Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas! I tried to make our usual Christmas meal but I had to make some tweeks. No turkey, no spiral sliced ham; this year was roast and, thanks to Helen at Moyo, we had mac and cheese, broccoli and cheese, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Thank you Mrs. Helen!

I made a pumpkin pie and pecan pie but forgot to take pictures. I also made a Christmas Bundt cake that turned out ok.

Keeping with our usual traditions I made bacon and cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast, although in the States they’re from a can. Here everything is made from scratch. This weren’t too bad but I used maple extract (a gift from Sarah and Emily) instead of vanilla. I think in the future I will stick with the vanilla. I also made Christmas gingerbread pancakes this year. Fun.

The traditions pretty much stop there. This year was weird for us. There were no family and friend gatherings. Most people we know here traveled or spent the holiday with their family. I couldn’t stream many of our favorite holiday movies. I could buy them but I couldn’t bring myself to pay for movies I already own. It’s hot here so instead of snow and gloves, it’s 95 degree weather and swimsuits. Not that we usually do lots of presents anyway, as we like experiences over things, but it was real slim this year. We can’t bring back a lot of things we buy here back to the States anyway, so it doesn’t make much sense to buy stuff.

Mason did get a drawing pad for this laptop and Tuck got a new tennis racket and they got each other some cards and that was it. Mamaw had left them some money for me to give them for Christmas, so I wrapped that up and we were done.

We didn’t have our traditional gingerbread house decorating contest with Mamaw, or any advent countdowns, no candlelight Christmas Eve service. Nothing. But we were together and we celebrated the birth of the Savior and that’s all that really matters.

Brazilians are pretty low key about Christmas. Families will sometimes put up a tree and even fewer put up Christmas lights. Some stores will put up Christmas trees and a few towns will do small light displays (compared to the US) but that’s about it. They celebrate on Christmas Eve with family and some food and open presents at midnight. Some do fireworks. It’s not the hectic rush around like in the US, which I liked and hated all at the same time.

Christmas Day, families usually sleep in and just chill. We were bored without ministry work so I convinced Trev to rearrange furniture, that’s how bored we are.

I had already taken down and packed away Christmas by the day after.

Roberto invited us to dinner on Christmas Day and he made us some delicious lasagna. I should have taken pictures of their family but, as usual, I just got a pic of the food. There are two reasons for all the food pictures: 1) I like food and 2) Uncle Ronnie and I play this game where we send each other pictures of our food and then the other person has to guess what they’re eating and where. We text each other more than any other person back home. It’s a lot of fun and it helps us feel connected.

Sunday after church we went out for sushi at our favorite sushi place, Iwata. The food is so pretty, it’s almost too pretty to eat.

Tuck had chicken, like usual, but this time he ordered it with rice and “salad,” which he ate up. He said it was good but weird that his salad was warm. Ha! He ate cooked cabbage, carrots, and green onions and thought it was salad because that’s what Sarah called it. She’s like a big sister to them. I love it. After he was done eating it all, I told him what it was and he was like, “Yuck, I hate it.” Ha! This kid.

New Year’s Eve started with us watching baby Judah. He is such a calm, chill baby. I loved all the snugging.

Then we headed over to Keith Micheal and Meredith’s house for New Year’s Eve party.

There was food and hanging out, then a fire for marshmallows (check out how short those sticks are), and sparklers.

Later we shared our highs and lows and how God has blessed us this year. Then we played games and Tucker went all caveman on us after Keith Micheal grilled up some chicken; Mason found it funny. Then it was time for the outdoor movie and popcorn. Fireworks went off intermittently during the evening. At midnight the community shot off fireworks and a neighbor outside the community put on an even bigger show that lasted about 30 minutes. Music was still blaring at 4am. You know how I said Christmas is pretty chill, well, New Year’s is the opposite. People party all night long and nothing is open on New Year’s Day. Trevor and I never try to stay up so we went home early and the boys stayed and Sarah brought them home close to 1am. They felt like big shots, all the other kids had long gone home.

Brazilians have some different New Years’s (Réveillon) traditions. One, is to eat 12 grapes under the table in order to find true love. If you don’t like grapes you can eat seven pomegranate seeds and then keep some seeds in your wallet for good fortune/wealth. Another is to jump 7 waves to bring good luck (you make a wish for each wave you jump and then you walk backwards until your feet are not touching the water anymore to avoid turning your back on the sea). A third is wearing new white clothes to bring peace and to ward off evil spirits. A fourth is wearing certain color underwear with each color representing something you wish for in the coming year (white-peace, gray-prosperity, green-harmony and hope, blue-intimacy and maturity, pink- romance and affection, yellow-prosperity and optimism, gold-wealth, orange-busy and happy, red-love and passion, black-power). So you eat a spoonful of lentils at dinner if you want an abundant year with lots of food or carry a bay leaf in your pocket for luck. Pork and fish are lucky dishes as those animals move forward, but avoid chicken and turkey as they walk backwards and represent regression in life. And lastly, some have a champagne toast at midnight when the fireworks to start to bring good fortune and prosperity. At least that’s all the ones I’m aware of.

We found out that, in addition to our lime tree, we have a mango tree and a guava tree in our backyard. Cool. Now we just have to figure out when to pick them and what to do with all of them.

And that’s it. That’s all for 2024. Lots of ups and downs, and loss this year. But we are looking forward to what 2025 brings.