Every year, the day before Christmas, I spend the whole day cruising Tijuana, visiting families we know and visiting a variety of barrios giving toys out to the kids on the road.
Christmas Eve is a special time reserved for a meal with the kids at an orphanage.
Christmas Eve this year was no exception. We were invited to join the festivities at a large orphanage. Tamales and Turkey were on the menu. In Mexico Christmas Eve and New Years can be rather late ... at my age I just wanted to make a show, grab a tamale and head home ... it was another cold Christmas Eve!
We got there in the late afternoon, there were about fifteen teen tired boys. No sign of food or festivities. The afternoon moved into night-time then continued into late night and still no sign of any action. It looked like it wasn't going to be a Ho, Ho, Ho Christmas Eve, at least for these teens.
The kids mentioned they were hungry! I asked one kid when they ate last. "In the morning," he replied. "Well what did you have to eat?" "Cornflakes," another kid replied.
We waited, the kids were cold, hungry, tired and quiet. Then I got an idea. There was a small Chinese restaurant down the road. I asked a boy, "do you think that the Chinese restaurant is open tonight?" "Sure," he said, with a big smile! Others joined the idea.
So I said, "let's have Chinese tonight" Yeah! They all like Chinese food. A few of them jumped into my car and we headed down the dirt road hoping for Chinese Take-Out! Would the restaurant be open Christmas Eve?
Sure enough it was open! I ordered five big boxes of food! While we were waiting the kids came to me and said "Thank you von, we're so hungry!"
Indeed It was a Chinese Christmas this year!
