More about the holidays in B'burg.
Even though this was our first holiday without our families it turned out to be quite a blessed and wonderful season. We originally intended to take a holiday (vacation in the tropics) but at the last minute after much deliberation we opted to stay in. I had mixed feelings between taking a vacation, flying out to see family, or taking the opportunity for us to establish our own Christmas traditions here at home.
Staying home turned out to be the best thing. Here in B-burg our church held a morning service which was a breakfast potluck, a time of fellowship, a short sermon and we sang Christmas songs. That was fun.
After our Christmas brunch, we came home and I made a fresh batch of pumpkin empanadas. We took them to a dinner we were invited to at Sarah's house. Sarah is a new friend from my Wednesday "Mornings" group. She was kind to invite me, Shane, and another family. Then after dinner we all caravaned to her church's Christmas evening service. Afterwards she invited us to join her as she visited yet another church, where she volunteers. This second church is a Spanish speaking church. (She invited us to join her because she knows that I am interested in working as an interpreter with the Spanish speaking community in this area and also because the other family, that was with us, is Spanish speaking.) It was really sweet. I met more Spanish speakers and the pastor's wife is an educator and Spanish interpreter! (I will be talking with her soon, regarding the interpreter career track...)
After all that, it was still only about 9 pm so we invited them to come over to our house for some hot chocolate and more empanadas. Sarah and her husband didn't join us, but the other family did. They are Salvador, Celia, and their toddler, Chavita (nickname for Salvador). They are from Mexico City. So, they also don't have family here in Blacksburg. We had a nice time getting to know each other and talking about traditions and stuff. I already knew Celia, from "Mornings", but this is the first time we hung out more intimately (?). Her husband, Salvador is a post-doc at VT so he and Shane got to talking about science stuff... physics... and those things they have in common. We really enjoyed their visit. They left a little after 10 pm.
At 11 pm, Shane and I then started what we hope to establish as "our" Christmas Eve tradition. We did some Bible readings and sang Christmas songs. At midnight, we brought out the "Baby Jesus" figurine and placed him in the Nativity set. Then sang happy birthday to Jesus. To keep the spirit of Christmas focused on Jesus, we did not exchange gifts until Christmas morning.
As for the holidays overall... Dec. was a month filled with several invitations to holiday celebrations and activities.
- Through my "Mornings" group, I enjoyed making crafts (santa bread, my gingerbread house and wreath).
- An off-shoot of "Mornings" is the Cooking club. I attended my first meeting in which I learned how to make a "Christmas Log", a French Christmas tradition. It was rich, dark chocolatey, and yummy!!!
- My Thursday morning women's Bible study group held a potluck at someone's house. There were lots of delicious and international foods to eat; Hawaiian meatballs, fried tofu, some type of noodle dish, soup, Philipino stew... and some desserts...!!!
- For Shane's birthday I made my own version of the "Christmas Log". We went out to dinner at the only Thai restaurant in town.
- We went to Shane's work "Christmas Brunch".
- We were invited to lunch at Dave's house(Shane's colleague. He is the person that invited us to have corn at his house back in August). His wife is Taiwanese and she made hotpot soup for us. After lunch, they showed us a new place to go hiking nearby. We had a nice walk around a local pond called Pandapas Pond
- One night we had people (Kyle, Doty, and Eric from the Wed. night home group) over for coffee and dessert.
- Another night Doty and Eric invited us on a drive to see Christmas lights out in the styx. It really was out in the styx...
- Celia and I made sweet tamales. Later we, along with our husbands, went out for pizza. We returned to their place and played a new boardgame called " Tikal."
- We were also invited over to dinner at one of Shane's friends parent's house. His friend Dan, who also graduated from Caltech, was in town, with his wife and two children, visiting his parents for the holidays. It was nice to join him and his family for dinner. (Hi Emily!)
- Lastly, for New Year's Eve we went to Celia's house for some good ol' Mexican Posole. That was good.
