Home for the Holidays: Christmas in MO, New Year's in CR

It's been a busy couple of weeks! Normally I try to post my weekly recaps on Sundays, but I figured it may make more sense to lump everything related to the holidays together in one blog. 

On Dec 23, I flew back to Southwest Missouri to be home for Christmas with my family. This was the first time I'd been back in the Ozarks since I began my Peace Corps Service a year and a half ago (roughly 18 months). I was really excited to spend time with family, get some comfort food, and enjoy some colder weather. All three of those things occurred eventually, thankfully, although the latter wasn't until the end of my trip due to a record-breaking warm Christmas Day. 



My time at home, was fun and much-needed, although it wasn't particularly relaxing. We had a number of Christmas celebrations and activities, so my time back home went by pretty fast. Some highlights of the trip included celebrating my Dad's birthday sharing a tomahawk steak, eating some Springfield-style Cashew chicken, going to the movies to see Marty Supreme and Avatar 3, and exchanging gifts with family members. 




Before I knew it, my week in the States had come to an end. On the 30th, I flew back to San Jose so that I could ring in the new year in Costa Rica. For New Year's Eve, I was invited to my girlfriend's house to celebrate New Year's with her and her family. We had a really lovely evening. They served us chicharrones and a couple seafood dishes that were delicious. Later, we turned on a national radio station to hear the official countdown for the New Year. The whole family hugged one another afterwards, and it was a really sweet moment to be a part of. The whole neighborhood also erupted in fireworks and bombetas. The next day, I was able to aprovechar the holiday to run with her to explore her neighborhood more, before we met a friend of mine from Peace Corps for dinner. 





I'm incredibly grateful that I got to go home for the first time and a long time for Christmas, and equally grateful for that I was able to return to Costa Rica to celebrate the New Year here. Both were amazing experiences and were the perfect reset going into this final year of Peace Corps service. 

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