Feliz Navidad!

I don't know why, but lately I have had this crazy urge to sing "Jingle Bells" all the time. Oh yeah! It's Christmas time!! I just love this time of year. Who doesn't like this time of year? Who doesn't love beautifully decorated houses and Christmas trees, Christmas songs playing everywhere, presents at every corner, and Christmas programs galore. Well, not much is different here when it comes to Christmas in the Dominican Republic, but at the same time, everything is different. I thought that you might enjoy hearing about the Christmas that we have been introduced to.

1) Our students had their Christmas program last Thursday and it was so much fun. They were all so cute up there on the stage in their beautiful red and green outfits. Sounds pretty normal, right? But I bet you never thought of having a Christmas program outside in December with parents who have little respect for concert etiquette. It was mass chaos, but then again everything here is chaos.

2) Remember all those wonderful Christmas songs that we look forward to hearing this time of year. We look forward so much to hearing them that we start playing them wayyyyy to early. Songs like Silent Night, Jingle Bell Rock, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, and many more. Well, they sure love their Christmas songs here too, except their Christmas songs revolve around one song--Feliz Navidad. Yes that's right everywhere you go, you will here Feliz Navidad. We are pretty sure that is the only Christmas song they now. But one good thing has come out of hearing Feliz Navidad some many times this holiday season...we learned the true clap that goes between each phrase of Feliz Navidad. I bet you didn't know that there was a right and wrong way to clap in the song. Well, if you ever want to know it, just ask. We are experts at it now.

3) Alright, now the best of all...PRESENTS! Admit it, you know its true, that the one thing you love most about Christmas is the presents. It's the same for me. I love getting gifts and the good thing is that the people here love giving gifts. It's a great combination. Our gift receiving extravaganza started at our annual Teacher and Staff Christmas Banquet. We had such a nice, lovely American dinner and at the end we were visited by "The Three Orient Kings" (three staff members with Burger King crowns on) who blessed us with a lovely Santiago Christian School umbrella. Everyone LOVED it. It sounds funny to like getting an umbrella so much but in the 2 weeks we have had it, it has rained a some point almost everyday. The second gift we received while living here in the DR is a beautiful wool coat. Yes, you heard me right, a wool coat. You probably didn't think we would ever need wool coats here in the DR. Well, you are right. We don't. There was a parent, who wanted to give every teacher a free wool coat for Christmas. I don't know why, but it was very generous of him. So we gave him our size and received a coat in exchange. The good thing is that now I have something to wear when I return to the States next week. On the other side of the gift giving extravaganza is the giving gifts part. Purchasing gifts this year has been a bit different. We have had to do everything on-line and have it sent to our parents. It was a little weird, but it was nice to just sit down in front of the computer and get all our Christmas shopping done in one day.

4) Many of you have annual traditions when it comes to decorating your Christmas tree. Maybe you gather your family together, drink hot chocolate and put ornaments on your tree or maybe you sing Christmas carols around the piano while you each take turns putting an ornament up. Well, since this is our first Christmas together as a married couple, we thought that it would be appropriate to start our own Christmas tree decorating tradition. So Jon and I got together one night for the big event. Together, we placed our one lone Christmas ornament on a nail in the wall in the living room. Yep, that was it. Sure it sounds easy, but you don't realize how long it took me to decide just what nail to hang it on. We are quite proud of our lovely decorating.

Well, that's enough fun for one night. So, let me close up this blog by saying...Christmas isn't quite the same here, but we are enjoying it a lot. However, I am looking forward to coming home for a snow filled Christmas in my new wool coat.