Later that night we took off to Charlotte, NC, to catch an early plane to New York.
And that is how we ended 2006. In a new town, new friends, new experiences....
Staying home turned out to be the best thing. Here in B-burg our church held a morning service which was a breakfast potluck, a time of fellowship, a short sermon and we sang Christmas songs. That was fun.
After our Christmas brunch, we came home and I made a fresh batch of pumpkin empanadas. We took them to a dinner we were invited to at Sarah's house. Sarah is a new friend from my Wednesday "Mornings" group. She was kind to invite me, Shane, and another family. Then after dinner we all caravaned to her church's Christmas evening service. Afterwards she invited us to join her as she visited yet another church, where she volunteers. This second church is a Spanish speaking church. (She invited us to join her because she knows that I am interested in working as an interpreter with the Spanish speaking community in this area and also because the other family, that was with us, is Spanish speaking.) It was really sweet. I met more Spanish speakers and the pastor's wife is an educator and Spanish interpreter! (I will be talking with her soon, regarding the interpreter career track...)
After all that, it was still only about 9 pm so we invited them to come over to our house for some hot chocolate and more empanadas. Sarah and her husband didn't join us, but the other family did. They are Salvador, Celia, and their toddler, Chavita (nickname for Salvador). They are from Mexico City. So, they also don't have family here in Blacksburg. We had a nice time getting to know each other and talking about traditions and stuff. I already knew Celia, from "Mornings", but this is the first time we hung out more intimately (?). Her husband, Salvador is a post-doc at VT so he and Shane got to talking about science stuff... physics... and those things they have in common. We really enjoyed their visit. They left a little after 10 pm.
At 11 pm, Shane and I then started what we hope to establish as "our" Christmas Eve tradition. We did some Bible readings and sang Christmas songs. At midnight, we brought out the "Baby Jesus" figurine and placed him in the Nativity set. Then sang happy birthday to Jesus. To keep the spirit of Christmas focused on Jesus, we did not exchange gifts until Christmas morning.
As for the holidays overall... Dec. was a month filled with several invitations to holiday celebrations and activities.
- Through my "Mornings" group, I enjoyed making crafts (santa bread, my gingerbread house and wreath).
- An off-shoot of "Mornings" is the Cooking club. I attended my first meeting in which I learned how to make a "Christmas Log", a French Christmas tradition. It was rich, dark chocolatey, and yummy!!!
- My Thursday morning women's Bible study group held a potluck at someone's house. There were lots of delicious and international foods to eat; Hawaiian meatballs, fried tofu, some type of noodle dish, soup, Philipino stew... and some desserts...!!!
- For Shane's birthday I made my own version of the "Christmas Log". We went out to dinner at the only Thai restaurant in town.
- We went to Shane's work "Christmas Brunch".
- We were invited to lunch at Dave's house(Shane's colleague. He is the person that invited us to have corn at his house back in August). His wife is Taiwanese and she made hotpot soup for us. After lunch, they showed us a new place to go hiking nearby. We had a nice walk around a local pond called Pandapas Pond
- One night we had people (Kyle, Doty, and Eric from the Wed. night home group) over for coffee and dessert.
- Another night Doty and Eric invited us on a drive to see Christmas lights out in the styx. It really was out in the styx...
- Celia and I made sweet tamales. Later we, along with our husbands, went out for pizza. We returned to their place and played a new boardgame called " Tikal."
- We were also invited over to dinner at one of Shane's friends parent's house. His friend Dan, who also graduated from Caltech, was in town, with his wife and two children, visiting his parents for the holidays. It was nice to join him and his family for dinner. (Hi Emily!)
- Lastly, for New Year's Eve we went to Celia's house for some good ol' Mexican Posole. That was good.
Later that night we took off to Charlotte, NC, to catch an early plane to New York.
And that is how we ended 2006. In a new town, new friends, new experiences....
posted by kika at 8:17 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds like a great holiday!
Yeah. It really was.
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