Christmas in July

So tonight when I got home from my trip back to Koseca and Dubnica (to say goodbye to friends at my first placement), my host family and I had a really fun night together! We celebrated Christmas in July...SO much fun.

Because I was limited with space and couldn't manage to carry all of my luggage alone, I left a box of my things at Diakonia in Koseca with my friend Zuza. I grabbed the box and took it with me this time, as it was my last visit, and brought it back tonight when I came back to Hybe. A majority of the box was filled with Christmas things, the stuff I didn't need to bring with me when I changed placements. On the car ride home I told my family that I had a box they could look through and choose what they wanted to keep, and they got really excited! HURRY UP AND GET IN THE HOUSE!! :)

I opened the box and started bringing things out one by one to the kitchen, and everyone got excited for each thing I brought. I brought out: (most of the items sent to me from my parents) a baby Christmas Tree, small colored ornaments, beaded garland, little gingerbread men and women, silver bows, Santa stockings, an American flag Christmas bulb, a headband with two silver disco balls bouncing off the antennas (from my New Years Eve celebration in Spain), a Christmas card and bracelet, a nativity scene puzzle, a candle and candlerholder, a singing electronic bear that sings, and a Christmas cd with Christmas songs in English! After I showed them the Christmas songs in English, they grabbed an old cassette tape and we started to play Slovak Christmas tunes too! They had many of the same songs, and I tried to understand the translations. Their most popular is "Ticho Noc" which is "Silent Night" in English.

We had such a great time together, laughing and catching up after being apart for another week. We ate dry cocoa waffles (I bought them in Trencin and brought them home for everybody, they're a great snack, and really different from our waffles), looked at their old family photos, and decorated the Christmas tree together (mostly Janka and Katka did, while everyone else watched and admired). Good family bonding!