Once again I am so late in updating. And the holidays have come and gone. Maybe I didn't notice or feel the need to write too much because it didn't feel too much like the holidays. But it was a great time, especially on New Year's. I definitely prefered that to Christmas here.
On Christmas, we had a picnic outside, with watermelon and ice cream. Does that make sense to anyone? Certainly not me. When I think of Christmas, I remember quiet, and dark, watching a movie with my family, opening presents with music playing in the background...preferably something cheesy by Amy Grant or Steve Green. And this Christmas was truly "green and bright." It was very different, but fun in its own rights. We went to church on Christmas Eve and afterwards everyone from church came to Lar for a party. It wasn't really a dinner, just little finger food, called "salgadinhos" which basically means little salty things. So that was fun, loud and crazy. Then on Christmas we slept in, Joaquim and I talked with my family through webcam at 1 and watched them open presents...people were crowding around the webcam here to see the snow that was on the ground in Palatine. Then we had a big picnic lunch...rice, steak, chicken, salad, coke, guaraná, and then watermelon and ice cream. After lunch we opened presents which was hilarious because all the kids got something, so Mãe was throwing presents at everyone. Literally.
On New Years, I had a lot more fun. We went to church and had a nice service to enter the new year. Lots of singing, testimonies about what God had done the last year, and we spent the last few minutes of last year and the first few of this year praying, while we heard fireworks and people yelling. I sort of missed the tv countdown and yelling "happy new year!" but actually prefered this. It was nice to be with lots of people, to hug literally everyone and wish them a happy new year, whether you know them or not, etc. It was a great time, then we went back for another party with salgadinhos and lots of people, and stayed up late singing and watching movies. After going to bed at 5:15am, I woke up late the next day for yet another barbeque and more ice cream. That's something I could easily get used to. ; ) That was a lot of fun, I guess because my New Years traditions aren't as strong as my Christmas ones.
So, all in all, it was a great time. I really wished my family had been here, and thought about it a lot, but all is well.
As we came into the new year...it brought some stress with it. Knowing I'm going home soon and not knowing what will happen after that, it's not easy. Joaquim is going to take the TOEFL test, and English test he will need to get into Moody, where he is working on applying, on January 18th. There are lots of "if...then..."s to come, which makes my life feel like a "choose your own adventure" book. I always hated those books.
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