Feliz Navidad 2011

A new tradition for Christmas in Chile:  spend the day of Christmas Eve at the beach. 

David showed the kids how to collect sand crabs in the surf.

As you get deeper and deeper into the water the sand crabs get bigger.  Dave also found some regular crabs in the sand.  The problem with those guys is that they have pinchers.  This is just a little one but Dave found a couple as big as his hand.

The boys befriended a stray dog.

The dog loved the attention.  He would jump up in the air and bite at the wet sand that the boys would throw for him.

BJ had such a good time with that dog.

We stayed until the sun went down.  In the evening, the pelicans come out to fish.  Every few minutes a new flock would fly by .

The lighthouse was even decorated for Christmas.

When we got home from the beach around 10PM, the kids discovered that El Viejo Pascuero "Santa" had already come to our house.  We were wondering how it was going to work out because they told us that Santa comes Christmas Eve in Chile and that everyone opens their presents at midnight.  Luckily Santa was on the ball and visited us when we were at the beach.

He even filled the stockings.

And put candies in our shoes?  OK, that's new but fun.

 So, we waited until midnight and then opened our gifts.

El Viejo Pascuero was good to us this year.  We must have been nice.

Jill models the new earrings and flowers she got from David.

Right around the corner from our house is a small store that sells candy and ice cream and other little things.  Each of the kids went to the store separately and purchased treats for eachother for Christmas.  Feliz Navidad a todos!