Happy New Year

We tried.

We tried very hard.

We tried so hard, that I’m quite surprised we didn’t succeed.

However, we didn’t. We didn’t get child care. Therefore, we stayed home.

And we really enjoyed it.

We took no photos, unfortunately. So I can’t prove how fun a night it was, but it was really fun.

John went to the store at about 5:00 p.m. to get appetizers. He brought up a tradition from growing up. They always had appetizers for dinner on New Year’s Eve (in case you hadn’t caught that already).

I was pleasantly surprised that the store was open, especially since we were down to 1 diaper, and we weren’t quite ready for potty training to start. I’m postponing it until Monday.

I digress.

He came home and the whole family enjoyed this tradition quite a lot. Due to the last minute-ness of it all we didn’t have the really good appetizers. Next year, in Jamaica, we’ll do a bit more planning and make sure we have the meatballs, and tiny pigs in blankets, and the rye toasts. Mickey, we might need you to send rye toasts.

We put the kids to bed at a fairly regular time, and put in Octopussy. We’re going through all the Bond movies in order, due to having purchased the whole set (before Skyfall was out, however, it has now been added to the collection thanks to my Dad and Step-Mom’s great gift to me).  After that, we started the current season of Castle. We were quite behind, so we had fun starting it.

At about 11:55 we grabbed our champagne flutes, our Proseco (sparkling wine, because we have never bought champagne for the house. like…ever), and waited for the clock on his phone to change to 12. We didn’t count down, or watch fireworks, or anything grand.

But in the quiet of our living room, all by ourselves, it was really sweet. We watched more Castle, drank the bottle of wine, and eventually went to bed. It was quiet, and small, and really nice.

I thought it was going to be lame, and I tried to convince him to go to a party we’d been invited to, but he stayed.

And I’m glad.

Why I love Christmas

Tim Minchin wrote a song about why he loves Christmas, and it hits home for me.

The meaning of Christmas has changed for me over the last few years. I used to be a Christian and had the traditional views of the holiday. I loved Christmas as a way to celebrate my religion and it’s savior. The Christmas Eve candlelight services at our church in Dallas were my favorite.

My first Christmas as a non-Christian (before I had fully transitioned to Atheism) was difficult. I was in a difficult time, I guess, but Christmas was particularly hard that year. I wondered what the point was.

Since then, I have come to love Christmas as much as before.

I have always loved tradition. I don’t know if it’s because I was in Fiddler On The Roof when I was in 8th grade, or if it’s because my family loves tradition. We have Christmas traditions in my family (hot chocolate and orange rolls!), and we’ve brought them to our family as much as possible (the kids didn’t drink nearly as much hot chocolate, yesterday, as I thought they would). Orange rolls aren’t available so we’ve made homemade sweets. Cinnamon rolls, or blueberry cream cheese puffs, or something. John had traditions growing up too that we’ve started doing. Our kids get a pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve to wear that night. 

And, come on. My whole life, the best part of Christmas has been the presents! With three boys I get to give a lot of presents! I love to give as much as I love to receive. Except to John, I always have a fear I’m getting the wrong thing. Despite being together over 16 years, I still suck at getting him the right things.

I digress.

Yesterday I enjoyed Christmas the most I have in years. The children loved their presents. John made a super delicious breakfast feast with the aforementioned puffs, homemade biscuits and gravy (no packets in this family), and scrambled eggs. We spent the day watching movies, playing with new toys (including my run in my new running clothes), swimming in our pool, and on a Christmas drive (which was supposed to be easy and stress free but was actually stressful. Manila never ceases to surprise). Lunch and dinner were leftovers, sandwiches, or snacks and the children (and possibly adults) indulged in a ton of sugar throughout the day.

The kids went to bed with a new toy and were perfectly happy and tired from their big day of playing. We hung out for a few hours and I went to bed happy. I was so happy yesterday.

I love Christmas and I’m so happy to pass on the traditions from our families to our kids.

Merry Christmas, from the Roy Family!

Red, White and Blue

Check out the Weekly State Department Roundup at Nomads by Nature on Friday.

Last year for the 4th of July event I worked. In San Jose there's no CLO event for the 4th, but there's a big representational event that I helped at. The CLO Coordinator was in charge of decorations, so, about three weeks after I started my job, I was at the hotel the day of the event steaming large flags that had been hung. After setup was done we went to the room that was offered to us to change in, and did just that.

