Making Cookies, Sharing Cultures

The Christmas season is finally upon us! Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. There's the lights, decorations, trees, the music, tons of parties, amazingly delicious food!, the friends and family you haven't seen in awhile, the 24 hour A Christmas Story marathon, and of course the joy and the mystery of that night long ago in Bethlehem. As I'm not spending Christmas this year with my family and friends back home, I find myself trying to recognize similar traditions here or I'm trying to bring in traditions of my own to share with my new friends. So far I've found many similarities between Christmas in Huanuco and Christmas in Oklahoma. There are still lights, trees, decorations on almost every stationary surface, lots of parties, presents, Christmas songs, nativity scenes, and the joy of season. But there are still a few things I miss: radio stations playing non-stop Christmas music, cold weather (we've been switching back and forth between it being hot or it being rainy and just a little bit cooler), Dad's cinnamon rolls, really any delicious Christmas homemade treat (and this does include Aunt Carmen's woopie pies), Advent Wreaths, The Crismon Tree, Christmas pajamas, Christmas Eve Candlelight service, and of course all those who are near and dear to me. But missing out on these things is a necessary sacrifice for the chance to learn and share in new traditions.

 

One tradition of my own that I recently had the chance to share with my new Peruvian friends was making sugar cookies with the group of girls I work with at Paz y Esperanza. For the past few years my contribution to many holiday gatherings was frosted sugar cookies. Now I think it should be common knowledge that one of my weaknesses is pretty much anything sweet, doughy, or with frosting. As the Christmas season draws closer I think my body has become accustomed to the influx of sweets and around Thanksgiving begins to crave these delicious treats that are usually only indulged in during the holidays. So when I was in Lima celebrating our day of thanks, I found a rare piece of American contraband – Betty Crocker vanilla frosting! I, of course had to buy it, and I decided that I would try to find some way to make sugar cookies to go with this icing and share them with my new Peruvian friends.

The Chicas Tamar is a group that I work with on Saturday afternoons making art projects as part of their therapy and this particular Saturday we were working on a Nativity play and as a special treat I decided to make the cookies for the girls and have them decorate them. The night before my host sister, Carla, and I went out to the Mercado in search of all the ingredients we would need. The task was easier said than done. Apparently people in Huanuco don't just bake for fun. Really only the Panadarias (bakeries) make things like cookies and breads, and when you don't have a stove and there is a Panadaria on every street corner why would ever need to bake things for yourself. So we finally acquired all the ingredients necessary after a bit of a hunt, and I prepared the dough that night so it could chill in the fridge until morning.

The next day I went to help out with the girls with their play, in which I was given the role of Mustafar, an innkeeper who turns away Mary and Joseph. They girls all clapped for me when I got my lines right, haha. Then while they were rehearsing I baked the cookies with my co-worker, Beky, and I had one of those rare moments where my Spanish was just clicking and she and I had some nice bonding time. When the cookies were all cut and baked, over 150 of them actually, the girls gathered around the table in the kitchen to decorate them. At first they weren't really sure what was going, in fact they asked me if we were selling the cookies, but when I told them they were for eating and for sharing with their families their shy caution turned into joyous fervor as they frosted each of their cookies and liberally added sprinkles and colored sugar. For me it was a wonderful experience to see these girls get wrapped up in the joy of making these sweet treats and I hope that it was for them as it was for me a temporary escape from the stresses and frustrations and pressures of life.

 

Well I was hoping to share a bit more about the holiday traditions here and what I've been up to the past few weeks, but like always I've procrastinated. I promise I will add more to this post later and tell you all about Paneton, hot chocolate, late Christmas dinner, and no Christmas Eve service. I'm off on vacation tomorrow, first to Arequipa with the other YAVs, and then to Cuzco and Machu Picchu with my family! I hope that everyone had a most wonderful holiday season! I miss you all, especially at this time of year, but I'll be back home before I know it, missing everyone in Peru. Until then I will leave you with this, Feliz Navidad a todos mis cariños y un Prospero Año!!!