It's that time of year!

Holidays, holidays all around!

Thursday was St. Nicholas Day! This is one of our favorite holidays. We awoke to find that St. Nicholas had left small gifts in our stockings! One of my gifts was a note explaining that he had donated to the Mayan Families Christmas tamale basket project. This is a great project that you can learn more about here .
This is a great gift for St. Nicholas to leave as he is the patron saint of children, orphans, paupers and a whole slew of other folks. He dedicated his life to serving the poor, giving gifts to those in need.
That afternoon we went to the local university where they hosted a special program of lessons and carols that concluded with a visit from St. Nicholas and the lighting of the tree. It was a great day!

Yesterday was La Quema del Diablo in Guatemala - and I think other Latin American countries, too. A friend of ours from Mexico said they celebrate this holiday, also.
Last year we were in Guatemala visiting Eliana on this day. On the television we saw many parades, fireworks and festivities going on. As we understand it, today the people bring out the devil, represented by a paper-mache figure, and burn him to symbolize the beginning of the Christmas season and preparing for the birth of Christ by ridding the world of sin and badness.
Matt made a devil today and we burned him in the backyard!
In making this holiday our own we wrote down things about ourselves, our lives or our behaviors that we would like to get rid of as we prepare ourselves for the Christmas season. Things like selfishness, greed, etc might be examples of something we'd like to get rid of/burn up with the devil. We taped these things to the devil, took him outside and lit him up!

Then we roasted marshmallows, made smores and had hot chocolate!
It was a fun evening and I think as our kids get older it will be a good way to teach them about the Christmas season, preparing for the Lord and how our own selfish stuff gets in the way of true celebration and joy.
Next year there will be fireworks, too!

Today Matt and I will be busy. We have two parties to attend at which we will be dressed something like this:

Ok, exactly like this.

Then, Sunday Matt is playing guitar (and Katie is singing) for The Virgin of Guadalupe celebration at the Spanish mass.
Directly after mass we will RACE to Pittsburgh to meet up with Matt's brothers and their families to see A Musical Christmas Carol.
Next week - the craziness continues with more *parties,* and shopping, and Christmas plays and more parties.....

This sure is fun!

more pictures and video later.