The New Posada!

We, as a staff, joked about having one thing to be thankful for because of the pandemic, and that is our new version of Posada! In years past we have been able to gather for our Christmas tradition filled with yummy food, great community, some songs from the kiddos, etc. Wanting to keep our families and volunteers safe, we decided Posada needed a whole rewrite that adhered to Covid guidelines. What we didn't know was that the rewrite would turn into a facelift! We loved sharing this fun event with our families, and we wanted you to know how much fun it was too. 

We involved 5 partner churches of ours that we want to say a huge THANK YOU to: Living Word Tabernacle, Bethany Evangelical Free Church, Littleton United Methodist Church (hosted by Break Bread), Mission Hills en Español, and Calvary en Español. We asked these churches to festively decorate their spaces for our families to drive by. Traditionally, Posada (meaning "inn") is a journey that families go on representing Mary and Joseph. At each stop, they are denied entry until the last stop where they get together and celebrate Christmas! We weren't able to be together at the end, but our families got to celebrate along the way. The theme for the event was "Jesus is the Light of the world!" Each of the stops represented this theme and a part of traditional Posada in some way. We had luminarias, tamales, champurrado (a traditional warm beverage), glow sticks to represent sparklers, and a large piñata to represent breaking the hold of sin. Our families collected snacks, beverages, crafts, and pieces of a nativity along the way. At the last stop, they were able to get out of their cars and take a (Covid-cautious) photo with a living nativity!

The night was so fun and so cold. We want to thank the volunteers that served with our partner churches for giving their time and body heat to make this happen! We also want to thank the volunteers who helped put together supplies in the days leading up to Posada, and our families who served one another by making hundreds of tamales and so much yummy champurrado! Our staff worked together to make Posada what it was, but a special shout-out is in order for our wonderful director of programs, Miss Janet! She worked hard to make this event as true to the traditional Posada and fun as possible. We are so thankful for her hard work, and we think our families are too! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

-Ashley and the NLP Staff