This is a fancy party, so I wore a fancy dress. I met people that I never would have met, hotel owners, corporation big wigs, small business owners, etc. I stood in heels for hours because there was nowhere to sit. John and I are friends with the Officer who put the party together, so we stayed until the very end, the very, very end. We even shared a cab home with him.

This year, I'm not going. The event is this weekend, and I'm going to stay home and chill with my boys. My husband needs to work it, but he's driving himself so he can leave early and join his family chilling at home.

I don't think I'm ready to stand for hours in heels yet anyway.

Mother's Day

I had an amazing Mother's Day. I was left alone until after 8:00 to read and watch T.V. in the room (this is actually normal for a Sunday, but it was still nice). As I was reading my book I heard the noise of the waffle maker and started preparing myself for a delicious breakfast.

The kids and the husb came to greet me and Malachi brought his gifts from school. I figured one was a frame, and I was right. I'll have to put a picture of the two of us in it. I might have to take a picture of the two of us. Then what I thought was a simple card turned out to be a poem that was tear inducing. He read it, and even though I know (having been an Elementary school student myself) that the teachers told him what to write, it still touched me enough to make me cry - and I had a hard time stopping. But I got myself under control enough to eat said delicious breakfast - and it was very delicious.

My in-laws were flying into town yesterday so we spent the rest of the morning preparing the house and our selves for their arrival, even the kids got showers! John and Malachi picked them up and brought them home, and we hung out for a few hours.

John, his dad, and Malachi went to a birthday party and the girls and Simon went grocery shopping for the week. We hung out at the house, and after the party the girls and Simon met the boys at a restaurant for dinner, which was closed. As was the next restaurant we tried, so...we went to the food court. Lame. It was supposed to be our treat to my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. So, we did buy for her, but we're going to make it up later.

After we got home the kids went to bed and the adults played a game. It's fun to play games with adults, it doesn't happen here, so we were missing that.

Really, a great day.

Roundup

I haven't done a roundup post in a long time. But I'm feeling a bit out of the loop, so here we go.

This week's theme is holiday ceremonies. We just had what is called by the Catholics in Latin America (or maybe just Central America), Semana Santa (translated Holy Week). Costa Rica had two National Holidays on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Except for Easter Services on Easter (Pascua in Spanish) it's become a week to take vacations. We had to work on Monday and Tuesday (because we took Wednesday off, but normally we'd have to work Wednesday as well), but the traffic was so light...driving around was a joy, and a breeze...literally. With the traffic moving so quickly the windows were open and the breeze was coming through.

So this year we decided to adhere to local tradition and go on vacation. It dawned on us that it was the first time we've taken a vacation without guests since May or June, and it's the longest vacation we've taken since we got here.

We had a great time. There was beach time, and pool time, and food time, and sleep time...for three nights, and when you factor in travel time, about 3 1/2 days. We all had an amazing time. We left on Saturday to be home in time for the Easter bunny to visit and thought that we'd beat traffic because everyone would be going home on Sunday. HA! The InterAmerican Highway was horrible. But once we reached the Autopista (the main highway going East/West from San Jose to the East Coast), it was smooth sailing because they opened all lanes to go East bound. It was really freaky the first few times to find ourselves heading Eastbound in the Westbound lanes. Especially on bridges. But we adjusted and then enjoyed the freedoms (and breezes) that having two to four lanes brought verses one to two. My friend came home from a different beach on Sunday and said there was no traffic. Oh well...We had a great time Here on Easter.

Easter here was a normal American Easter. Egg hunting, brunch made by the hubby, and good times with our family. Oh, and lots of candy eating.

We might not be here for Semana Santa next year, but if we are, I feel we might not be traveling because it would be so close to our departure.

Christmas in Costa Rica

Christmas in Costa Rica was great this year. On Christmas Eve we chilled at home, having a relaxing day and I made overnight monkey bread dough to use the next morning. That night we went to a friends house for dinner. We ended up playing Cranium, which is weird because John's a self proclaimed Cranium hater. His team won though, I think he was happy about that. Malachi found a friend there, they played together really well for the whole five hours we were there. John and I like his parents, so I think we might try to hang out with them - it would be a good match I think. We didn't get home until after 11:00 that night. We wrote a Thank You note to Santa and wished him a safe flight. We all opened our Christmas Eve pj's and then sent the kids to bed. I set out cookies and milk for Santa, got my first present (a new cell phone!) and then went to bed. John stayed up even later - crazy.

