Merry Christmas 2014

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Happy New Year! We wish you the very best of everything in 2014!

We just celebrated Christmas and New Year's for the 3rd time since our retirement here in Costa Rica. Life has been good to us, and we are very thankful for all the family and friends that are a part of our lives. Once again, we were invited to ring in the New Year at the home of good friends. They have one of the most spectacular views of Costa Rica's Central Valley. The Ticos love their fireworks, and as midnight approached, the whole valley came alive with a beautiful display of lights. Here is a little video clip of the stroke of midnight as seen from our perch, high in the hills above Atenas.


This is the time of year when everyone is making their list of resolutions for the New Year. I don't know what you have on your list, but I promise to post more blog entries than I did in 2013. Looking back, I see it's been more than a month since my last post. It's not that there isn't anything to say. It's just that I get too busy posting on Facebook and forget to blog. We have a number of family and friends that don't use Facebook. They depend on this blog to stay up to date with our adventures. Going forward, I think I'll do more blogging and just post links to the blog in Facebook.

Here is a recap of some of our adventures in 2013:

• January - I started canning again and put up some Hot Pepper Jelly and Tomato Salsa with fresh ingredients from the local Farmers' Market.
• February - We participated in the 6th Annual Atenas Chili Cook-Off. Watch out, we are back this year as team "Texas Chili Fuego."
• March - John started building a set of bunk beds for the Casita (more on that later.)
• April - We officially opened our Casita Limón as a vacation rental to the public. We made so many new friends since we started renting the Casita. 
• May - The rainy season arrived and brought us lots of new flowers in the garden.
• June - I won ¢75,000 at the Canada Day celebration and I'm not even Canadian ($150.)  Then we celebrated John's birthday with a great Texas Barbecued Brisket and designer ice cream.
• August - I taught myself how to make Bagels.
• September - We went whale watching in Uvita with friends.
• November - John got a new laptop with Windows 8 and finally stopped threatening to send his KindleFire into the next galaxy.
• December - I became eligible for Medicare and became a "Ciudadana de Oro" (senior citizen in Costa Rica.) I get to go to the front of the line in banks and government offices, clinics and hospitals. I can hop on the bus for a free ride if it's less that than 25 km (15.5 miles), or get a 50% discount on trips under 50 km, with a 25% discount if the ride is longer than 50 km. I can also park in the handicapped parking places, and get all sorts of discounts from merchants.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

'T was the night before Christmas, and all through la casa,
Not a creature was stirring: ¡Caramba! ¿Qué pasa?
Los niños were all tucked away in their camas,
Some in vestidos and some in pajamas.
While Mama worked late in her little cocina,
El viejo was down at the corner cantina.
The stockings were hanging con mucho cuidado,
In hopes that St. Nicholas would feel obligado,
To bring all the children, both buenos y malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.

Out in the yard there arose such a grito,
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I went to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think quien era ?
Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero,
Came dashing along like a crazy bombero !
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados,
Were eight little burros approaching volados.
I watched as they came and this little hombre,
was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
Ay Pancho ! Ay Pepe ! Ay Cuca ! Ay Beto !
Ay Chato ! Ay Chopo ! Maruca y Nieto !

Then, standing erect with his hand on his pecho,
He flew to the top of our very own techo.
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
He struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea.
Then huffing and puffing, at last in our sala,
With sooth smeared all over his vestido de gala,
He filled the stockings with lovely regalos,
For none of the children had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud and seeming contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
And I heard him exclaim, and this is verdad,
Merry Christmas to all, and Feliz Navidad.

Originally posted in the Yahoo Group, Costa Rica Living by: "A & A" fraluchi, December, 2012
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Our Tropical Christmas - 2010

We just spent a wonderful Christmas vacation in Costa Rica where we ate more than our fair share of Christmas Tamales.







The garden is looking fabulous. Mario, our gardener, is doing a wonderful job. All of the trees we planted in May have doubled or tripled in size and the lawn is now well established. We didn't have a Christmas tree this year, but we did manage to string up lights on the casita.




Here is John standing next to our Cashew tree.







Mario has managed to bring this little Mango tree back to life. Jenny planted it about 3 years ago and it had been struggling.










The Almond tree is really starting to grow and should provide good shade on this side of the casita.










Our Valencia Orange has tripled in size and is already producing fruit.

We attended many holiday parties and dinners and made lots of new friends this trip. Our neighbor Max threw a party for his employees and clients. We met a couple, close to our age, and had such a good time with them, we arranged to met for lunch a few days later. We went to the Machu Picchu restaurant in San Jose. The food there is outstanding and you should try to go there if you get the chance.

