This Christmas was a fun one – besides the missing my family part – we had a great day.  The holiday really started for us on Christmas Eve.  My mom cooked a dinner for the girls who work for us and we had some small gifts to give them so it was our version of the staff party.  We also invited a few friends to join us for dinner.  Mom fried a whole hogfish (caught in Belize) for our appetizer and then the main dinner was baked chicken along with a few typical holiday side dishes and it all turned out fantastic.  We closed the bar early so the girls were out the door before 8pm and since we would be closed for Christmas day and Boxing Day they had the next two days off.  One of our waitresses had brought over a sampling of the rumpopo her mom had made for the holidays.  Rumpopo is a traditional eggnog type drink in Belize that is made with eggs, cream, nutmeg, cinnamon and overproof rum and is delicious.  After we ate and opened gifts we all took a few pictures by the tree (fake).

A very typical sound in Corozal during the Christmas season – especially on Christmas Eve to bring in Christmas day – are the blasts of various fireworks and firecrackers that are let off all day long.  As the night continued on, more and more blasts are heard and we all knew that we would not be falling asleep before midnight so I grabbed a book and knew exactly when midnight hit by the obvious finale happening all around town.  In Corozal that night it sounded like New Year’s Eve sounds in the states.  After midnight I did fall asleep easily and was woken up by a 7:30am phone call so I drug myself out of bed and spent the next few hours hanging out with my parents and getting ready for the party later that day.

At 11am we were in the truck headed to Ken’s house for a ride on his boat to Progresso Lagoon.  My friend Matt and I were going to ride in the boat with Ken and then my parents were going to take a truck to the same party so that they would have a way to get back home.  It was a perfect day for a boat ride – the bay was calm and the sky was mostly sunny – we zipped over there pretty quickly with just one pit stop in the Copper Bank lagoon to catch Rod on his way over too.  Rod had his own boat and he zoomed off ahead of us, long gone by the time we even hit the Progresso Lagoon.  We got to the party around noon and the food was already out.  We were among the first to arrive and my parents got there almost exactly the same time we did.  Bruce and his wife Nicole already had the place ready for guests.  They had put a pig in the ground the night before and it had cooked all night long, there was also an abundance of Indian food purchased from one of the local men in town along with the various side dishes and desserts other people brought with them.  We all grabbed a drink and a seat to start in on conversation.  Slowly, more and more people started to arrive and by the end of it all there were about 40 people there.

The boat ride was already a far cry from the typical holiday activities when I was living in Oregon but it was about to get even better.  After dinner the water toys started to come out.  Water skis, tubes, a wakeboard, boats and kayaks; I knew that I wanted to water ski so I put on my swimsuit and headed out to the boat.  Matt hadn’t been waterskiing since he was a kid so he wanted a go at it too.  So Matt and I got on Rod’s boat with Rod as captain.  It was a ton of fun on two skis but I did take a nice fall to end my first trip around the lagoon.  It sort of stunned me so I passed the skis off to Matt and he got right up and made a nice spin around the lagoon before he fell.  I got back up on the skis and we made our way back to the dock were I made a much more graceful landing.  While all this was going on there was a big group of Belizean kids who were very excited to go on a boat so they piled on Ken’s small boat and from the dock it looked like an accident waiting to happen.  Luckily all the kids were wearing life jackets and the lagoon is very shallow, but sure enough, as Ken’s boat was coming back in to dock the kids were getting nervous because the front of the boat started to take on a little water due to the amount of weight on board.  Suddenly some of the kids panicked and went to the bow of the boat; well this was the very last thing that should have happened because as all their weight shifted to the front the boat took on more and more water.  Rod saw what was happening and ran his boat over to the scene to help as Bruce did a quasi dive in to the lagoon as the kids (most of whom have never been on a boat before) were insanely screaming in terror.  In the end everyone was okay but a few of the kids were very upset – I knew one of the little girls from other trips and I grabbed her hand as she was crying hysterically by herself on her way to the house.  We found her mom and eventually she calmed down, but it was quite an experience for them.

After everything had calmed down I went back out on the boat to try my luck at getting up on one ski.  I had done it before a few years ago during an Oregon skiing trip but it had been awhile, so I fell on the first attempt and the next 10 or so attempts.  At one point I did get up but did not stay up for any amount of time, but on my last try my hip popped and my leg went numb so I figured that was enough for the day.

