Christmas came a little early…

I’m not going to lie. The thought of spending one Christmas away from my family was really hard for me to grasp. I thought about it a lot my first few months here, and I’m pretty sure the only thing that got me through was knowing that I would be home 4 days later. Unfortunately the feeling was catching and a lot of us were getting pretty down about spending the holidays away from our loved ones. To make up for it, Erika (our coordinator) and her husband/our IT guy Sandro, threw a Christmas dinner for us at their house in Parramos on December 22nd.

We were promised good food and a Secret Santa gift exchange AND wine. I know it probably doesn’t mean much to anyone reading this, but wine is IMPOSSIBLE to find in Guatemala…and crates of it? WHERE would you EVER be able to find crates of bottles of wine in Guatemala? Needless to say we were a tad excited.

We all showed up to Erika’s house and had a wonderful night full of good friends, fun gift giving (the presents were each wrapped in unique ways and everyone had to guess which one was theirs), wine, and DELICIOUS food (Josh, our resident chef, cooked us a REAL TURKEY DINNER complete with stuffing, potatoes au gratin, green beans with almonds, homemade bread, and bacon pinwheels – who could ask for more??) It was slightly better than my American hot dog (even though both were incredibly tasty ;-).) Overall it was a wonderful night, and even though it wasn’t the same as being home for the holidays, it was a nice runner-up :).

Katie, Carrie, me, and Erika on the couch

Our table - how fancy!

DELICIOUS

Cassie's present had a VERY special wrapping!

Katie breaking the piñata that housed her present