much fun to pass up.

And I am glad I went! Seriously, surfing is awesome. In Zahares de los Atunes the waves aren´t huge, but they are strong enough to make surfing possible. And it turned out that we didn´t even need to be in deep water. Generally if you fell off your board, all you had to do was to stand up as we were usually in water no deeper than your waist.

Surfing is very physical exercise (mostly because you have to fight against the waves to get far enough out so that you can catch a wave at the right moment) and requires a lot of balance and focus. And maybe it´s my background in gymnastics, but I loved the balancing aspect. It is a really neat feeling when you are lying on your board, and then suddenly a wave lifts and pushes you forward. And in that moment of acceleration, all at once you push up, put your feet in place, and stand! Sometimes the sheer surprise and delight of being on your feet on top of a wave is distracting enough that you immediately tip and plunge back into the water (at least that definitely happened to me more than once ) but there are also those moments where you keep your focus, you are perfectly balanced and suddenly you feel like you are soaring! By the end of my first lesson I was standing up and was totally won over :) By the end of the weekend I was catching enough waves that the instructors told me I could officially call myself a surfista :)

The paddle surf and the horseback riding was also fun (it really is delightful to trot along the beach on horseback... as a bonus the afternoon was clear enough that we could see the hazy outline of the African coast!), but I was surprised that overall what I enjoyed most was the surfing. :)

And now a few photos to share with you:

Paddle Surf! I´m the one on the far left.

Horseback riding :)

The weekend included accommodations at a shared house so we had access to a kitchen and dining room too which was nice.

The photos are all by my friend Ana María Bola and she made the above collage as well :) It´s worth clicking on the collage to see it in its full size.

Love to you all!
Candyce

Los Candyces

Hello! It has been a while since I last wrote! I hope you are all doing well in your various parts of the world :)

We are doing well and continuing to enjoy our time here in Spain. :) We have been on a few excursions and adventures over the last month, and Nathan is preparing to go to Germany at the end of the month for a choir project. It is hard to believe that we are already half-way through February!

Below are a few random stories of the past month to share with you :)

El mejor aceite del mundo, según Joaquín...
Olive oil is big here. Spain produces, consumes, and adores olive oil. Olive oil here is like wine - it is delicious, cheap, and there are an infinite number of flavors. I think I´ve written in the past about how olive oil is literally poured on everything here. As a dairy-free person, the change from milk and butter in everything to the obsession with olive oil works for me, although there are some days where we think longingly of some of the hippy/health options we have at home. The food here is definitely richer than what we normally consume on the west coast in Canada :)

My friend Joaquín told us a while ago that every year he drives out to a little village close to Córdoba where they produce the best olive oil in the world, and that we were invited to come along as he planned to go sometime in January. And with such a claim to quality, we obviously had to go :)

Baena is the name of the little village (under 2 hour´s drive from Granada) and it has one of the largest co-operative factories for producing olive oil in the country. Upon arrival, not only did we have the opportunity to buy oil, we were also given a tour of the whole factory, from the grinding, pressing and spinning to the bottling and labeling. It was neat to have the chance to learn about the process, and fun to skate through some of the rooms that have a permanent residue of olive oil on the floors. We bought 2 litres of fresh oil for ourselves (pressed and bottled only 15 days earlier), but in total our group (Joaquín, the two of us, and a couple of other friends) bought over 80 litres of oil! (A year´s supply for several families... but this still seems like a lot of oil to me!) We then went for lunch at the co-op´s restaurant (where we they serve their own oil, of course, along with fresh bread) and then for a walk around town and finally to the museum (which was an experience in itself as Joaquín, as artist and professor is probably the most ideal friend to have along at a museum if you want to learn and understand more about what you are seeing).

And while we haven´t sampled enough olive oil world-over to make an absolute claim, we can attest that this olive oil is pretty amazing! Mildly sharp, slightly sweet, with a fresh floral fragrance... you can taste and small why the oils are compared with wines here!

Voluntariado
A new thing we have been doing lately is spending one evening a week volunteering with an organization called Mirame, that works with autistic children and youth. Once a week we head out to a suburb of Granada to spend 4 hours hanging out and playing with kids aged 3 - 15. It is a creative and social time for the kids (we play games, do crafts, sing and dance, play outside if it is not raining) and also gives a much appreciated break to the parents of the children.

There are always several staff who are there plus enough volunteers to have one adult per child. Previous to joining this volunteer group, we didn´t know much about autism, so it has been really interesting as we get to know these children and learn from the other staff and volunteers in how to best relate and interact with the kids. This week we will actually be taking a course that Mirame offers to learn more about autism and support methods.

