Celebrating Christmas!

There are many things Christians think about when they celebrate Jesus' birth.  A Savior has been born. The Word has become flesh. A child has been born: Emmanuel, God with us. God has remembered the lowly and rejects the mighty in their throwns. A light of revelation for the Gentiles and glory for the people of Israel.

And yet, at Christmas, with food on the table and gifts to share among family, it seems almost impossible to really wrap our minds around the the helplessness and poverty in the scene of a child in an animal's feeding tough. 
 
One aspect of this scene that I'm thinking about this year is that aspect of being pushed out of a hometown or a homeland. Mary and Joseph were first on the move to Bethlehem, which apparently was where their roots were but distant enough that they couldn't find places to stay with distant relatives or inns.  And then the new family fled to Egypt until Herod had died.

Refugees, immigrants, and migrants are on the move every year and this has been a year when refugees have been in the headlines in particular. It is remarkable how quickly Christians become suspicious of vulnerable people.  Although maybe that is not surprising, as the religious leaders and powerful were also suspicious of Jesus, who walked among the vulnerable.

While our circumstances are nothing in comparison to refugees, we are learning what it means to celebrate the meaning of Jesus' birth in a context away from the traditions and gatherings in our homeland this year as well.  At each step we're trying to figure out what is going on around us, what is expected of us, and what we are going to do on our own initiative to celebrate Christmas as a family. While this has taken extra energy, we have been blessed to enjoy good food, music, sharing gifts, several conversations through Skype, and even a visit from my brother Nathan. God has been with us in our vulnerability as well!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas season:

Lia, singing with her Kindergarten class at their Christmas program.

Painting Christmas salt-cookie ornaments.

 Very careful.

Another craft idea of Rebekah's: finger painting the manger scene.

Christmas morning: opening stockings!  (Another note: Lia wanted to wear long sleeves and long pants pajamas so that Christmas would feel cozy.)

Rebekah worked hard to prepare a brunch for our MCC staff and their families who were around on Christmas day, which turned out to be most of the group. Lots of coffee cake, eggs, bacon, fruit, and cookies. (Another note: She did all this without her glasses, which got broken at the beach earlier this week...)

Sharing food.

 Sharing conversation.

Sharing music.

Playing Candyland.

Later in the day we opened presents among our family.  Here, Silas and Lia find Legos from Mommy and Daddy.

Eagerly opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa Good, thanks to our courier Nathan.

 Assembling the Legos as the instructions instruct.  Later we'll disassemble these and get creative.

 Our tech guy with his phone/computer/book.

Our tech guy setting up some new equipment so we can do some recording.  We're a step behind with the Good Charles Family Band project for this Christmas.

 Later in the afternoon we heard music on a loudspeaker coming from the park.  Lia and Silas and I went out to find that the Sandinistas had sent piñatas out to parks across the country.  A line-up of 16 piñatas here in our Linda Vista Norte neighborhood park! 

Sixteen piñatas meant plenty of candy for everyone, even our cautious (but very interested) children who tiptoed around the edge of the candy tackle.

San Juan del Sur, and around (with Nathan!)

We were very happy to welcome Nathan here for a Christmas week visit!  At his request, we tolerated a trip to some Pacific coast beaches around San Juan del Sur.  Here are some pictures from the trip:

At the hotel - Casa Maderas.

Breakfast with our special guest!

Wave chasing at Playa Maderas.

Wave jumping at Playa Maderas.

Sunset watching at Playa Maderas.

Next morning at the beach at San Juan del Sur.  Note the Christ figure above the cliff.

Welcome to Nicaragua, Nathan. This is what we do.

Good morning scorpion.  Glad we saw you first.

Wave jumping at Playa Marsella.

Building our pool.

So long, Playa Marsella!

What is la Gritería? What is Purísima?

Today was the national holiday of Purísma.  From what I can tell, this may be a tradition unique to Nicaragua.  I'm not going to make any claims of fully understanding Catholic theology on this one, but this is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that is, when Mary was conceived, without Original Sin.  This kind of a holiday can highlight the tension between Catholics and Evangelicals, so I'll try my best describe what I observe in this tradition. Since I'm new to this, I also might be missing some significant parts that I'm unaware of.

For nine days leading up to Purísima, Catholic churches are gearing up.  Streamers are stretched across roads, roads are painted with messages, the main street downtown is decorated with extravagant "altars" or immobile floats of sorts.

The "main event" for Purísima is actually la Gritería, celebrated the evening before Purísima, which is the national holiday on December 8. La Gritería, or the Calling Out, refers to the question: "Who is the source of such happiness?" to which others call back, "the Conception of Mary!"

While we've been hearing firecrackers going off over the last number of days, around 6:00 they start blasting off all around the city.  Lots of noise.  And lots of car alarms going off as a result as well. Folks start to make their way out into the streets with their backpacks and bags.  There would definitely be some similarities at this point with trick-or-treating.

Generous families willing to share their resources with their visitors will decorate and set up a figure of Mary.  Then others come by to sing traditional songs and then are given gifts of food, household items, and candy.  The hosts let in a family at a time to come in, sing, receive their gifts and move on to another home.

Then we start to hear some snare drums coming down the street.  These accompany the Gigantonas, costumed people on stilts. I understand that these guys will share a silly "couplet" rhyme for a tip, but I haven't seen (or paid) for this as of yet. (These gigantonas come around at other random times as well, so it's possible that they have less to do with la Gritería and Purísima and more to do with the energy of the event and the possibility of earning tips.)

All this time the firecrackers and car alarms continue in a noisy harmony.  At midnight, these reach their grand finale for the night. (Remarkably, our kids sleep through it.) Today, which was Purísima itself was a very quiet day in the city with most stores closed and few people out and about.  However at 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm the coordinated firecrackers were going off again, and I believe that we'll hear them at midnight again tonight.