 

Saturday morning was great! I was so excited that I couldn't go back to sleep after I woke up at 6:00 a.m. Malachi was instructed to stay in his room until 7:00 am and we put a big digital clock on the floor by his door. I heard him playing but I snuck downstairs to enjoy the quiet of the room at about 6:20. At 7:00 I went upstairs to find that John had rescued Malachi out of his room because the clock had changed (well really, Malachi changed it). It wasn't going to be 7:00 for another seven hours! The baby wasn't awake, so we decided to leave him. We went downstairs, organized the presents and let Malachi dig in. Simon woke up at about 7:30 and I brought him down to start "ripping" into his presents. When the kids were done John and I got to start in on ours. John had mentioned after I got the phone the night before that he didn't have any big present for the next day. HA! After opening some great presents (maternity clothes mostly, but so needed and so appreciative, a few books, and other fun items) I opened my last present and found my old winter jacket. I gave a confused look to John who said it was creative wrapping. I pulled it out and couldn't find anything in the box and was even more confused. He said I had it in my hand, and sure enough I did. I pulled two "plane tickets" out of the pocket. One for me and one for Simon leaving for Minneapolis on Jan. 13th. I went to him on the floor by the kids and hugged and cried and squeezed him (hard) until Malachi asked why mommy was crying.

 

I've been missing the US so much for a while, and to be able to go there, and at the same time celebrate my mother's birthday (I won't say which, but it's a big one!) when I thought I wouldn't be able to, is quite possibly the best gift he's ever given me. After crating a giant mess of paper in our house, we all spent the rest of the day relaxing, resting, and enjoying our new loot.

 

I had expected it wouldn't be special because there were so many things was were "wrong." But we had a great holiday, and it will be memorable as Simon's first!

 

On other topics

 

Bidding starts soon. I'm excited to see the list. I think it's coming out in February. We have ideas about what we want to do, and I hope it works out.

 

I think Simon's 5th tooth finally popped out! We've been waiting for this one forever. If every tooth takes so long to come out, we're looking at years of teething. I think we have at least two more working their way out. Poor Simon - I remember teething because I got my wisdom teeth very late in life, and I feel so bad for him.

 

Malachi's excited about school starting. He starts on January 10th and we're going to have to figure out a way to get him there, especially while I'm in the States. It's another small school, it's actually the teachers that were fired from his last school. So they remember him, and will get him where he needs to be. I'm a little worried that he's so out of practice that he may not be able to go into 1st grade next year. We'll see...he started Kindergarten early, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if he had to do it again. I hate this stupid school situation that we've gone through. I feel really bad for Malachi, not because his education suffered, but because he misses his friends.

 

Today he went to a friends house for the whole day. He was so excited when we told him last night that he actually squeeled! The father of his friends took the day off to use some vacation time and they asked for Malachi to come over. We were excited for him, and this morning while we were getting ready we almost forgot to feed him breakfast in all the excitement. He had a wonderful day with his friends, he used their bounce house and their homemade zip-line. I'm so thankful that he was able to do that today.

Catch up #4: Thanksgiving

In my State Department Roundup post, I briefly mentioned what we had planned for Thanksgiving. But here I can get into depth.

Here we found almost everything we needed for the actual Thanksgiving dinner. My sister in law did need to bring down french fried onions and pumpkin for pie. Other than that I found everything I needed for the meal, and John bought a few finishing touches for the tables. In all, we spent (apart from the turkey) over $400. It's definitely cheaper to ship stuff I think. Anyway, I have to figure out a way to spend less next year.

I usually work Tuesdays and Wednesdays but I took the afternoon of Wednesday off so I could begin cooking. On Wednesday I made the homemade cream of mushroom soup for the green bean casserole and then made the bean mixture and I made the sweet potato casserole. These two things took longer than I thought they would because I had to re-make the green bean casserole because fresh, not canned beans, were requested. That's all I got accomplished that day. I also made stuffing on Wednesday. Next year I won't be doing this because the next day it was dry and not as appealing as it should've been.

On Thanksgiving, I had P make the mashed potatoes (because she's the only one here that makes good ones), and she helped clean up after me every time I made a mess, and I made a lot of messes. John made the pecan pie, and I made the cinnamon rolls and quiches for breakfast the next day. I also made homemade rolls because we couldn't find rolls in the can or in the bakery.

