It's Christmas Time!

Salazar Christmas Eve Play-by-Play

Christmas Eve:
5:00-Arrived at Bishop and wife's home for dinner. Chatted, got to know the other two couples attending, etc...
5:30-Ate
6:00-Ate
7:00-Ate...
7:30-Ate
This continued for some time until we could no longer fit a single morsel more. Our bishop has Italian ancestry so we had a HUGE traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner. Complete with Bakala (or something. It was a white fish with olives and stuff. So good), stuffed clams, pizza geyna (again, not spelled right. These are so legit I can't even find them on google ;), linguine with clams, stuffed mushrooms rolls, stuffed lobster tails (yes twice in one month, lucky us!!), rasberry salad, a ricotta cheese pie for desert, etc, etc, etc. Seriously, there was tons of food. So delish!

8:00 After dinner we sang Christmas carols, visited some more, and then our bishops wife read the Christmas story from Luke. We then each had the opportunity to share our thoughts about Christ, Christmas, or just anything. It was a very pleasant evening and we are so glad for the kindness of our hosts.

Once we got home we hurried our little selves to prepare for the next morning. I asked Job if I could be Santas little helper so I banished him to his room to call family while I stuffed stockings and put out a few gifts. It was fun :)

Later that evening all the lovely food I had enjoyed caught up with me and ended up out of me if you know what I mean....yuck, vomiting is no bueno, especially on Christmas eve night. Luckily it didn't last long and I was able to get some sleep. (TMI for most of you perhaps but I must remember these wonderful times ;)

The next morning we leisurely awoke and enjoyed a traditional Christmas morning :) I forwent making a big breakfast of Big Pine French Toast as is the tradition in my family. This was because we already felt so heavy from our big meal the night previous and I had just made some yummy organic granola a few days prior so we went with that.

 Welcome Christmas Morning! We sure looked the part with our tired faces ;)

 We had fun opening gifts from family and each other. Job's family sent us a big box of goodies and gifts from Mexico which was a lot of fun. My family also sent gifts. We have never received so many packages at once. People love you a lot when you move far, far away ;)

 Kisses and love sent to our familias y amigos!

The rest of the day we just chilled. Watched Christmas movies, ate, played games, talked to our families A LOT. We both felt the sting of homesickness during this season. This was my first Christmas alone without the majority of my family around so it was hard in ways. But really I have my family with me in Job. He is my family, Boston is our home, and we had a great Christmas together. Talking on skype was so much fun and gave me my "family fix" for the day. Thank goodness for technology :)

I am mostly grateful for this season because of the birth of our Savior. The Spirit of Christmas is simply the Spirit of Christ and so we can feel it all year long. This is something my sister who is on a mission told me in a recent letter and it has stuck with me. I want to keep the spirit with me all year so I can remember Christ in daily life.

Merry Christmas 2010!