Deyra's First Christmas in the U.S.

I think that Deyra’s first Christmas in the U.S. was a success! We made sure that she had the complete Christmas experience as Christmas is my favorite time of year. We took her to Zoolights, which is where the zoo is lit up and decorated at night. Many of the animals were sleeping but she got to see a few including the giraffes. She was very impressed and said that she’d only seen animals like that in books before. I’ll have to take her to the zoo during the day so that she can see all of the animals!

Zoolights!

We also went to Christmas Tree Lane, two miles of houses that go all out decorating for Christmas each year. Deyra really seemed to like all the lights and took a lot of pictures. She said that she had never seen anything like that in her life. Many of the houses have themes and wooden cutouts and decorations in addition to the lights. It’s pretty impressive to me so I can only imagine what it was like to Deyra.

Christmas Tree Lane

A week before Christmas, we went to Kevin’s Uncle and Aunt’s house to make beerocks like his grandparents used to do. Deyra learned how to make them and helped out. She also helped with the puzzle (she doesn’t quite have the hang of those yet) and participated in the “As Seen on T.V.” gift exchange. She got the hang of the stealing gifts idea pretty quickly. Unfortunately, her gifts got stolen numerous times and she ended up with a pet hair brush. She got a kick of watching us use it on the cats but won’t get much use out of it herself.

Deyra making beerocks

A couple of days before Christmas a friend’s mom gave Deyra a bunch of her daughter’s old clothes. Literally, we brought home two garbage bags full! I had Deyra pick out some things that she wanted and try them on and model them for me to make sure they fit. Turns out she has gained a little weight and a lot of them did not fit. Deyra said that there are three other girls who are her size or smaller in her group so we are going to give the rest of the clothes to them. It was like early Christmas as she almost doubled her wardrobe! I was even inspired to get rid of some of my own clothes, something I never do!

Que monton de ropa

My family celebrated Christmas Eve at my house this year because my grandmother, my mom’s mother, passed away a couple of days before Christmas and we didn’t want my mom to have to do anything. Deyra told me that she wanted to make suspiros and asked for sugar, egg whites, and a spoon. She then spent the next hour beating them into meringue. I had given her a whisk but had I realized what she planned to do, I would have given her the hand mixer. I can’t believe that she spent an hour whisking eggs and sugar into meringue! To make things worse, nobody really ate them so it was like she wasted all that effort.

Family picture

Christmas in my family is a little different than the traditional Christmas. We always eats Italian food on Christmas Eve because my grandmother is Italian and that is what we grew up doing. We had tons of food including lasagna and rigatoni and then opened presents. I think that Deyra was a bit overwhelmed at first because there were so many presents. We take turns opening one present at a time and she seemed unsure of what to do at first. By the end, she was ripping them open when it came her turn. She got a lot of clothes, books, games, and even an MP3player!

A gingerbread man from Grandma Marty

We went to the candlelight church service at 11:00 PM on Christmas Eve and I think Deyra was pretty tired. She ran to bed when we got home. We then got up at 7:00 AM the next morning to open stockings. Santa was good to her and she got lots of her favorite food, candy. We ate breakfast and then headed off to church and after that to Kevin’s parent’s house. Deyra got more presents including a sterling silver necklace and bracelet and pineapple lotion from our nephew who smelled every single one to make sure he got her the best scent!


We spent the day with Kevin’s family and I know Deyra was exhausted (I sure was and even took a nap!). She played games with us for a little while and then kind of disappeared to the living room. She said that she had a good time and liked all of her Christmas presents. I asked Deyra what Christmas is like for her in Nicaragua and she said that they eat a lot on the 24th and her family goes to church. She said that she had never received a Christmas present before so no wonder she was overwhelmed!

Deyra and I baking cookies