Baptism: a time to celebrate

October 20th was Alina's eight birthday, and she and her cousin Alejandra were baptized yesterday, October 24th. It has been years since I've attended a baptism and I loved it. I won't go into detail, but I do want to say that there was a wonderful spirit present.

Make a wish!

We celebrated Alina's Birthday with all her friends and family at the Chapel directly after the baptism. Mi madre is incredible. She baked so, SO many goods for this fiesta. She started baking on Wednesday and the baptism and party were on Saturday. I felt like my house was a Pasteleria. This picture doesn't even begin to convey how many sweets there were (most of which were Ukrainian). It's missing the cakes, fruit, and finishing touch of cream or powdered sugar.

These bad boys are filled with manjar. Positively sinful. Mom, Matt, you know what I'm talking about.

Dia de Independencia

I got to celebrate two Independence Days this year; the 4th of July, and September 18th. This morning mi familia sang Chile's National Anthem followed by Feliz Cumpleanos and cake. It was thrilling to see the red, white and blue Chilean flags all over the town and houses (it's a law that you must have a flag on your house on Sep 18). We celebrated with about five other families at the house of a family friend. There were lots of little kids running around and some kind adults that were willing to humor me and listen to my feeble Spanish. I learned that the occupation of the man of the house we went to is President of the Family History work for the Church in Chile. Whoa. Sounds like the real McCoy to me. He travels to Salt Lake City about every year for conferences and training and he thinks the "This Is the Place" Monument is really neat.

Chileans eat SO much. They kept handing me all kinds of sausages, hot dogs, and chicken, which I learned the hard way were only appetizers. My favorite quote of the day is when a man offered me more meat and I said "no tengo hambre," to which he replied "ah, no importa." It made me laugh because that's such a Chilean attitude regarding food; just keep going.

Here is Alina with all things Chilean: torta (cake), festive napkins, flag, and of course, empanadas.

Reason to Dance

Last Friday I went to mi hermanitas' school program which celebrated September 18th (Chile's Independence Day) and the Jewish New Year (they attend a private Hebrew school). It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. It made me wish the 4th of July took place during the school year. Every grade represented a different part of Chile's culture or history and did a dance routine complete with costumes. It was so much fun to watch, and I left feeling all the more cultured. (Did you know that Jews eat apples with honey for New Year's? I didn't either until I ate a slice.)

Dania and classmates.

A cute boy wondering how he found himself in this situation.

Alina singing with the guitar class.

I loved all the dances, but here is just a clip my favorite. It had everything I can relate to feeling in Chile: utter confusion which is turned into enjoying it for all it's worth. Amen!