What We Did for the Holidays

Hi, this is Josefina. We're doing this kind of belatedly - and because of that, we decided to combine it into one post rather than everyone writing separately - but since we didn't get much chance to blog over the holidays, we're going to fill you in now about what we all did.

I (Josefina) went to New Mexico to stay with my aunt and uncle, and my two younger cousins. We celebrated Las Posadas, which is a nine-day celebration that finishes on Christmas Eve, or what we call la Nochebuena, or translated, "the Good night." During each Posada, we would go to a neighbour's house in a procession singing a traditional song. There's a Nativity scene there, sometimes a piñata, and food of course. This celebration reenacts the journey of Mary and Joseph in Christian tradition. It was a lot of fun, and doing it again this year made me think of my mother and grandmother who died; I miss them a lot, but these were happy memories.


Kaya went to Idaho to visit her grandparents and her younger sister Rosa. They were happy to see each other, and had a really good time. They celebrated Christmas and New Years - carols around the piano were the highlight of their Christmas Day - and Kaya was also able to participate in a traditional dance event, which she really enjoys, and attended a tribal winter ceremony. I think she was happy to be there, but she seemed a little sad when she got back. I think she misses her other family when she's here - but I think she misses us when she's there, too. It wasn't long before she was cheerful again, though. Nothing keeps Kaya down for long.


Kirsten, Felicity, Molly, and Charissa visited their mom and dad for the holidays. Their parents are living in Maryland at the moment, but they move a lot. I don't think the visit went all that well. They were pretty tense when they got back, and didn't say a lot. I think their parents are pretty... um... chaotic, so holidays with them can be kind of unpredictable. They seemed just plain glad to be back.

Evelyn had a lot of fun in Quebec, though. She stayed with her aunt, and got to visit her parents and her two sisters, Aisha (who is older than her) and Jasmine (who is younger.) Ev says they had a "really huge" Christmas tree, went to midnight mass, and ate tourtière, which is a kind of pork pie. And of course, they opened presents, and she got a new toy horse she's thrilled with. Evelyn was pretty excited to go on the plane all alone for the first time; she wasn't scared at all. She's only eight - she's so brave! :-)


Inna, Maia, Summer, Clare, Fiona, Kiwi, and Tabitha celebrated Christmas here in Newfoundland. It was pretty low-key because they didn't want Tabitha to get overly excited, but Kiwi and Fiona went mummering with some of their friends. Mummering means dressing up in costume and going to visit the neighbours, and if they get invited in, they sing and dance and do little comedy routines. The hosts offer them food and drinks, and try to guess who they are. Kiwi and Fiona were proud of themselves because no one guessed who they were. A perfect performance for our two actresses! 


They also celebrated the Russian new year and Russian Christmas (on January 7th) with Inna, who cooked traditional food for them, and taught them some songs. She'd brought us all little gifts, too, even those of us who were away at the time... so we started calling her Snow Maiden, like the woman who helps Ded Moroz, which means Father Frost (the Russian version of Santa,) to deliver people's gifts. That made her laugh, but I think it made her feel good that we remembered what she'd told us about her holiday.


And of course, Bree went to Western New York with Blakeney, and met up with Cécile and Marie-Grace, as she wrote about before.


In other news, Maia went out on a date! It was with a lady she met through her work. She says she had a good time and they're going to go out again, but it was "not serious, just one date." Famous last words. I think she knows that she will be taking that back someday, because she added, "At least so far..."


So that was the holidays for all of us! :-)

We missed our blog friends, and it's good to catch back up again.


Love and belated good holiday wishes,
Josefina and the girls