Our Peruvian Christmas!

Christmas is a bit different here than what we're used to, but regardless of where we are we are reminded that we have a wonderful Savior who came to live on this earth and die for our salvation.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!!

The biggest difference here is the weather - it's summer!!  Our temperature is in the 70's every day, and it's amazing to us how we associate memories and events with the weather, without even realizing it.  It's hard to feel like Christmas wearing shorts and flip flops!

                                    


















Another difference is the commercialization of Christmas.  Yes, Christmas is commercialized, but not on the same scale.  Here, we have two malls in Trujillo (a city of almost a million people).  The malls are  decorated with Christmas trees and lights, have Christmas music playing, and "ofertas"  for discounts on toys and electronic items.  But it still isn't the same scale of shopping and marketing and spending as we're are used to seeing (and participating in!).  This has been a refreshing part of Christmas that we have enjoyed!  I went to the mall on the 23rd with all four kids to have lunch and pick up a few things, and it really wasn't crowded - I don't remember ever being brave enough to fight crowds at the mall with four kids during the week of Christmas in the U.S.!  It's also funny to see a big empty parking lot at Christmas - most people take a bus or taxi, and the majority of the population do not own cars (nor do we).

On Thursday before Christmas we went to a Christmas party at the Wichanzao church, where we worship.  It was a little different for us - the party started at 7:00 and dinner wasn't served until after 9:15 - we had to miss out on the dinner because we had a sitter watching the boys and needed to get back, and it's a 20 minute trip from our house.  We enjoyed all of the singing and entertainment, but thought it was a little fun to hear "White Christmas" here!  

Olivia Baker, Sarah Caroline and myself

Pastor Juan 

The pretend campfire with all of the "jovenes" (the young people) sitting around it

A group singing at the party

Here are some photos of some Christmas decorations we found in a park nearby our house.  We loved the creative decorations, and played some frisbee and baseball here on Christmas Eve afternoon.

Paper plate Santas hanging in the palm tree

This tree was made entirely out of plastic cups!

 On Christmas Eve night, we went to Cristo Rey church, one of the churches that is part of our mission team, for a beautiful worship service.  The service was scripture reading and singing, and a couple of Christmas hymns that we recognized the tune to!  Then we headed over to the Plaza de Armes to see the collection of decorated Christmas trees and the manger scene.

The Baker girls singing in worship service

"Moyopampa"

After the service we had paneton (this is a mini one in a box)

In the Plaza de Armes of Trujillo

This was a large, beautiful manger scene set up in the center of the Plaza.  Interesting to us that Joseph is wearing a hard hat - we need to find out why?  There is a lot of mining here, and maybe this scene was sponsored by a mining company?  We are a bit puzzled!

There were lots of people out entertaining, selling things, but this dancer was the most interesting!

Opening a gift at 11pm!  The tradition here is to celebrate entirely on Christmas Eve -  eat Christmas dinner about 11 or 12 (at night!) and open gifts.  Then sleep all day on Christmas!  But our kids were eager to get up and see if Santa (Papa Noel) came, so after being awake until midnight we were up again at 6am!

It's a big deal to find m&m's here - a special treat!!

And Marcus' big smile is over a huge bag of Dr. Peppers, also hard to find!  I had been buying them and saving them for a special gift!

Sam's first bike

A miniature paneton

On Christmas day we had lunch with the Baker family, as well as some of our other friends here in Peru.  We had a great lunch and spent the rest of the day getting ready for Mimi and Dodad to visit - the best part of our Christmas!!  After two seven hour layovers and a  four hour flight (should have been one hour) to Trujillo that had to turn back around to Lima (due to fog!) that resulted in a 24 hour delay in Lima - they are finally HERE!!  We are so excited they made it!  So we've had fun today opening the rest of our Christmas gifts with them and enjoyed getting all sorts of treats from the US - we have a full pantry of chocolate chips and peanut butter now!! Yeah!  They are exhausted but we are so happy to see them!!

Feliz Navidad!!