I love Christmas, it is by far my favorite holiday of all times. Family gathering from all over the country to one central location to celebrate together. We eat food, exchange gifts, laugh, tell stories from when we were kids, and enjoy time together as family.
This year, I found my self in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. Nicaragua is mostly known for rum and sugar. The rum and sugar comes from Chichigalpa. Far from my traditional family and friends, I find myself with a ZOI family and some new found friends. And to be honest, I loved it.
In Chichigalpa Christmas isn’t the big celebration, it is actually Christmas Eve. I was blessed to be albe to participate in the Christmas Eve festivities. This is what my day looked like.
I woke up on Christmas Eve and opened Secret Santa gifts with my team, very fun.
(please take not of our amazing Christmas Tree)
The morning was relaxing and full of omlets, A Muppet Christmas Carol, and playing games… the evening was when the real fun began.
Every Christmas Eve in Chichigalpa the thing to do, is to go to The Park. But before we went to the park we got to go to Emerson’s house. Emerson is one of the youth that attend our youth group and his family invited us over to his house to have Christmas Eve dinner. I wasn’t used to the chicken and rice dish, but it was delicious!
Then we took a walk to the park. The park has carnival rides, fair food, fireworks, stands with STUFF you can buy, ‘snow cones’, parades, fireworks, and so much life!
We got to hang out with the teens that night and be apart of their culture. It was so much fun being around them and getting to experiance a new kind of Christmas.
I’m not sure if I would ever trade this kind of Christmas for the ones I have back home with my family, but it has definately been a fun experiance and I really enjoyed the Christmas I had in Nicaragua.