Most of the guests left soon after that and there were just a few of us (who were spending the night) visiting before everyone made their way to bed.  As you may have already guessed I was extremely sore from my slalom experience but the worst part was that I actually injured the right side of my neck so for the last four days I’ve been nursing that.  We also attempted Corozal’s first annual Christmas Boat parade which I will write a separate entry on.   Happy New Year everyone!

It is the holiday season again and this will mark my second Thanksgiving and Christmas in Belize. Thanksgiving went by a few weeks ago and my mom and I did celebrate with friends here in Belize. Thanksgiving is, for me, easily the hardest holiday to be in Belize and away from family. It is almost surreal – the weather really doesn’t change here, and it is extremely hard to even realize that Thanksgiving and Christmas are here. I am so used to seasons; in my mind those two holidays mean cold, snow, rain and real pine trees to put up in the house. Here in Corozal I’m still sweating and the trees are plastic. So this year we had two turkey dinners with two different sets of friends. The first came the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and since Scotty’s was closed that day we were able to go out to our friend’s house for a potluck style turkey dinner – my mom made the pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. Since we are not surrounded by our family it is common to create a pseudo family comprised of close friends we meet here – not quite the same but the practice does take away some of the loneliness I feel when the holiday season arrives.

Mom and I picked up our manager, Vanessa and her family and headed out to the party. The event was even more fun for me because my very tired boyfriend (yes, this is a fairly new development) had just arrived the night before from a long trip back to Belize and was going with us to the event. We arrived with a truck full and ended up being unintentionally, fashionably late. The night was fun; good friends, good food and good conversation.

The second Thanksgiving event was at Scotty’s. My mom had planned to prepare a turkey dinner and we were selling each plate (turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, stuffing, bread, salad and pie) for $20 BZD. Our main group in that day was a totally different set of friends here and it went off without a hitch. There were a few other options around town for turkey dinners so it is common for some Belizeans to go out and eat a Thanksgiving dinner on this occasion. Our dinner was a hit although that night I got really sick with some sort of stomach ailment; my mom was terrified that she had poisoned everyone but luckily that was not the case and I just had the stomach flu. Sadly for me this meant I missed out on all the leftovers since I was not eating for a couple days. We did sell a handful of dinners the next day as well so all the food was consumed and enjoyed.

After Thanksgiving I was going to get a dose of Christmas in the cold on a week-long trip to CT with my boyfriend. His family has an annual Christmas party during the first weekend in December and I was going along with him this year. I was understandably (in my opinion) nervous having never met any of his family but the trip was outstanding. I got my dose of cold holiday weather which put everything in perspective for me; I got to participate in a snowball fight, wear sweaters, worry about icy roads, go to a Christmas tree farm and drink lots of red wine (not abundantly available in Belize). Since a trip to the States also involves a list of items to bring back to friends in Belize, for the first time in my life I made two trips to Wal-Mart in one day. Even though I do appreciate the cold weather it was very nice to fly in to Cancun and enjoy a day on the beach in the warm, sunny conditions. The day we flew back was a 60 degree temperature swing for us.

Next comes Christmas. My dad flew in to Cancun yesterday and will be in Belize tomorrow evening so he will be here with my mom and me for Christmas and to bring in the New Year. It is tremendously exciting to have him here for awhile; I can’t wait to see him tomorrow. The plan for Christmas day is to go to a big party at our friend’s place at Progresso Shores. There will be no real Christmas tree or traditional gift giving, no snow on the ground, stockings on a mantle or any other family but there will be a carefully selected group of good friends who are all in the same boat as me, laughter, good food and conversation. A new experience is created which is certainly different than the one I am used to during this time of year but nonetheless very special in the sense that we are lucky to still be surrounded by love and friendship when we are missing everyone at home.

Just a quick note to say that I’m still updating my blog (I know it’s been a little while since my last entry) but I won’t be writing another post until my trip to the states is completed in another week.  Spending my birthday in the cold weather this year again.  I do have to add that I’m very excited about my college football team – University of Oregon Ducks – making it to the Rose Bowl this year!!!