Feliz Navidad....from Mexico!

In Mexico the night of the 24th is more of a celebration that Christmas day itself. Uziel (a friend from RUF) and his family invited me, along with 3 other English Club members from other countries, to celebrate Christmas Eve at their house. Only one of the English Club members that came is a Christian, so it was neat to be celebrating Christ's birth with them (which was something new) and with a Christian family. It was the perfect traditional Mexican Christmas celebration.....

Uziel and me...we have a "fun" relationship :)

Uziel's sister and mom, with all the food that they had been cooking all day. We ate Pozole, tacos al Pastor, ensalada, fruita, a Japanese dish (brought by the Japanese English Club guests), and drank Punche.

Uziel's two nieces and me. It was fun to be celebrating with a family!

After dinner we went on the roof and broke a pinata.

Grab the candy fast!

Zury and me

Then we all danced Salsa, Kumbia, and Duranguense on the roof!

A normal picture of Uziel and me.

Karl (from Haiti), Kikamu (Japan), Ayumu (Japan), Uziel's dad, Uziel, Me, and Uziel's two sisters

Then we finished the night (about 3am) with the rest of the neighborhood with sparklers and fireworks in the streets!

We all spent the night at Uziel's house. Because ALL Mexican celebrations go late into the evening, the tradition is that everyone spends the night and then everyone eats a "breakfast" (at like 1pm..haha) of the leftovers together in the morning. So, on Christmas morning we watched movies in bed until the "recalentados" (leftovers) were ready.

Merry Christmas From Us

The above picture was "created" by my Aunt Anita, my mom's sister. I think it describes my mom and my relationship well...we laugh a lot! She is the BEST mom anyone could EVER have and I am so thankful for her.

Check!

In my last post I had a "to do/to eat" list. Well, my time in Asheville was wonderful and I was able to check all but one thing off my list (bike riding...tooo cold!). Here are the pictures to prove it... (special thanks to my mom who kept my list with her the whole two weeks I was home and literally "checked" things off as I did them to make sure I did everything!)Hugged my brother, Zach! (had not seen him in a year)

Ate fudge, key-lime pie, and chocolate oatmeal cookies, thanks to my dad

Went on a hike...

...followed by blueberry pancakes and eggs!

Had a Christmas Party with my favorite high school girls

Saw my grandparents

Ate a cupcake from the Sister's McMullen in Downtown Asheville

Saw snow!

Ran with Ellie (in the snow)

Ate out and saw lots of friends

Ate at Cookout

Ran the Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon...26.2, baby!