A Merry Chapin Christmas Eve

Nearly 4 months have passed since we moved here to Antigua, the Christmas holiday was a sort of half-way mark for us. However, as much as we talked about potential christmas plans, the day more or less snuck up on us. Maybe there is a little xmas virus or dna strand that suddenly wakes up two days before, i don´t know? As you can see in our pictures Antigua was beautifully decoracted for all of December, parties and fireworks in central park every weekend night, and thanks to children here endless ¨bombas¨in the streets making me go deaf. God forbid some traumatized vietnam vets visit antigua! We´ve also been lucky to avoid the typical hyper-commercial christmas we´ve come to expect and loath in the US. For all this, maybe because of this, I wasn´t feeling the ¨christmas¨spirit building up here.

Then out of the blue Christmas Eve day we decided to change our plans last minute, and stay in Antigua. We ended up having a great time that evening. We started by walking around the park, taking pictures, and drinking capuccino´s with baily´s, yum. We ran into some good friends, got our shoes shinded, and watched all the people young and old enjoying the warm evening.



Then my inner-voice told me I needed to eat some tacos. We made our way to our favorite taco stand, located adjacent to La Merced church, and ended up arriving in time for a party and midnight mass. The party was complete with marimba music, dancing giant heads, sparklers, lots of tacos, a posada, and lastly a 30 minute fireworks display directly overhead! At 10pm everyone filed into the cathedral for a standing room only christmas mass. I was suprised to hear really beautiful music, understand the homile, and leave full and content.

It all felt right, like Andrea and I were meant to be there. That feeling doesn´t come along very often, and so I am thankful for my love of tacos.