John's brother and his wife came in at about 1:00 that afternoon and they were at our house before 2:00. It was so great to see them and their daughter (more about their visit in the next post). Our Peace Corps Volunteers arrived promptly at 3:00 (the time I requested they be here). We were supposed to have dinner at 4:00, but my turkey wasn't done. So dinner was late...think after 5:00.

We asked P to eat with us, and she finally did. She wanted to eat in the kitchen but we finally convinced her to eat at our table. Dinner was great, it felt so much like home to have family there and to have the traditional dinner. Great conversation, good pie, great holiday.

Our complete Thanksgiving Menu:


Turkey
Stuffing
Corn
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls
pickles/olives
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
cherry pie

Morning After:
Homemade cinnamon rolls
quiche

Happy Halloween

I don't think we have any Halloween festivities today and I'm very happy about that.

Friday night we did the one at work. It was the first time I've solo'd a CLO event. My supervisor did help me out plan it before she went out of town last week, but the fact that I executed the event by myself feels great. Lots of people have told me that it went really well. Bring it on people! I love getting compliments!! For this party Malachi dressed as a ghost with a homemade costume that John did. It wasn't the typical eye holes in a sheet costume, it was pretty awesome. John and I dressed in t-shirts each with half a bar code on them. The numbers were our anniversary. We were an item.

Last night we went to a friend's house for their Halloween Party. They invited families from the Embassy as well as families from their son's classes. So that meant we didn't know most of the people because not a lot of Embassy families showed up. That was a lot of fun though. For this party Malachi combined his school party (which took place on Thursday afternoon and neither of his parents showed up) costume and his Embassy party costume and was a ghost knight. He had a lot of fun with that. John went as Bumblebee in the morning with my robe, his pajamas, a Starbucks coffee mug, and Malachi's Bumblebee mask and gun. I was a pirate. I used a dress I have that has ruffles on the collar, a scarf I have on my head, my son's eye patch from his costume last year, and a gold hoop earing from the same costume. It was fun.

But I'm ready for this holiday to be done! We have a lot going on this week, and I'm ready to move on to this week's events.

John's parents get into town on Wednesday night. This is their first visit to us in Costa Rica. Fun!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, and the first time for this holiday, I'll be working. We're doing a holiday party at the Embassy for the kids. There will be trick-or-treating from office to office, and then we'll finish up on the Consular Patio where the Marines will be grilling brats and serving pulled pork sandwiches. My supervisor will be out of town during that, so I'll be running the show.

It should be really easy since the parents will probably want to be there with the kids.

Malachi wants to be a ghost this year. I think we'll be doing the old fashioned kind of ghost - I'm sure it'll be awesome. I have no idea what we're going to do with Simon. It's going to have to be homemade because they don't celebrate Halloween in Costa Rica so they're not selling costumes. We're probably going to procrastinate until the last minute to plan it. Here's a gallery of the Halloween pictures that I could find. In 2007 he was a really cute cowboy.

Gangster 2006

Conductor 2008

Pirate 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

On the mushy note:

I have so much to be thankful for this year.

I love and am loved by a God who saved me.

I have an amazing husband who has an awesome job that's going to give our family so many great experiences over the years. I have a wonderful four year old son who has survived so much in his short life thus far, and has given me so much joy.

We've been through a lot in the last 28 1/2 years, but love is still present in our family. I'm thankful that I have a mom, dad, and sister that love me and I love back. Also, who can forget the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Cousins-in-law that fill my life with joy whenever I see them. For the last eight years I've had a family-in-law that I love.

I'm thankful for my friends. I've made many friends over the years. Some of them I still have. One of my friends I've known since I was about three years old. Some of my best friends I've known for only two years.

All of you put joy into my life. I hope I do the same.

On the practical note:

My brother-in-law and his wife came into town late Tuesday night and we got to hang out with them yesterday. My mother and father-in-law arrive in about three hours and we'll have the whole family together. It's pretty rare for us to have this. In fact, we remembered last night that we were together at the end of January, beginning of February. It's really, really rare for all of us to be together two times in a year.

We're having a turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, stove top (a family fav), corn, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberries, and the must have, olives and pickles. It's nothing fancy, and I hope I do it right. My mother-in-law is bringing her pecan pie (John's favorite), and I'm going to ask her to make the gravy. I don't eat gravy, so I've never made it, and I don't want to wreck it for those who do enjoy gravy with their potatoes.

Anywho...Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!!