Parranda; the Puerto Rican Christmas ritual were groups of people go door-to-door pulling others into the revelries.

In my neighborhood, this usually involves rum or moonshine and often lasts all night. I think it may be part of the tradition, showing up to your family/friends home in the middle of the night, pulling them from bed and filling them with the holiday spirit (as defined by The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and getting people out of their comfort zone and into the we’re all family zone. I don’t particularly like being pulled from my routine, but this slap in the face is for a great cause and brings people together…so I am all for it (unless they wake up Sydney

Last night, Brian and I went to a full moon party that was BYOB, so we stopped by the 7Express Convenience store downtown to pick up some adult beverages and saw a great representation of Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays. Sure, it was a marketing campaign by Coca-Cola (pure genius by the way), but it is Puerto Rico at Christmas time. The only thing missing were the fireworks…which were set off downtown the night before (we had a perfect view from our back deck).

Sydney and Eli playing with the alphabet and animal magnets Santa brought.

Christmas Cookies

Christmas Day wagon rides.

Just delivered cookies (see above) to our neighbors.

This video was from a week or so before Christmas, but I laugh out loud every time I watch it so here it is for you guys too!

I signed into face book, updated my status:
Departmento de Hacienda; Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico: Press 2 for English……..CLICK…ah, hello?

One of my friends saw this and informed me that it was Jose de Diego day and that EVERYTHING is going to be closed. Curious to learn more about why everything is closed, I googled Jose de Diego and read about this Puerto Rican public icon.

Jose de Diego was a founder of the Unionist party, a poet, advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico and known as the Father of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. He was born on this side of the island in Aguadilla in 1866. If you visit Puerto Rico you will see his name everywhere; street names, highways, schools and municipal buildings. Jose de Diego is celebrated on the third Monday of April every year.

Ya know, this Jose guy sure did do a lot of great stuff. He reminds me of the founding fathers of the United States and I instantly liked him. Next year, I’m closing my office for Jose de Diego day too.

The installation of the marble took the crew of 5 about 2 hours to complete. They certainly weren’t the cleanest crew (maybe it just seemed that way because the house was so clean before they got there), but they got the job done and Summer and I are one step closer to having the vanities and Jacuzzi tub section of the Master Bedroom complete! We’ll dedicate an entire post to some photos.

I spent two hours this morning weed eating and hacking down weeds, bushes and small trees with the machete that harbor Pica Pica come winter time. I worked in and out of the downpours.

The weather outside is beautiful, but probably not to a tourist that is down visiting for a week. It is 79 degrees, the wind is gusting to around 15 mph and the rain squalls are moving through ever hour or so. We planted two Mango trees, two Canepa trees, 3 king palms and an avocado tree this week (in addition to the 10 or so citrus trees we planted last week) and they are all LOVING the rain. Historically, this time of the year is dry, but the last three weeks have brought us many afternoon showers and late night downpours.

Happy Holidays everyone!

I stopped for just a moment to point where I was going to hang some lights and Summer snapped a photo. My holiday alter ego is and will be in every Christmas themed post we make this year. Have fun looking!

Oh, then I went to the North Pole to be a tour guide of Santas village. Here’s a picture of me in action. You could probably use this picture of me to base your search of Where’s Stefan?

We borrowed a mixer from Mark and Robin, and then I went back to borrow cookie cutters and a rolling pin. This baking thing is all new to us. Summer made up the dough, then we rolled it out, cut the cookies and baked them for about 10 minutes.

While they were cooling off, Summer made different color icings and organized or decorating supplies. Once they were cool enough, we spread the icing and decorated the cookies all Christmas like. It was fun.

I don’t think I actually ate a meal the next day, I just snacked on the cookies until they were gone! By dinner time, I felt horrible! You gotta love the holiday season.

Anywho….

I mentioned that I bought a Christmas tree from a refrigerator at Sam’s Club in Mayaguez. We unwrapped it the next night, put it in the stand that Summer bought at K-Mart (last one) and decided we should wait a day to trim it. Ya know, give the tree a chance to settle in it’s new home. Well, after about 15 minutes, Summer, Brian and I were decorating the tree with ornaments and lights. It’s so hard to wait. The pine smell was blowing through the house, Christmas music was playing (actually, it was reggae) and we decided to go for it!