CHRISTMAS

I hope you and your loved ones have had a great Christmas. It has been great Skyping, emailing and chatting with many of you. We miss you all. We have had to make up some new Christmas traditions as it can be quite tough finding a place to toboggan and skate here in Panama. So this is what we did this year. We spent Christmas Eve at a friend's house with about 40 of our friends. We had an incredible potluck feast and sang Christmas carols by candle light. It was great to spend Christmas Eve with friends and not feel quite so lonely.

We have heard of some interesting Christmas traditions here in Panama. For example, many paint their house, inside and out, if they can afford it. It is a symbolic way of getting rid of any bad memories or experiences that may have happened in the past year, and starting the new year with a clean slate. We've also noticed that many wrap their front doors in Christmas paper and put their decorated Christmas tree on the porch for everyone to enjoy. And of course, you can't help but notice the firework displays at midnight on Christmas Eve. It seems like literally everyone - except us - stocks up on fireworks and lights them up at midnight! This year we heard more than we saw.

Christmas morning we enjoyed a special Christmas breakfast together complete with Jelly Bellies, Dutch chocolate, pancakes, eggnog lattes and fresh mango's. Yummy!

Christmas morning 2008.

Fresh out of bed in front of our Christmas tree.

Interesting fact - most of the Christmas trees sold here are actually imported from Nova Scotia! As well, you may notice we are eating around the coffee table. This has become a common practice at our home. The dinning room table top is slanted which is not so great for a family that is already a little clumsy.

After a leisurely Christmas morning, we packed up a cooler full of food and drinks and headed to Las Lojas Beach (about 90 minutes from our house) with 3 other families for a day of sun, fun, quading, body surfing and "sandcars" (I'll explain later). We were able to drive our cars right out onto the beach. I have never driven a car on the beach. It was kind of cool! This beach was very flat and went on for miles and miles. The water was so warm and the waves were perfect - not too big and not too small.

Sydney on the back of the quad with Alayna driving.

(Jayden in yellow shirt, waiting his turn.)

Paul and Joshua's "sandcar" complete with license plate 2HOT4U

Jenni, me and Sharon

Paul and Steve

The day was so much fun, not only because of the beautiful weather, but because of spending time with great friends. I think we may start going to the beach on Christmas Day as a new Day Family tradition. Anyone care to join us next year?

Until I blog again,

Linda