Feliz Navidad

Christmas Part 1 took place at Nana and Grampy’s on the 22nd, and a good time was had by all. Aunt Marcia surprised me with a giant box comprised of all sorts of Melissa-themed items. The box was full of all sorts of Nicaraguan, vegetarian, running, and monkey memorabilia. Each item was individually wrapped, so it seemed like it took me about an hour to get through it all. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the box was actually one of the smallest things—a howler monkey charm (like for a bracelet or necklace). I couldn’t get over it. It looks exactly like Wrinkle Belly. I had no idea such a thing even existed. As soon as we got home, I found a necklace to put it on and have been wearing it ever since.

Melissa opening some monkey socks from Nana and Grampy

Aunt Marcia

Rob and Melissa and Nana

Grampy

On Christmas Eve it was on to Rick and Nan’s (my parents) for Christmas at the Windchime. The real party started when my nephew—just short of 12 months old—arrived. Its been a long time since my family has had a small child at a Christmas celebration. Logan is in the stage of constant motion and exploration, so it was quite difficult to get him to slow down enough to open his gifts.

The gals

Logan and his Caterpillar truck

Auntie M trying --with some success--to feed Logan taters.

The biggest surprise was on Christmas Eve night, when we were opening gifts at my parents’ house. A mystery gift was delivered to me, and the tag said it was from Santa (but it was written in Rob’s handwriting). When I opened the box, there were several other wrapped gifts inside—one each for my parents, my sister, and me. I doled out the other gifts and we all opened them at once. It was a book: Nicablogua: The Story of My Dissertation Fieldwork. Santa—with the help of Rob—had printed Nicablogua into a 200-page, full color, hardback book. It was out of this world to be sitting there, holding my own words in my hands, seeing all of my adventures printed out on paper. We all sat around in silence, leafing through the volume. Finally someone would say, “Look at that picture on page 82!” and we would turn to the page. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

On Christmas day, my grandmas and auntie came over. They looked through the blog book and it was such a hit that we all almost forgot to eat Christmas dinner. Rob had printed a copy for my aunt and when we gave it to her she just couldn’t stop crying. She had me sign her copy—my first book signing.

Alright, its time for me to go and continue in the family Christmas festivities. My current project is teaching Logan how to howl like a howler monkey, which is something I'm sure his parents will enjoy.