Christmas El Salvadorian Style

     We hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a fun New Year's celebration. Let us tell you about our Christmas here. It really started on the 23rd. Our Sacrament meeting set the tone for the next few days. I was able to sing a duet with Luciana Figueroa, The First Noel, with Rene on the violin playing Cannon D, and Sherilee at the piano. Then our bishop and a friend played a viola and violin duet, Rene on violin and Sherilee on piano and me on the organ did "O Holy Night" , Sherilee and Rene did a piano duet and a violin and piano duet. Our Bishopric each talked for about 10 minutes and the spirit was so strong. It was a great beginning.

 

Rene Hernandez, Sherilee Broadbent, and me.

     Sunday evening was our Stake Choir Christmas Devotional. Our choir performed above their ability. I got to sing "O Holy Night" with Rene on the violin and Sherilee at the piano. Luciana and I sang our duet again, we really blend well. I also sang "And He Shall Feed his Sheep" from the Messiah. It was an old fashioned Christmas program with a scripture read then a song to tell the Christmas story. We had children dressed as animals and Joseph and Mary come in as we sang the Friendly Beasts, which Rene and Sherilee translated from Engish to Spanish. It was a wonderful program and we had a great turnout to it. Afterwards, we had the Figueroa's over for an all American hamburger feed. They liked everything, but especially the cheese dip. I haven't found velveta cheese here yet, but cheese whiz works real well.

Monday morning, Elder Thompson and Elder Kitley got to go golfing with the Behner family again, Eric, Alex, and Andres. They went to the same course where Lon golfed a few months ago and had such a bad score. He improved his score by over 20 stokes so he felt good. It was a beautiful morning and they had a great time.

     We had a progressive dinner with all the missionaries at 6:00. We started at the Kitleys for ordurves, then to the Thompsons for salad. The Gibbons and the Walls furnished the main course, ham and funeral potatos and home-made rolls. On to the Petersens for dessert and our $5.00 gift exchange. Our evening ended about 10:00 pm and the Figueroa's picked us up and took us to their house for an El Salvadorian Christmas. Families start about 6:00 PM going from house to house wishing their family a Merry Christmas. There is always finger foods to eat and presents are left, usually a basket of food. One of the houses is the gathering place for the Christmas feast. We arrived at the Figueroa's with an hour to spare before the feast. They had a beautiful tree with not one present under it. We visited with their Aunt and two cousins and then at 11:00 PM dinner was served. We had roasted turkey and pork covered with a tomato based sauce. It had mushrooms and green olives in it. The rice had creme dulce, whipping cream not whipped, asparagus and two different cheeses. The salad is only made on the 24th of Dec and Mariela is the only one in the family with the recipe. It is shrimp, carrots, potatos, eggs, peas, onions and a sauce of creme dulce with mustard. Everything was delicious, just too much. This was our second dinner! 

     At the stroke of midnight, everyone hugs and wishes each other a Merry Christmas and the fireworks blast. They rocked the house. The sky was lit up all around. Still no presents?? About 10 minutes later. Grandma Gladys comes downstairs with a gift for the Aunt. She opens it and we sit around for another 10 minutes when Mariela, the mother, brings in a gift for her daughter Luciana. She opens it and again we sit around. Then another gift for the cousins. Paola left at 12:00. The teenagers have to stay with the family until midnight then they can leave for a few hours to celebrate with their friends. This was the routine for the next hour and a half, even the two dogs got their gifts.  We get home at 1:30 AM totalled. I really like our traditions so much better. On Christmas day, most just head to the beach to sleep and relax after being up all night. There is nothing planned for the 25th.

     Have a Happy new Year. We are celebrating at the home of the Reyes so we will send a letter after with pictures for you to see. It is supposed to be quite a house. We love you all Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Lon and Nancy