It's the night before Christmas

Christmas Eve has always been one of my favorite times of the year. It's a day full of eager anticipation. And for my family it's full of traditions. Wonderful traditions that has led each of kids to thinking that Christmas is not complete without each and every one.

We generally go to a Christmas Eve service or in the earlier days we made one for ourselves (Karla would play violin, I think I acted out the Christmas story a couple of times, and there were several poorly but bravely sung carols). To be honest, as a kid you don't look forward to that part of the evening as much...so let's skip to when Christmas Eve really begins!

We always have a Norwegian-inspired dinner of white fish, mashed potatoes, and peas. Yum! The meal gets finished off with rice pudding. This ain't any regular rice pudding though! This one has an almond hidden somewhere deep within and the person to find it gets a prize; which with any luck may actually be cash and not the ritualistic marzipan pig.

I know the pudding doesn't look like much but it's wonderfully full of cream, cinnamon, sugar, and perhaps a smidgen of cardamom.

After dinner it's time to...(all the kids give a cheer) open gifts! Yes, folks, that's right. We open gifts on the EVE and not the day. An elf helps by handing the gifts to the person from whom the gift is being given. The giver then takes the gift to the receiver and in the act of handing it to them says, "God loved us and sent His Son." Just a small phrase to help remind us of why we give gifts in the first place.

In the good ol' Guatemalan days, after opening the gifts we'd start getting bundled up to go outside and set of firecrackers. At midnight the word would then explode into a delightful pandemonium with lights and smoke in all directions. Of course, we were never quite sure when midnight actually was because some neighbors over there would already be setting of volcanoes and roman candles and then two minutes later you'd see rockets going up 3 blocks over, but eventually everyone would be letting the whistlers fly and the smoke would get so thick you won't be able to see the Henriquez's house 4 houses down. It was fabulous. Here's a little taste for ya: Christmas Eve in Guatemala. (At the 3 minute mark you'll see what's called a metriadora. This little baby can range from a couple inches long to 10 or 12 feet. It's the crowning glory of any firecracker burning episode. Mostly because it has the capability to scare dogs, set off car alarms, and wake the dead.) After burning up about a hundred quetzales of well spent money we'd head into the house for ponche and tamales. Now we just chat, go to bed, or get into the hot tub. Not as exciting, but relaxing.

That's how we Beachimos roll the night before Christmas. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!