New Christmas Traditions

 Merry Christmas everyone! 

These past few days I have been spending time with my host family trying to soak up some new holiday traditions to bring back to the United States. Although it was hard being away from my New York family during this season, I did enjoy my Chilean Christmas very much. 

I saw a meme the other day on the internet that said "Latinos are late for everything, except for Christmas" which obviously is a very broad generalization, but I genuinely feel like most Chilean's at least would agree with this statement. Because get this, in Chile we open all the presents at midnight on Christmas morning, and not one minute later. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself now. Let's start at the beginning. 

In Chile they celebrate Christmas the most on Christmas Eve or "La Noche Buena" which translates to "The Good Night". There is traditionally a large Christmas dinner, just like in the U.S. but we eat much later. My entire host family was there for Christmas Eve dinner, my brothers, parents, Abuela and Isaac's girlfriend Sara who is basically my host sister, and when we all finally sat down it was probably 10:30-11:00pm. 

 As an appetizer we had stuffed tomatoes which were carved out and then filled with a blend of corn, chicken, and mayonnaise. I asked Claudia afterwards and apparently you can make this particular dish with basically anything you'd like. You can use tuna, lettuce, onion, avocado, in essentially any combination you can think of. 

For the main course we had a delicious cut of salmon with "papas duquesas" which translates to "duchess potatoes". They are really just little fun potato balls, but apparently very traditional around Christmastime. 

For dessert, Sara made this delicious strawberry jam, custard, and crisp layered cake that we each got our own little cup of. It was heavenly. It addition to that, we all drank "cola de mono" which translates to "tail of the monkey" and is a type of Chilean Christmas punch, similar to eggnog. I obviously drank the non-alcoholic version, but it was still very tasty. 

After that we all gathered around to exchange gifts. Isaac narrated and picked out gifts from under the tree, distributing them to the person whose name was written on the tag and then we would all whoop and cheer as they opened it up. It was all very sweet and the Christmas presents I bought for my host family went over fairly well I think. At the very least, I tried my best to get a little something thoughtful for everyone and that message came across which is a win in my book. 

My host family also got me some really thoughtful gifts that I am so grateful for. I got a cute rain jacket that will definitely be coming with me to Patagonia and Cornell, a few t-shirts, a pair of slippers for the house, and a Spanish book written by a well known Chilean author. 

After that we all went to sleep and it was about 1:30 in the morning. Before I went to bed though, I made sure to thank Claudia for making me feel so included in her family and I gave her a big hug. Normally I’m not too sappy, so I think it threw her for a loop a little bit, but I really wanted her to know just how grateful I was that they made me feel so welcomed on Christmas. 

On the actual day of December 25th, we really didn't do anything too different from any other day which messed with me a little bit. My family always opens presents on Christmas morning, we have a big huge breakfast and then hang out for a bit before venturing out to visit some of our family members. 

Here in Chile, the water park and restaurant were absolutely swamped on Christmas day, so I just hung out with Abuela in the restaurant for the most part. I called my family and chatted with them which was really nice. I even surprised them and sent them a little Christmas basket which I hope they enjoyed. It was still weird though to be so far away from home, in 80 degree weather, on Christmas. 

I suppose I can survive anything once, but I am definitely excited at the idea of being back home for next Christmas. 

The only other interesting thing I have to report is that I went to a very nice Rotary luncheon yesterday to celebrate Christmas with the Quillota club. It was veryyyyy fancy but very delicious. I sat and chatted with Tarek for the most part because we were the only two there under the age of 55. I think that we get along really well and I am grateful for his friendship. 

We are actually working on hanging out together for New Years to go see some fireworks on the beach, so stay tuned for that adventure! 

As always, sending lots of love home to New York. Please take this time of year to enjoy friends, family, and good food. I say this mostly for myself, but I will be home before we know it :)

Yours truly, 

Anna