In a zombie-like state....

Though I'm just a smidgen too tired to blog, I will anyway. How was everybody's Christmas Eve and day?! Ours was quite grand. Christmas Eve Jose and I worked on our Honduran dishes - nacatamales (different, but I suppose you could say "similar" to the Mexican tamales) and torrejas. They turned out okay, but not as good as the ones we made last year, we think. (This isn't a great picture, but the only one I took, as my hands were full of nacatamale batter stuff.)

In the evening we went to the service at my parents' church, then to their house for snacks and hangin' out. We came home and made our first (of many) attempts (failed) to put the girls to bed. Some friends came over, such good sports, to help me help Jose celebrate in the traditional Honduran fashion - staying up until ridiculous hours, and eating at midnight (other traditions include firecrackers like you wouldn't believe, and everyone in the street, and going to and from other people's houses - but I couldn't arrange those things). I forgot about the part where in Honduras I was fairly warned to NOT eat a nacatamale after late hours as my gringo stomach would not treat me too kindly afterwards. I'm still paying for that mistake! (Note to self: eat nacatamales earlier in the day! Enjoy a happy stomach the rest of the week!) After our guests left I think I got to bed by perhaps 4am, only I'm not quite sure, because I refused to look at the clock, knowing that if I knew the actual time, it would be worse. Christmas morning Jose helped me make a big breakfast; the parents came over to join us; and then the unwrapping frenzy began, after my attempt to read a quick verse of Jesus' birth, fully appreciated by my children for all of 0.01 seconds. In Christmas spirit, it began to SNOW right in the middle of gift craziness! It was magical and I freaked out. The picture below doesn't show a bit what we got to see, but it was a stab at taking a picture of it, anyway! At some point in the afternoon we made more attempts (again, failing) to have the children nap, and then a lovely dinner at my parents' home again, followed by watching a portion of Elf, and then home to more failed attempts to get our children to sleep. (What's wrong with our children and suddenly not going to sleep at night?!) Today has been a lovely day of doing much of nothing, trying to find spaces for the new toys and things, and a bit of laundry and cleaning up. Jose said it was a wonderful Christmas, that he enjoyed it more than last years', which makes it all worth it. And I am blown away, once again, by the generosity and kindness of friends and family.