Hope’s real name was Esperança. Her family had gotten in the habit of calling her name in English, but VoVo who maintained her grandmotherly traditions preferred to call her ‘Hope’ in Portuguese. “Esperança, come here and sit with VoVo,” she would say.Hope liked her traditional name. She smiled remembering that year in summer day camp when she decided to call herself Esperança too. It was the perfect place to try it out, because she only knew one person there, her cousin. She remembered writing in bold letters on her ‘Hello my name is’, nametag…Esperança. Her cousin nudged her saying, “Who’s Esperança? And she would reply, “Just be quiet”! He hadn’t know about the ‘Hope jokes’ she had endured, especially in P.E class. ‘We need Hope on our side’, the kids would say, or ‘ It doesn’t matter who we get, because WE HAVE HOPE’. She had entertained each joke, with a smile, and now, at sixteen had long since embraced her name; she had met other Hopes and had shared mutual amusements, and had even come across a few Faiths and once had even met a man named Happy.In preparation for Christmas this year Hope’s family always began their glad tidings early, November the 1st to be exact. The first preparations began with the construction of the Nativity village or as Hope’s family called it, the Présepios. It was a great way to begin the Christmas season, and a way to carry on their grandmother’s legacy.Hope’s grandmother who she had called VoVo had been a wonderful woman. She had instilled a sense of pride in all her family. It was VoVo who had made them promise that when she died they would continue the tradition of building the Nativity village (Presépios) at Christmas. In Hope’s mind Christmas wouldn’t be the same unless they made one. In VoVo’s mind that was the true gift of Christmas.This was the first year that the family had decided upon a modern day Bermuda backdrop surrounding the Nativity. In previous years it had been very a very traditional biblical nativity village, but as there seemed to be so much unrest in the community they had decided to make this change. The Présepios was meant to send a message for all that would stop by to see it. The family had gotten permission to display their Nativity at the entrance to City Hall in the foyer.The Presepios would take about a month to build, a month of dedicated and intricate work. Hope’s Uncle John, was the master of this family project . He was known to be the official cultural attaché of the family. He worked hard to insure that the family creation was not only historically accurate, but beautiful, theatrical, and most of all sensitive to the diverse Bermuda community. Although he thought he was the sole architect and engineer of the families ‘love offering to the community’, VoVo was the true inspiration that guided the project.The Présepios was not just a simple Nativity scene in miniature, but an all- inclusive village. Picture this; A lowly stable covered with straw and moss, baby Jesus lying in a manger, the three wise men, Mary and Joseph, and shepherds, the usual; and surrounding all the traditional pieces were some interesting ones! There were clay figurines molded to look like joggers running along and elaborately designed Front Street, buildings, and all. There were working traffic lights and strands of sparkling garland overhanging the street. In the distance across the Granaway Deep along Harbor Road Uncle John had even constructed pretty pastel colored houses with twinkling lights, high up in the rocky hillside. He had even managed to make little boats scattered in the Harbor. Seeing the Nativity, the stable with Jesus, Mary and Joseph placed amongst all these familiar sights made Hope feel very happy.John took great pride in making the clay moldings that most of his family had not even considered. You see, Uncle John made sure that he included people of every race, and faith mingling together in ways that appeared so lifelike you blinked. Most of all, all the people figurines were displayed with dignity; even downtrodden figurines mingled with suit-clad businessmen.Families walked hand in hand and both the young and old mingled together. It was a lovely sight. On the corner of many of the streets he had placed little figurines of the Salvation Army doing their work as soldiers for the Lord. John had even managed to capture the uncanny likeness of the members of the Salvation Army Band with shiny brasslike instruments.Hope had been solely responsible for ensuring that the band uniform colors were painted correctly. She had done a really good job.When the Nativity was near complete Hope had remembered something that her VoVo had told her about constructing the Présepios. VoVo had whispered to Hope before she died, “ Remember to include something special, something that penetrates YOUR heart in the Nativity village; this will ensure that it means something special not only for the community that you make it for, but to you. Then it will truly be a labor of love”.Hope anxiously tapped Uncle John on the shoulder and said to her Uncle, “Do you remember what VoVo always said?” He replied saying, “OHHH, I almost forgot”! His technical expertise had nearly interfered with giving that ‘special touch’ that VoVo had spoken about. Scratching his head and thinking deeply he paused for a long time.Hope startled him, shouting “I know what we can do Uncle. We can carve little v’s in the bark of all the palm trees. This will remind us of VoVo”. Uncle John laughed, and as he was exhausted from nearly two months of hard work and said, “Splendid”!A week later, the work was completed and the family gathered together for the holiday meal they called the ‘Big Feast’. At this meal Hope and Uncle John would first unveil their Nativity village to the rest of the family before it made its way on John’s truck to City Hall.As custom, they bowed in prayer and gave thanks to God first for their food and its abundance and then for VoVo and the traditions that she had left with them. “Dear Lord make us truly thankful for the bountiful food that has been provided for us…..and most of all Lord we give thanks for VoVo and the traditions that she instilled in us.”Merry Christmas and Feliz Natal.