Christmas 2006

Man, do Guatemalans love them some fireworks.

Starting around 8 pm yesterday until about 1 AM Guatemala City was full of fireworks. They peak at around midnight. They are not professional fireworks…more people powered…There are literally tens of thousands of people in the streets with their own private stashes. It was unreal. One of our neighbors laid out a string of Chinese firecrackers about 40 yards long. There was so much smoke that we could barely see.

We had a funny start to our day. Max woke up and came into our bed at 7 am shouting "Merry Christmas"...but...he crawled in with me and went to sleep for another hour.
Kim finally got Zoe up around 8 and brought her into bed with us....and she starting whacking Max in the bottom and laughing and laughing trying to get him to wake up.


The kids had a great time opening presents. Zoe seemed to grasp the concept pretty well. She ooohed and aaahed whenever it was her turn to open a present. Thanks to everyone that sent presents, they were much appreciated.

Kim did a fantastic job with the turkey and dinner. She had to wrestle someone in the store for the last butterball in all of Guatemala, but it was worth it. As we were finishing up dinner, around 6, there was a whole second round of fireworks for reasons we don’t fully understand yet. It’s the second holiday during with fireworks were set off at exactly 6 pm…kind of weird (the other is the 7th of December burning the devil festival…)We finished up the night ice cream and apple pie and the movie A Christmas Story.

Gotta go…I have to work tomorrow….Merry Christmas all!