Christmas

Christmas was a really different experience for us both as neither of us have been away from home before, and they celebrate Christmas eve as opposed to Christmas day. Around 930pm we headed off to amparo (Necane's aunty) and her families apartment on the night of the 24th where all Necane's aunties, uncles and cousins were. There were some prayers, speeches and toasts which gave a really nice feel to the special occasion before we had a delicious feast. We also got to try Necane's grandma's special dessert which was amazing! It was a passionfruit jelly-like creation with custard that complemented it very nicely. While we let our stomachs settle and waited for midnight we were drinking and dancing. When midnight came around we sat in a big circle and one at a time, when our name got called, we would receive a present with lots of cheering. It was lots of fun and we got beautiful presents such as clothing and accessories. After all the presents were opened we did more dancing and drinking until about 430am. 
On Christmas day we all slept in and recovered from the night before. We then got ready and went to blanca lilia's (aunty in law) parents house where all her even bigger and crazier family were. On our arrival at about 4 in the afternoon we had to do aguardiente shots. We then had sancocho which is a popular soup and traditional to have have on Christmas. They make it in huge quantities so fed us all and had some left over too. Then we all partied, drank and danced all night having lots of fun till about 4pm. In the end we both came to the conclusion that it didn't really feel like Christmas but had such a fabulous time celebrating with all the family and experiencing a colombian christmas.