The volunteer evenings are definitely intense. The children do not stop for a moment. And the energy required to engage with them to encourage them to learn and connect is also very intensive. But the love and acceptance these children show is quite awe-inspiring. When you receive a hug or smile or cuddle from one of these kids who struggle to connect emotionally, it is very very sincere. We are looking forward to learning even more about their world in our course this week.

Los Candyces
As foreigners, especially foreigners with difficult-to-pronounce names (as most names are in another language) we have talked and laughed about our names a lot. Normally we introduce ourselves using a Spanish-style pronunciation of our names (NAH-tan y CAHN-dees) because if we say our names as we would in English, Nathan´s name gets repeated back as something like NA-ee-than (which is pretty close) and I just get bewildered stares as if I just said something in Japanese. :) Both the vowels in my name are extremely Canadian, so literally no one has been able to say my name as it is pronounced in Canada! In fact, if I am speaking Spanish and try to say my name with its normal pronunciation, I can hardly even do it. It breaks too many language rules, especially when it is in the middle of a sentence!

One interesting name tradition in Spanish is how names are pluralized. When speaking about a family using their last name, e.g. ¨the Johnsons¨, in Spanish you say ¨los Johnson¨. However, if you are referring to a couple you also have the option of using the girl´s name instead of the last name. For example, David and Ana can be ¨los Ana¨. It is also possible, of course, to just call them David y Ana (and, in fact, that is the more common thing to do).

However, due to the fact that both of our names are a bit hard to say (and our friends especially try to say our names as we would in English, instead of just using the easier Spanish-style versions), two of our closest friends started calling us Los Candyces (los cahn-DEE-ses) and this has caught on in our group of friends here. This also includes an English joke of pluralizing the name, as grammatically speaking they should just say Los Candyce, in addition to allowing them to change the accent placement, as it seems cahn-DEES is easier to say than CAHN-dees.

Since we normally go by Nathan´s last name in Canada, it has been fun that we can go by my name here! :) We get a kick out of hearing someone announce that ¨los Candyces¨ have arrived, etc.

And now, some photos:

La Romería de San Cecilio
(festival of the patron saint of Granada)

At the festival they were giving out handfuls of beans (habas) for free since they are in season at the moment...

View of Granada from the Abbey where the festival was celebrated.

Nathan went on a mountain bike trip with some friends.

 Cycling in the province of Córdoba :)

A hike with some friends in the hills above Granada.

Los Candyces

Part of the hike was through, of course, more olive groves.

Chatting and enjoying the view.

Another beautiful view of the Sierra Nevada

We hope you are all doing well and that you are having a great winter! Time seems to be flying by very quickly this year. We will all be in spring before we know it.

Until the next time!

In peace,
Candyce (and Nathan)

El día de los reyes

Now that the holidays are past, and it is back to ¨normal life¨ (...we´re still in Spain, still only working part-time, still spending most of our time studying whatever we want to learn... so it´s not exactly ¨normal life¨ but the fiestas de navidad have come to an end ;) we have been reflecting on some of the delightful experiences we got to share this Christmas.

One difference that I find fascinating is that the Church calendar is so mainstream here: public holidays and festivities coincide with church festivals. And, according to the Church calendar, Christmas starts on Dec.25th and continues until Jan.6th (Epiphany / el día de los reyes). Of course, there are people in Canada who follow this calendar (many of you who are reading this blog, in fact), but there is a different feeling in the air when EVERYONE is on the same page. 

Throughout all 12 days of Christmas (because there literally are 12 days from the 25th to the 6th) there was such a festive atmosphere in the city. And not just people trying to hold on to Christmas a little longer, but the complete understanding that Christmas obviously doesn´t end until the Day of the Kings. No one takes down their decorations, everyone keeps singing villancicos, and no business, school, or university resumes normal hours until after Jan.6th. 

And then on Jan.5th, the final celebrations of Christmas begin to welcome the 3 kings who arrive with presents not only for baby Jesus, but for ALL of the children.

We had the opportunity to go with friends to a celebration at a small convent here in town. Every year a community group prepares a surprise presentation for the nuns, including a play with carols. The play (which many children took part in) was delightful with a very animated retelling of the Christmas story which especially emphasized, of course, the arrival of the 3 kings with their gifts. As the kings entered they showered the crowd with candies and caramels (we were a pretty packed crowd as it is a small space) and then the children (and even some adults) had the chance to sit on a king´s knee and ask for what they wanted for Christmas.

