Second time around...

We got married...again... to each other.  I must say that trying to explain that in Spanish to a Chilean is quite the complicated situation.  But indeed, we did the whole party again, and this time 100% in Spanish.

Six months to the day from our first wedding in Leavenworth, Washington, we were married in Chile outside of Santiago, at Victor's family's countryside house.  We could think of no other place to tie the knot, as it is a very central place for our life in Chile, as well as being a beautiful location with the perfect yard.

While the day started out with some impressive thunder, the afternoon opened up and we had pure sunshine for our outdoor wedding.
I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

 These (photos below) are the two gentleman who married us. They are friends of Victor's from the Jesuit Novice House.  Christian and Pepe were ideal, as they know Victor well, and helped us create a ceremony that fit our needs, but that also fit within the cultural norms of a Catholic wedding.  We had live music as Victor's Uncle (the gentleman in the photo to the right with the white shirt) has an incredible voice and he, and a few equally talented friends of his, sang for our ceremony.

After the ceremony we had passed hors d'oeuvres on the lawn outside of the countryside house, under the trees in the warm summer sun.  I must say that the difference in the summer/winter of the hemispheres has been advantageous, as we were able to have 2 summer weddings 6 months apart, which is unique.
The majority of Victor's family joined us for the big day, and as his mother is one of 9, that made up for about half of the crowd.  Here are some of the special guests:

Victor's Aunt Tere and Grandma Nelly O'Connor 

(doesn't get more Irish than that but she is indeed 100% Chilean)

Victor's Mom Maria del Carmen (Carmela) and Victor Sr.

My parents had their first trip to Chile for the wedding and it was a great time.  While we had the wedding in the States translated for Victor's family I am sorry to say that my parents had to play it by ear.  Imagine attending your kid's wedding and not understanding a word.

My good friends Julie, Maya, Ande and Stacey (and Rusty not shown) all

came to Chile to join us for the wedding. 

It was so good to have them here and we would like to send a thank you

to all of them for making the long trip down to join us!

Here is the whole family.  

Following the photos and appetizers  the party moved to the tent (which was on the back lawn) for the food and dancing.  Here the real party begins.

Instead of The Gambler which was our first dance in the States we decided to have a more Chilean choice.  This second time around we decided (or attempted you should say) to dance the Cueca, which is a very traditional Chilean dance (it actually doesn't get any more traditional than this).  The dance is meant to imitate a rooster chasing a hen around the coop (we can just imagine the reasoning why).  And how this translates to a dance is that the guy chases the girl around the dance floor almost hoping up and down.  As we didn't have much practice, I must say it was quite the laugh.  To learn a bit more about the dance check out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueca).  

And then on to the real dancing...   

We had Zorba the Greek pay a visit (and Victor's ankle is still paying for it).  
Victor's nieces and nephews had a great time on the dance floor and here is a cute photo (left) of a group of them in their matching outfits.

Here we are with some fellow Chileans who are friends from Georgetown.

The night ended with a traditional Chilean song sung by all of 

Victor's cousins to the ladies of the party.  

It was a great end to a wonderful evening.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

-Dessa & Victor

P.S...we promise.. no more wedding.  Two in less than a year is good for now ;)

Feliz Navidad in April

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year... only 3.5 months too late.  We have been having some technical difficulties plus it has just been a very busy year thus far.  We have lots to catch up on and we are going to be much better about sending out posts (now that our photoshop program is back up and running).  But we didn't want to skip anything, and thus the post about Navidad and New Years.

We hope that everyone started the year off well and enjoyed a wonderful holiday with their family and friends. Victor and I spent our first Christmas as a married couple with his family in Chile.  It was the first time in over 7 years that I have not had to pack my bags and fly for the holidays, as we only had a 20 minute drive to the family Countryside house, and it was indeed a wonderful holiday. We joined Victor's family on Christmas Eve for a dinner out under the stars.  As it was the middle of summer here, the Christmas traditions didn't involve snow men, snow ball fights and lots of layers to clothes.  Instead, we were in shorts, enjoying the pool (see the photo below) and could stay outdoors and enjoy the warm summer evening for Christmas evening.  We were a party of 20 so we put 2 picnic tables together and ate a wonderful meal. 

Following the meal we enjoyed a long standing family tradition:  all the kids in the family dress up and do a play of the nativity scene.  This has been a tradition that Victor did as a kid, and now his nephews and nieces are doing it.  They are adorable, and all of the adults sit back and enjoy the show, which lasts around 15 minutes, with the Mom's and Dad's helping along the way to make sure that no body misses their part.  

Once the show has come to an end, then the fun begins as everyone opens their presents. I must say, coming from a family of 3 where we do presents in a very orderly and one-by-one fashion, the incredibly amount of energy, ripping of papers and laughs from all the people opening presents at once was overwhelming and quite the change.  I must say that being a kid in the Silva family (as this is Victor's Mom's family) looks like fun.  They got all sorts of fun stuff!

                 Amongst the toys, there were a few gifts that Victor and I had purchased for Victor's Godson, Joaquin, who is the 4th son of Victor's cousin.  While we were impressed with our gift, the little guy was not so much, but the box!  Oh boy!  That was a different matter and he played with, chewed on, and was enamored by the box for a full day straight.  Moral of the story.. just buy boxes for kids, don't worry about what is inside. 

Carmela (Victor's Mom), Isabel (Victor's Sister) and Martita (Victor's Aunt) 
and I on Christmas Eve enjoying presents my parents sent from The States.

On Christmas Day we laid around the pool, had a BBQ and relaxed. I have to say that while I did miss a bit of the snowy holiday cheer, I really enjoyed the beautiful day.  In some ways it felt like a perfect summer weekend but with lots of presents.  Perhaps a tradition that we should start in The States.

We hope that everyone started off the year with a splash of some sort, and that the past few months, have been filled with good times.

We will be writing more soon to fill you in on our 2nd wedding here in Chile, as well as some of our location adventures.

All the best for 2011 (what is left of it ;)!

-Dessa and Victor