One evening Mario and Dinia invited us over for homemade Chicharrones. Mario and Dinia are really great folks. They embody everything we love about the Ticos. The friendship they have extended to us is just wonderful. They provided us with transportation to and from airport. Shortly after they dropped us off at our casita, they came over with a huge basket of fresh fruit and a week later they showed up with more. They went out of their way to help us with a number of things we needed to get fixed around the casita. We are so grateful to count them among our friends.

We celebrated Maritza's and my birthday one evening with her, Vinicio and the rest of her family. It was great to see all of our extended family. Like all kids, their grandkids are growing up just too fast.
One of the best parties we went to was hosted by our friend, Eliercer, near Grecia. This is CR at its best! He and his church members put on a Christmas Fiesta for the area poor. Well over 100 kids, babies to pre-teens, waited for hours to get into the Fiesta. Once inside, they were entertained with games, a clown, "dreamsicles" hot dogs with slaw & all the dressings, ice cream, soda, piñatas full of candy. Finally, each child received a nice toy present and a bag filled with apples and grapes.

After the kids party we had "Olla de Carne" for lunch with Eliercer and his family. Then we went to see friends in Alajuela for afternoon coffee and more food.






We spent Christmas Eve with my Tico "son" and his family where we enjoyed a roasted pork leg with all the traditional trimmings. We watched the little ones pass out presents to everyone to open and then it was time to tuck them in bed so they could wait for the Niño Jesus to arrive with their "special" presents.







We had a wonderful time and we were so sad to see our vacation come to an end. We were in the midst of packing on Christmas Day for our trip home on the 26th, when Eliercer and his family surprised us. They showed up in the late afternoon with Christmas Tamales. We brewed some coffee in the chorreador and I made up a platter of cheeses and crackers. We sat outside on the casita's porch to enjoy the impromptu fest with good friends in perfect weather. ¡Pura Vida!
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Is it Christmas yet?

Apparently it is … here in Costa Rica. The Ticos take Christmas decorations very seriously. Every place you look, the decorations are up. Most of them have been up for a week or more. There doesn’t seem to be any of the competitive, “my lights are better than your lights,” here. Everyone just decorates. Some of the decorating is amazing.

During one of our geocaching forays deep into the mountains – where rain forest jungle edges up against forsaken little fincas (farms) -- we saw pockets of grinding poverty where the houses are just slapped together shanties. Many of them are fully constructed of rusty corrugated steel roofing, probably appropriated from unguarded construction sites or reclaimed from the roofs of ancient abandoned barns. But, amid their poverty, their hovels are decorated for Christmas. At least there is a cut-out of the Jolly Old Elf’s visage nailed to the front door. The “rich” peons [pay-owns’] have electricity and if they have electricity they’ve somehow managed to come up with a string of Christmas lights or two, gaily twinkling away, day and night.

In the towns we traveled through, Friday, December 04 is a crazy day of frenzied celebration and city-wide carnival. For, this is the day of the alginaldo [ahl-gee-nahl’-dough]. This is when every person in the country is paid (on the same day) the equivalent of 1 month’s salary, for Christmas bonus, by law. Imagine the craziness in the States if every employed person suddenly had that much cash in hand. Well, it’s crazy like that here, too. On top of the alginaldo, this was the last week of the school year for most of the children. Add that to every city staging a big fiesta / bazaar / carnival / party (usually centered at the town square and the Catholic Church, which is always situated on one side of the town square.) It was so nuts that the main street of the capital, San Jose, was blocked by a sea of surging humanity, already spending and partying, in the middle of the afternoon. We didn’t hang around to find out where that party was going … cripes … we have a flight to catch in two days.

And then … there are our neighbors, bless their hearts.

Imagine, one of them actually has a house that looks to be smaller than ours (if that’s possible). Clearly there is no room inside for a Christmas tree. Sooooooo, the fully decorated and lighted tree is proudly sitting out on their miniscule front porch, half blocking the front door.

But the prize goes to our “almost-neighbor” up the street. Their house isn’t close to being finished yet. This week it was just a framed-in structure with a roof. Yesterday, they started putting up the sheets of blue Styrofoam insulation on the front wall. On the second floor, dead center on the front façade, there will be a huge picture window – some day. Right now, it is just a hole in the framing, surrounded with blue sheathing. Guess what is hoisted up in that opening, blazing away with the latest LED tree lights? Oh, yeah … they might not live there but by god they’re going to decorate.

Fun country.
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Gotta get in the Spirit!

We returned home Monday evening from our recent visit to Costa Rica and now its time to get into the Holiday spirit. We need to put the outside lights on the house and get the tree decorated this weekend. With the temperature going back up into the 80's today, I felt John and I would need a bit of help to get us motivated to bring down all the decorations from the attic. The Dancing Elves did just the trick!

Click on the link and enjoy!
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