Xmas in Puerto Rico

We all love Christmas. I've been really excited this year to hear and read about a lot of folks who are really getting down to business with celebrating Christmas for what it's meant to be. Here are some of them:

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/11/29/the-christmas-conundrum

http://ac.wcrossing.org/

I am ALL about Jesus. There is nothing that moves my soul more than a powerful rendition of Oh Holy Night. My favorite verse is, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining; Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth." It's like, finally the soul was satisfied! That's Christmas! But a lot of us, myself included are letting materialism take over! (No!) Puerto Rico is not unlike the U.S. in that a lot of folks have lost the true meaning of Christmas but what I love about PR is that they have a ton of awesome traditions for Christmas focused on spending time with people and enjoying each other. To celebrate God's coming to redeem this world I want to give, laugh, praise Him, sing, dance, and just be with my dearest friends, family and hopefully even more people.

I'm making a big effort this Christmas to get into as many Puerto Rican traditions as possible. Learning how to make Coquito is my first pursuit. Here's an intro to what will soon be a full blown lesson. Thanks to my friend Gabriela (Gaba) for helping me out!

Can I do your hair?

"You look beautiful in my headband." The girls are very into hair, make-up and princess dresses. This is not my area of expertise but I do what I gotta do.

The Green Jackets

Brother is the ring leader of all this. There is A LOT of footage of him singing and I'm debating whether I should let it hit the web or not.

Here's a small compilation of some of their performances...

I'm back...

Ok I know I quit blogging months ago but I figured out my video problem so I'm back. At the very least you can come here to get a link to my youtube videos.

Quick Update of Today

1. Mia just called me "a hater."

2. Eating 8 small cookies is close to an appropriate amount right? I learned a recipe that involves only peanut butter, egg and sugar. It makes cookies. I made them small so I wouldn't eat as much.

3. Today is Ronnie's birthday. Amanda just made a cake.

My New Fashion Line

I cut some of my old jeans into shorts today and decided to use the left-overs to make bracelets for the girls. This turned into entire jean outfits for each of them. The video is messed up but you'll get the idea...

I'm domestic and I don't care who knows it.

That's right folks. The long awaited arrival of my domestic qualities is here. I cook. I clean. I wipe butts. I host dinner parties. I wear aprons. I hold crying toddlers for extended periods of time each day. I could go on but I'm so accustomed to all of these 1950s house wife actions that they no longer seems strange to me.

I've gotten pretty into cooking, mostly because I don't want my parties to be lame, but also I'm enjoying trying new things and learning to cook without box kits. The girls love watching in the kitchen and when I'm prepared for what will come from them stirring, pouring, etc, I let them help. Here's an example of how that normally turns out...

Coffee

They serenaded me...

This is just a taste of what happens at my house on Tuesday nights.

That means "I love you"

Kids learning to be Latino

Big brother has recently realized he can roll his R's very well. The girls also think they can do it. Brilliant.

New Years Resolutions

I have a few. I plan to work on them all with medium to low effort.

1. Read more books. Since picking up Brave New World at Becca's apartment and reading it the first weekend of the month I realized I have the capacity to read books. Yesterday I walked all afternoon while reading Slaughter House Five. Both books were excellent. I'd like to keep up the trend and read one book every weekend. I'm also reading my bible and theology books so getting behind won't hurt me too badly.

2. Learn to speak a bit of french. This is really just a ploy to hang out more with my Canadian friend Mariana. But learning other languages is really challenging (for me at least, I think for everyone). So I know I will benefit from any time spent practicing français(no, I did not copy and paste this from a translating website).

3. Call my grandpa every week, at least. I spoke with Pawpaw today and the end of our conversation went like this, "I could listen to you talk all day but I need to go, I'm tired." Ok Pawpaw, I love you very much. "I love you very much too...long pause....I'm crying. Can you tell? Thank you for calling me. I miss you. Bye." He always asks me when I'm going to come visit him.

4. Try hard at stuff. I haven't exerted myself in sports since high school. The other day I ran 4 miles. I think I remember now why I like trying hard at stuff. So maybe this soccer season will be better for me.

5. Get better at spanish. I think I am getting better.

New Years!