Feliz Navidad!

Hey, Merry Christmas everybody. They have some different Christmas customs here in Colombia. For one, everyone opens presents and eats dinner at midnight on Christmas eve, then they party until the wee hours of the morning. Only my Dad and I were up at midnight and we got invited into a Colombian Apt. by a huge family and recited some Catholic verses and then ate and the kids opened presents. We opened our presents the next day when the whole family was awake.

Joel got a great used bike for Christmas from his friend David because David was getting a new one. We fixed it up for the equivalent of 4 bucks. Joel claimed he needed training wheels but tried the bike without them. He is a super fast learner and can now ride and then turn 180 degrees. I was jump-start pushing him and he rode back and forth about 50 times. When it got late and my mom said that was the last one, he finished and then kept saying "one more time." It took a crying fit to pull him away from the bike but now he is happily playing with his new Hot Wheels set.

Later in the afternoon we went to the first day of the Cali fair, where there were people dancing salsa, a parade, and most of Cali dressed up in tight jeans and new outfits. Tomorrow we leave for Ecuador to meet my grandparents and see the sights for two weeks so I might not write. -Ian