Hello and Welcome Back Everyone!

I hope that you all had wonderful Christmas’s and New Years Eves/Days! I know that I’m writing four days after the start of 2012, but here is a video that I absolutely love and I would like to share with you:

WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN BRAZIL #19:
So what have you all been up to these past couple of weeks? Me? I got to spend my first Christmas away from my family, with my Brazilian family, and spent New Years Eve watching fireworks go off all around me! Christmas here is different in a few ways:
-If the family exchanges gifts, it’s done on Christmas Eve.
-There is a huge dinner served at mid-night on Christmas Eve with your whole family.
-Christmas Day there is usually a [smaller] lunch with the family.
-There is no tradition of leaving cookies & milk for Santa, nor the hanging of a stocking (which makes sense since there is no need for fireplaces here). =)
-Christmas Tree–if you haven’t already figured out, they don’t buy them. There are a few places that sell small plastic versions of the tree or even ornaments, but nobody really decorates for Christmas (only the outside lights, really).
-No Christmas Cookies. Instead, they have cakes called “Panettone.” You can get them with chocolate, with pieces of fruit, with fillings, etc. I have only the chocolate and fruit pieces, but I’d say I prefer the fruit ones!

This was my breakfast everyday for about a week: coffee & a Christmas cookie. =)

I got to introduce “Christmas Cookies” to Tia and her grandson, Bruno. I made regular sugar cookies and had the two of them help me decorate! It took me a few days to find food coloring and sprinkles, but I found them!!! They had never done this before, so it was quite the adventure for them! =)

Now, to explain a little…On Christmas Eve, Tia Ivani and I talked about what to cook, started cooking, etc. Her son, Fabricio came over around 6pm and started to eat “lunch.” I started to laugh and asked, “Aren’t you gonna stay for dinner?” To which he said, “Yes.” *pause* I then asked, “What time are we gonna eat dinner?” “Midnight.”
I thought that was a joke…I skyped with my family a little after that happened and said, “I hope they’re joking. I’m pretty sure they’re joking.” Nope, not a joke. Hahaha…however, there ended up being some sort of a mix-up and we started eating around 10:45pm! Hahaha. Oh my.

Standing, from Left to Right: Elene and Sandro (married, Tia’s son & daughter-in-law), Tia Ivani, Amanda and Avó (Grandma–Tia’s Mom).
Sitting: Bruno (Elene and Sandro’s son) and Fabricio (Tia’s other son).

On Christmas I actually traveled with the choir to Brasilia for our performance there. I ate a little bit before I left, but did not join my Brazilian for the Sunday lunch. Our performance in Brasilia went great! We had both choirs (Goiania and Brasilia) sing together, and they hadn’t even practiced together! Ha! Again, everybody loved it and we all had a great time! (I did get to skype with my family in the morning, which was great! They watched me open my presents I brought with me and I watched them open up the one I made for them (a photo-scrap book so that I could be there with them in that form, since I was here in Brazil–they all seemed to really like it).

The leaving-the-cookies-for-Santa tradition. When I first asked Tia Ivani if they did that here, she looked really confused then said, “Our ‘Santa’ doesn’t eat anymore. He came, lived for 33 years, then went back to heaven. He doesn’t eat food anymore…” then she started to laugh. Ha, I thought it was pretty funny anyway. I explained the tradition that we do in our house with the cookies and milk and she thought that was pretty funny. Which, when you really think about it, it is; there’s so much tradition in the states with Santa Clause. Of course there’s tradition with Jesus, too, but it’s easy to get lost amongst it all sometimes.

My New Years was spent here, in my apartment. I made meatballs & bacon wrapped lil’ wienies and Karen and her friend Dani came over. We watched all the concerts going on all over Brazil on the TV, then went outside for about 15-20 and watched the fireworks going off all around us! (pretty amazing). Around 2am or so, three more friends came over and hung out until almost 4 (by this time Tia Ivani, Fabricio & Annalee had all returned from the party at the church). It was really a great time. We just talked and laughed, and it was great!

These past 3-4 days I have been sick…I think with a mild cold. Today I feel 90% better than I did yesterday, I still have a little congestion going on, but I am SO glad that I’m better. Tia Ivani and Annalee have also been sick (Annalee is still really sick) so it was no surprise that I got a little bit of it. Please pray for all of our health though, we’re not the only one’s who are sick, it seems to be going around down here.

Today I got to finally break in one of my Christmas presents–SCRABBLE!!! Drew and Lucas came over and we played a couple of games whilst eating pancakes & watching the WVU-Clemson game overview from last night. It was pretty epic (last nights game, that is). I’m actually going over to Drew’s in a little bit to play more Scrabble and watch “The Muppets Show.” =)

I hope you’re all doing well! Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll write more next week!

Peace and Love,

Dani

Advertisement