Christmas, again, has come and gone in Yuracoto, Peru. True to form, it was pretty under whelming. Christmas Eve Day, Roger worked, Dina cleaned, and Cate, Yordan, Yeferson, and I hung out waiting for Roger to come back so we could eat paneton (kinda like fruit cake), drink hot chocolate, and feast on potato salad. Besides Cate falling the ditch, the biggest thing that happened was a short power-outage due to a pretty impressive thunderstorm.
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| Dina tending the fire as she makes a large pot of hot chocolate. |
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| Dina peeling the potatoes for the salad. |
Cate and I had pooled our resources and went in together on some gifts for the family. Santa brought Dina a blender, Roger got a set of hand tools, Yeferson got a puzzle and watch, and Yordan got an alphabet train that lights up (I think the train the blender were the biggest hits).
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| Santa and the family. It's not a real beard, I made it out of paper, glue, tape, and cotton balls. |
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| Cate and the family. |
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| Side shot of Santa. |
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| Yordi get his train. |
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| Santa is happy with the gift giving. |
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| Roger and Santa show off the new tools. |
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| One happy family. |
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| Merry Christmas! |
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| Yefer tries his hand at being Santa |
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| Yordan and the train |
Dina's family also came over to share the food, drink and dance with us*. After stuffing ourselves until about 10:30 in the kitchen, we moved the party into the bedroom/living room area and drank and danced to huayno music until the wee horas (hours). I retired at about 3:00am when Roger went to go buy more beer, Cate protested (even after falling into a ditch), but also retired soon after. And according to Dina, her and Roger ended the party as they danced and drank until the beer was gone (5:00am). Then Roger went to work again (he's a machine).
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| Roger putting his waiter skills to work serving the wine. |
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| L to R: Mercides (Dina's niece), Dina's brother-in-law, Dina's sister Anna, Dina, Dina's brother, and Dinas's sister-in-law. |
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| The aftermath. |
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| Cate with Dina's hat. |
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| Anna with two of her three daughters, her new baby grandson. |
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| Please note Cate's pose. This is shortly before the ditch got her. |
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| Roger and Dina. |
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| The dancers. |
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| A huayno Christmas. |
*This is the one time every year that I drink in my site. My host family loves it, and I'd be lying if I said I don't enjoy it too. Too bad alcohol abuse is the norm in town, otherwise I'm sure it would be easier for me to enjoy a beer in site.
