Christmas Photos

Today is moving day but there is no way I can see doing a blog post after the move.  The internet connection is a wire strung from the internet cafe up front and it's a hardwire connection.  Somehow I don't see myself rigging that up so I can connect and the idea of going back to the apartment after the move just doesn't do a thing for me so I'm writing this before the move and you'll get the skinny on the move soon.

Of course I have tons of stuff I can write about in the meantime and these are some of the Christmas photos I've taken recently:

 I think this is really a very comical photo.  I took it to capture both the little girls wth their basket of flowers, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus (or, in this case, both of them) but when I got it out of the camera and onto the computer screen I saw the two men behind and could help but laugh. The one on the left is obviously looking at me and is not happy that I'm taking the picture but I have no idea what the guy on the right is looking at.  The little girls are pretty somber, to

 I think I've mentioned there's at least one procession every night between December 15th and Christmas Eve when there's the big one.  Well this was the one from Wednesday night (I heard there was another one but I didn't see any evidence of it so I missed that one).

Sparklers are a big part of some of the parades and this was no exception.  They don't last very long here--not like the ones I'm used to in the States.  I guess that's good when you consider how young some of the children are who are carrying them around.

There were fireworks all along the way and these little sparkler things at each intersection.

When they reached the church they put the sparkly ones on each of the four columns on either side of the stairs. It was a very smoky operation.
 

It's tough to capture fireworks and even harder when there's a lot of smoke in the air but I did manage to get a halfway decent one.  They aren't huge but what they lack in size they make up for in number.

The procession reaches the church and they all go in to lay the baby Jesus baskets in there and then there's a mass.  This procession had at least eight baskets containing the baby Jesus.  It's very interesting.  I'm looking forward to the Christmas Eve parade.  Who knows how many there will be for that.