Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The time before Christmas was very busy for the JACis volunteers. They needed to find a Christmas team consisting of one volunteer and three youngsters, they prepared the Christmas decoration for their rooms, Christmas songs, Christmas games and of course Christmas food.

Everything was in tune with the season, because we all love christmas: That means we shot Christmas movies, learned about traditions in each others countries and families, we got little presents for our hosts.

 Almost everyday tasty scents filled JACis, as we were working to bring the culinary traditions of our homes to Latvia.

On Tuesday we received a beautiful Christmas tree that we decorated with tensil, stars, angels, and lights. The tree was so big, it filled the room from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. Everybody loved the tree and used the opportunity to take many pictures and selfies in front of it.

But not only the preparations for the JACis Christmas party were made but also our trip to Riga and the JACis event at Rezeknes Christmas market in Festival Park needed to be organized!

On Friday, the 19^th of December all teams went to Riga. Moritz planned the trip for a long time so everything was well organized. First, we visited the German embassy where we got informed about the work and tasks of a diplomat which was very interesting for everyone. After that we visited the museum of occupation where we unfortunately didn’t spend so much time. Then we went to eat  at LIDOs - a very famous restaurant in Riga.

Visit to the German embassy

Museum of occupation - Riga

Riga prepared for Christmas

 The day ended with a visit to a youth centre in Riga - Kaneris.  We were impressed by the size and their equipment as well as the great ideas that went into the layout of the center. They had a theme for every room, for example the "reflection room" full of mirrors. Clever, eh?

Sandbox for developing ideas

Conference room - because no idea stands alone

Refection room

Creative room - let out your inner designer

  
On Sunday 21 December JACis had the oppotunity to present its diversity and creativity in the Festival Park where the Christmas market took place. The volunteers prepared different activities and delicacies: we baked bread on the stick on open fire which attracted many people, did some hand-craft with children, cooked Christmas punsch and played some games. The fun part was that we met Santa Claus, we introduced ourselves over the microphone, wished everybody a merry christmas and a happy new year in our native languages, enjoyed the "reindeers" (even though they were just a goat and a pony in disguise) and had a lot of fun until we were interrupted by a heavy blizzard.  



Next day we had our JACis Christmas party. We met to do the last preparations (preparing the food, last-minute decorations, rehearsals and rejoicing) and then began the festivities, which were bound to last until the late evening. First we were in Georgiana's room "the little reindeers" where we played some funny games and woke up Santa Claus after we danced and sung carols.

"Reindeer riding"grabbing candy

Sleeping Santa

Carol moments

Group picture

 Then we went to Paul's room, the “musical kitchen” where we enjoyed Christmas songs, cookies and Punsch. 

Preparation in "musical kitchen"

Musical team

Singing carols together

Next stop was Moritz's room, where we had delicious Christmas apples and a game about unwrapping chocolate

The dinner is ready!

Cookies for everybody

Ready for a game?

We finished in Clemences room, where we sung again and had nice French snacks. All in all it was a nice preparation for Christmas and everyone enjoyed it!

"Jingle bells, Jingle bells..."

Santa's sleigh

And a funny game

Everybody is in a hurry to taste "la bûche"

The official part ended by giving present to each other but afterwards we still enjoyed sitting together, talking and eating what was left of the food.