The familiar sound of bombas going off still can be heard a few times in a typical evening, occasionally even accompanied by the lightshow generally associated with fireworks, but overall these past few days have been uncharacteristically quiet.  In the few weeks leading up to Christmas, we came to expect late night blasts and early morning parades (and vice versa), but right now it seems as if the city has momentarily stopped to catch its breath.

Then tomorrow, after a nice long week of inhaling, the seemingly unceasing energy of the Nicaraguan culture will emerge once again to usher in a new year, or so I've heard. 

For Christmas Eve, after having a traditional candlelight service (in which we ironically attempted to sing Silent Night to the background track of a completely different cultural tradition) the team was invited to a friend's home to get a taste of how they celebrate here.  Since any attempt to sleep would have been no doubt unsuccessful, I'm glad we had a chance to better understand the culture here simply by joining in and truely enjoying what would have happened regardless.  Instead of sulking while listening to others have some fun, not quite sure what they were doing or why it was so inconsiderately loud, we were able to jump right in,  try our hand at a bit of dancing, a few took a swing or two at the piñata, and we all left laughing.

Hopefully the additional bit of grace that we all found last week extends to tomorrow night when the fireworks are supposedly twice as long and the party is twice as loud.  There's a chance we might be spending the evening with another friend here in town, and if so I'm honestly looking forward to another chance to step off the sidelines and join in on the fiesta.