Christmas Eve in Nicaragua

So I have officially experienced my first Christmas in Nicaragua and it was lots of fun. I spent Christmas Eve in the home of the Penas, a Nicaraguan family I've gotten to know well over the years. The evening started with a meal at 9:00pm of rice, a chicken dish that was cooked over the fire, and two slices of white bread. For dessert we had almost like a Swiss bread with cinnamin, banana pudding inside. It was all very delicious. After this we exchanged some gifts amongst eachother. Traditionally fireworks are let off at 12:00 but we let them go a little earlier than that. Here are some pictures from the evening:
Yolanda recieved this bag which she just LOVED! That's not hard to tell from her expression.

Here I am with Ana celebrating with sparklers.
and Debora too!

The crazy part of the evening started about about 11:45pm when we heard a big crash. A motorcycle and a car crashed at the corner. Immediately 20-25 people rushed to the scene and many more were coming down the streets when they heard the news. They don't seems to get involved they just come to see but are right in close to the scene of the accident. Since 12:00 is when all the fire works start up this was all happening at the same time. It was SOOO loud because everyone does it at the same time for about 20 minutes. I got a little freaked out when the nieghbour lit a string of fireworks and than a police truck drove down the street right over top of it! I just wanted to shout, "SLOW DOWN I can't take this all in so fast." This last picture isn't very clear but it has the fireworks in the background with the accident, people, and police car infront of it.