After the kings left (explaining that they needed to go take a siesta before the parade and their very busy night ahead of delivering gifts to all of the children in Spain), everyone squeezed into the dining room to share in a potluck lunch/comida, and then more carols/villancicos. The nuns requested carols in different languages from all of the foreign students, and so Nathan and I sang one or two in English, a friend from Poland sang one of her favorites, and then we all joined in many more in Spanish.

After that celebration we went to a mass, and then to the Cabalgata, which is a massive parade that it seems the whole city turns out for, followed by fireworks, and a dinner among our friends. And then, just as we finished supper, the local neighborhood parade of kings, surrounded by a fairly impressive brass marching band, marched right down our street! So cool! With the crowds at the Cabalgata we had to watch from a distance, but from our third floor balcony we had a perfect view of the local Realejo parade :)

And with that final parade, that finished off our Christmas celebrations :) 

While we certainly missed spending the holidays with our families and friends in Canada and the US along with some of the beautiful traditions that we normally participate in at home, a Spanish Christmas was definitely worth experiencing. :)

We hope you are all keeping well and are refreshed and looking forward to all things to come in this new year!

Love,

Candyce (and Nathan)

Some Holiday Photos:

Advent Wreath :)

City Street Decorations

City Decorations

Nathan´s birthday cake

(Chocolate Black Bean brownie Cake, with Raspberry Filling and Avocado Fudge Icing)

The church where we went to a mass on Jan.5th

La Cabalgata Parade

A better view from higher up...

More fun at the Cabalgata :)

The parade in our street!

View of the snowy Sierra Nevada from the terraza of a friend´s place :)

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Happy New Year! Can you believe it is 2014 already?!? As of Saturday we will have been in Spain for 3 full months - in some ways I feel like we´ve been here much longer and in other ways like we just arrived.

We had a delightful gathering last night to ring in the new year. Several friends came over to have supper at our place (menu including all-the-vegetables-in-the-fridge soup, mexican chili chicken, pomegranate spinach salad, ginger snaps and black bean brownies) and then we joined the crowds downtown to eat 12 grapes, watch the fireworks, and cheer and laugh and take photos.

12 grapes. Have you heard of that tradition? We´ve been told that it originated one year when there was a surplus of grapes in Spain and someone had the brilliant idea to convince everyone that when the clock strikes 12, at each ringing of the bell, you must eat a grape and make a wish. Whenever we ask anyone about their Christmas and New Year´s traditions, they always mention the grapes, and frequently emphasize how stressful it can be to eat them, especially if you have large grapes with seeds... So we diligently were prepared with our 12 grapes, pre-counted and even de-seeded, before we joined the crowds. 

In the end it was fairly chaotic, and we weren´t actually sure if we were eating the grapes during the countdown to 12-midnight, or if the clock had already struck 12... (we couldn´t actually see the clock from our place in the crowd and there was a lot of noise from so many people), but I think that was half the fun. Either way, we have now officially participated in the grape eating tradition, which is obviously very important ;)

After the fireworks we went home for champagne, Dixit, more desserts, chocolate caliente, and much laughter. Although our party didn´t last the whole night (apparently it is very traditional here to stay out or at least awake until after breakfast on Jan.1st), we did stay up until 4am, which is respectable I guess... ;)

And now the second quarter of our year abroad begins!

Some amusing expressions that had us laughing last night were:

Cuatro gatos

Literally: four cats. 

This is one of our favourite expressions, especially as one of our mexican friends uses this all the time (in part I think because Nathan always laughs whenever she says it). If you say there were only 4 cats it means that there was no one there. If you say we were four cats, it means we were the only people there. Or that there was practically nothing happening with no one around.

Nada que ver con la navidad

Literally: that has nothing to do with Christmas. 

It is an expression that can be used when you want to say that something is completely irrelevant, when it has nothing to do with whatever the main focus of the conversation/argument/whatever you are doing. It is similar to the expression ¨And what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?¨ If you are familiar with the game Dixit, this is a useful expression to say when someone plays a card that appears to have nothing to do with the story that has been told. :)

Para gustos, colores

Literally: for tastes, colours. 

This expression is more beautiful than comical as it is a lovely way of saying that for the infinite variety of colors/options/combinations that exist in the world for someone somewhere it is perfect. A little bit like ¨to each his own¨, or ¨different strokes for different folks¨ but lovelier.

