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Itwas the day before Christmas...... Like always it is strange being away from home for Christmas but I am lucky I have been able to adopt a new family whom which to celebrate the occasion with. After a bit of a sleep-in I got up and waited around for Loreto to come from her parents house to pick me up for breakfast. At about 10am she came and got me and we made our way back to her parents for a late breakfast of fruit salad. I then helped with some cooking and cleaning up; Nicole - Loreto's sister was making lots of interesting sweets, cakes and Christmas type candys and I was looking forward to trying all of them. Around midday Loreto's Dad drove us to town so we could have a walk around and Loreto turned out to be an incredible guide teaching me the history of Rancagua and a lot about the culture of Chilean people. After a quick stop at the supermarket with a 1000 other people we caught a taxi back to the house for lunch. Lunch today was another real treat: Acocado/lettuce/cucumber/egg/chicken salad with a traditional Chilean dish called: Guisa; zuchini, carrot, onion, tomato, Che seed type lasagne topped with cheese and baked in the oven. After cleaning up we did some more cooking before I decided I would go to the shop and buy some things to make my Grandmas traditional Christmas Rumballs. When I got back Loreto's Mum was flat out in the kitchen preparing tonight's dinner so we decided to head around to the Grandmas place (where we would be having dinner) and make the rumballs and the fruit salad. Loretos Grandma and Aunty lived just down the road in a beautiful old home with wine grapes adorning the outdoor area where we would all be eating tonight. Nicole & Loreto helped me make the rumballs and then we walked back to Loretos house where we showered and got ready for tonight's service at the Catholic Church. Loretos family don't usually go but Nicole had been asked to play violin in tonight's procession so we were all to go. The church was quite full and quite differently laid out for a Christmas service, the singing and music was incredible but unfortunately it was a very long 2 hour session and as we were situated right near the door a cold wind blew on me for 2 hours causing me to shiver and freeze the whole time: that along with the fact I couldn't understand anything made for a challenging but interesting couple of hours. The service finished at 11pm and by this time we were all incredibly tired and over hungry. We made our way back to Loreto's Grandmas place and luckily Loretos Dad had a sweater to lens me as dinner was outside and it was freezing. The ladies prepared the food and by midnight we started Christmas dinner. There was a bottle of red wine which was uncorked and we all shared in a glass (Loreto's family don't usually drink). The first round consisted of chicken breast with mushrooms, lettuce and tomato salads, potato salad, corn salad and a special home made salsa - I was so hungry I ate two big serves before finding out there was roast beef aswell. Not to be rude I went for the roast beef and more salad and God I was thankful I did it was mouthwatering. After completely stuffing myself they then brought out the sweets - tea/coffee, fruit salad, my rumballs, caramel snowmen and Christmas biscuits; I had to try as to not be rude so I found some room and tried some of the delicious sweets. 1am came and it was time to go inside and open the presents. This was a really nice experience and Loreto and her Mum Monica had ever so kindly brought me gifts which I was really shocked to receive; some German chocolates and this really interesting card set for exploring Loretos home city of Valparaiso. I had brought some chocolates, nougat and some souvenirs from Easter island that I gave to the family which I think they liked. By 2am we were all tired so we said our goodnights and headed home to bed. Now if I was a kid and Santa had just brought me my present I would want to be outside using it - how to kids now go to bed and manage to sleep thinking about using their new toys? Strange Christmas customs but so blessed to experience them.
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