Fishers of Men Blog: Christmas Carrots....by Lucy

Well, it’s our turn to write again. I hope you are not too tired of hearing about Christmas yet because we’ve had a lot of people ask us how our first Christmas in Mexico was. I thought we would share about our day here. Actually Christmas Eve is where I will start because that is when our celebration began. Ashleigh spent the day preparing a feast of lasagna, garlic bread, and ...carrots. You might ask, “Why carrots?” Well, this is sidetracking just a bit, but let me share a quick story about carrots.

Here where we live, sometimes when fruits and vegetables are in season, you can purchase them for next to nothing. Earlier in the week, Victor had found a deal on carrots. They were about $1.50 for a bag that held more than a bushel of carrots! What that means for everyone here is that we will be eating carrots in many ways for a while. Victor bought 10 bags of carrots! We gave most of the bags away to friends, but still had 3 bags to deal with. We have had cream of carrot soup, stir fried carrots, raw carrots, vegetable soup, and carrot cake (Thanks to Kim Roller’s recipe!). We also froze some of the carrots, and have a few left to figure out what to do with.

Anyway, back to Christmas. I pointed out the carrots to show that it was different here than back home in Indiana. After supper, we had 3 piñatas for the “kids” to break open, from the youngest (Daniel) to the oldest (Mark). It was fun to watch the big kids get blindfolded, spun around, and hunt for the elusive piñata being controlled by Victor from on top of the slide! Later after dark, Victor set off fireworks. Since Mark was a volunteer fireman, I figured he might help, but he chose to stay out of Victor’s way! At one point, a firework landed in one of the trees, lighting it up like a Christmas tree. Mark said, “He thought maybe it was the burning bush from Moses’ story, and that God would be speaking with us soon! Anyway, nothing caught on fire, and we enjoyed fireworks for the rest of the night and next day since everyone celebrates with fireworks here (The big booming firecracker kind!).

Christmas morning we slept in till 8 a.m. I went down to put our sausage casserole in the oven, then came back to the school to have “Christmas” with our family and Ashleigh (the unofficial member of our family here in the basement!). We opened stocking stuffers and got to try some new Mexican candy. Then we had our breakfast of sausage casserole and cinnamon rolls. By this time, the Zaragoza family had already finished opening gifts and were playing with their toys. Victor even had to go on a scavenger hunt to find his gift! We opened our gifts from each other, and a few sent by family and friends back home. It was fun, and we enjoyed watching each other open gifts. Joanna has already made a hat on her Nifty Knitter, and is starting a blanket. Aaron will soon be enjoying his punching bag in his own room in our apartment, and some music from I Tunes. We were lazy most of the day, just enjoying each other’s company and no responsibility (although I think if I had let him, Mark would have been back working in the apartment to try to finish it soon!).

It was a different kind of day than we are used to in the States, but it was a good day. It came without the Christmas programs at school, all the Christmas goodies in the teachers’ lounge, the extended family Christmases, the decorations and lights on all the homes we passed, the turkey with all the trimmings, and Christmas caroling (although we did try to carol to the Zaragoza family and Cirino’s family earlier in the week) in the snow and cold.

It reminds me of the story, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” He tried to take away their Christmas by taking all the stuff away that he thought was Christmas to them. Instead, he found out that “Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!” Despite being without our normal Christmas routine, Christmas came just the same. The story didn’t change. Jesus came. Praise God!

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11