Wishing you all many blessings and many colours in 2014!

Love,

Candyce

Diciembre

Hello! I guess it has been a while since my last blog update!
We are continuing to enjoy our time here in Granada (despite contending with a seasonal cold or two...) and I wanted to update you all with a few highlights of this month :)

Las Alpujarras
We went on a little bike trip to the Alpujarras (a mountain range nearby) at the invitation of a new friend, Fran, who is a journalist in Madrid. He was in the midst of filming a cycle-tourism pilot tv show, and wanted to have a few companions along. (Our tandem might make an appearance in the pilot, who knows?)

Our destination was Pampaneira. I had been there once before, but had gone by bus. And let me say, it was MUCH more fun to go by bicycle. The roads in the Alpujarras are very steep and they slowly wind up the sides of the valleys to reach little villages that are perched high on the edges of the valley. In a bus this is a perfect storm for the worst motion-sickness you can ever experience.... (see: switchbacks and pinturns for 2 hours) but on a bike it is fantastic! Yes, it was still steep, but as the road is right on the edge of the valley the incredible views more than make up for it. And even the roads themselves were in perfect condition. It was as if they had been paved just before our visit, plus at this time of year there is very little traffic :)

Audition News

Some other exciting news is that Nathan had success with an audition for a choir project in Germany! The news came on Nathan's birthday, which was fun :) It is a three week project that starts at the end of February. The rehearsals will be in English and German so he will also have the chance to practice a little of his German as well :) He is definitely looking forward to the project.

Villancicos

Every year my friend/colleague Joaquín hosts a Christmas party for children. All of his friends who have kids come together and hear a creative re-telling of the Christmas story, followed by Christmas carols and lots of food and candy. Even though we don´t have children, we were invited :)

It was very cool to listen to the Christmas story with all the drama and mystery that Joaquín and several other parents wove into it. The only light was by candlelight, there were sound affects, music, and pictures projected on the wall at key moments. The 15 or so little ones seated on the floor were mesmerized (well, other than for a few VERY young ones who were more intent on putting keys, instruments, and anything else they could find into their mouths rather than listening to a story).

The Christmas carol portion of the evening was fascinating, as the ¨villancicos¨ that they have here are very different from what we usually sing in Canada. There are a few that overlap, but not many, and even the style of singing is quite different. We are, afterall, in the south of Spain, the heart of Flamenco country, and you can really hear how influential it is when people get together and sing! Not only do the villancicos have some of the same rhythm and harmonies, but the style of singing is also more like flamenco than anything else. One of my favorites was "Los peces en el rio" (you can listen to a version by the Gypsy Kings here, lyrics here). The Gypsy Kings version will give you a good taste of the flamenco-style singing I am talking about.

Posada Mexicana

One of our good friends, who also hosted the Día de los Muertos party in November, hosted a mexican posada party the other night. In Mexico there are 8 or 9 nights of these celebrations leading up to Christmas Eve. The evening starts off with a villancico of the dialogue between Joseph & Mary, and the Innkeeper (Please give us shelter - No I don´t have room - Please, my wife is pregnant - No, go away or I´ll beat you with a stick - Wait, you don´t understand, my wife is Mary and is going to give birth to the savior of the word - Oh! I didn´t realize! Of course, please come in!*) *Note: very loose translation...

The guests of the party divide into two groups to sing the song, and once everyone in the Joseph & Mary group have been invited in, everyone drinks ponche (which is like hot apple cider but with many different kinds of fruit) and eats snacks. And then it is time for the piñata/s!

When Luke and I spent a Christmas (way back when) in Mexico, we got to go to several posadas and they were absolutely one of my favorite highlights of our trip. And although that was a long time ago, I obviously still have strong memorizes as the instant someone yelled "Dale!" (hit it!) I suddenly remembered the song you're supposed to sing while someone tries to hit the piñata. Loli laughed when she heard me singing it because she had forgotten to teach that to everyone before starting. With the singing, yelling of instructions, and sticks and piñata flailing about in the air, it was just the right amount of chaos :)

Christmas Plans

We are very fortunate to have many invitations to various dinners over the holidays. For Christmas Eve we will be spending the evening with several other students who are also not home for the holidays. Christmas Day we have been invited over to join in a friend's family dinner and then we have several other invitations for various occasions. The only downer is that we are both still fighting the tail end of a cold, and so also trying to get as much sleep as possible as well!

I hope you are all doing well. Wishing you many blessings of health, joy and peace during this beautiful time of year.

Blessings,

Candyce