Feliz Natal!

Feliz Natal! Boas Festas! Merry Christmas!

I am here to report on Christmas, here in Brasil.  This year was by far the most far-from-normal Christmas of my life thus far. First of all, a majority of the week of Christmas was spent on the beach, in my bikini, layering on the sunscreen and eating bananas or mangos.  Not so bad, I'd say.  But what was very strange was being away from my family.  While I spent Christmas with my family here in Brasil, people that I love so dearly and feel as though they are a part of my true family, it was incredibly strange not to stay up with my sister awaiting the 7:30 a.m. "go time" in anticipation, or playing a board game with my everyone on Christmas Eve.  This combination of lack of snow and lack of family made it difficult for me to accept that it was Christmas time at all.  And I think that this honestly made it more enjoyable for me; took away almost all of the anticipated feelings of being away from home or missing my family.  With that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed, loved to tell the truth, this year's Christmas.  

I spent the week on the beach, as I said, with my second host family.  I love them.  They are such a united family, with all of the cousins and uncles and aunts always together.  There is always laughter and everyone is always relaxed- they don't stress out about the little things in life.  Being with them always reminds me of being with my family in California, which is for me the best feeling in the world. This week was more of that, and was perfect for Christmas.  

Everyday we had a churrasco (barbecue, more or less) which although consists mostly of meat that I don't eat, I truly love.  Everyone gathers around the barbecue waiting for the food to be ready and eating little by little, garlic bread, glorious melted bbq-ed cheese, meat and eggplant (well, I ate the eggplant.  To tell the truth, I ate about five eggplants by myself this week they were so good).  There is nothing like grilled eggplant with olive oil and salt.

And of course… the beach.  The beach was located two blocks from the house that we were renting, a quick two minute walk from the front door.  I went there in the morning to run, in the afternoon to swim and play in the waves, and sometimes another time later to swim again.  

 I also enjoyed some yoga on the beach, Merry Christmas!

And a huge surprise for me was the amazing fresh fruit that we all enjoyed with Christmas Eve dinner.  At about eleven at night we all ate together, mangos, pineapple, and grapes as well as rice, sweet ham, and another meat that I didn't identify.   When the night turned to morning and midnight arrived along with Christmas day, every one gave hugs and and smiles.

And then, to finish my night off, all of the cousins played a game until late at night.  We each thought of names of people or characters for each other, secured them on our foreheads, and had to guess who we were by asking yes or no questions.  It was incredibly fun and ended this year's Christmas happily with family.