Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas to all of you! It was so good to hear from some of you today. Sounds like everyone enjoyed their day, we were thinking of you all, trying to imagine what you may be doing! Some of you were wondering what kind of Christmas set-up we had here... Well, here is a taste. All of the cards on the wall were from my parents who sent us 15 gifts, one to open every day since the 11th of December. It was a fun way to get us in the Christmas spirit since it was a little more difficult this December.

We had a wonderful Christmas making our own traditions and soaking in more of the Puerto Rican experience. We are thankful for each of you and wish you all of God's blessings as this year comes to a wonderful end. Feliz Navidad! PS. Happy Birthday Isaiah!

Tallest Point - 4,000 feet

After the pools, we wanted to go find the tallest peek in Puerto Rico just in time for the sunset. Of course, when we got to it, it was littered with TV towers and satilites, but still beautiful. From some points you could see both the north shore and the south shore, the Atlantic and the Caribbean. It was a little cloudy and windy, but we didn't mind. Enjoy the sunset!

Dona Juana Pools

We went for a drive yesterday, not really knowing what we would find. The road took us through Toro Negro Natural Reserve, the most "rustic" of the reserves on the island. We came across Dona Juana's pool of spring water. It was abandoned and had a "Jerrasic Park" feel to it, but we enjoyed hiking around non the less. We followed a stone path for a mile or two, not knowing where it would lead, and found ourselves at the top of the ridge. The views were amazing, but with threatening storm clouds we decided to turn back. It was nice to get out in the mountains and we found it to be a little cooler up there, making it feel a little more like Christmas! :)

Lago Patillas

Well, we decided to take our boat out for a float. There is a man-made lake near our home, about 15 minutes to the east, so we thought that would be a good way to test our boat out. It was a great escape. The sounds of cars and trucks could easily be ignored. The wind kept pushing us back towards the shore, so Jon got a good arm workout (I really prefered reading instead). So, thanks Bev and Paul for sending the boat!

Serralles Castle

On a high hill overlooking the city of Ponce is the Serralles Castle, once the estate of one of Puerto Rico's most powerful rum-producing families. There remains a Don Q rum distillery in the city of Ponce even though the founding family has long moved out of the mansion. You can probably identify with Captain Morgan, one of the types of rum they produce here. Ahhh Captain and Coke... brings back memories, not necessarily good ones. Anyway, the mansion was amazing. We went on a tour and luckily one of the women in our group was actually a descendent of the family that once lived there. She was very interesting and was there showing off her grandfather's estate to her future son-in-law's parents. The view from the top was breath-taking as you could see the entire city of Ponce as well as the beautiful coast. Enjoy.

In the library, with the video camera and tour guide Pedro. Clue.

In the dining room, with 24 quaret gold coated plates, glasses and silverware from France, ceilings hand carved from three different types of wood, and a servent that never takes her eye's off of you. Very helpful.

Courtyard decorated for the holiday season.

Happy December 21st

We went for a drive in the mountains today. And because our camera got stollen, we only have a video to show you of how beautiful it was. For all of you experiencing negative digits in temperature this week, and last week, and in the week to come... hope that this brings you some warmth and makes you start to think about your next holiday in Puerto Rico!

Christmas Paranda

It was our first paranda and now we are hooked. We traveled to Ponce last night where we met up with the ADAPRI (backpacking club) group from San Juan. They were out "parandaing" which is a holiday tradition for all Puerto Ricans all the way through the middle of January. The concept is, a group of people gather with their tambourines, whicharows, maracas, drums (we were lucky to have a great accordion player in our group) and anything else that makes noise, and they sing outside your house until you let them in. Sometimes you will be expecting a paranda, and sometimes they may just show up.

You are to invite everyone in and serve drinks, treats, etc. Songs, dancing, drinking and eating continued throughout the night until who-knows-when. We had to leave at midnight but they were still going strong when we left.

Jon practiced his salsa moves all night and eventually got into playing the whicharow pretty well! :)I think that the concept of the paranda came from Mary and Joseph searching for a place to stay. The same concept and tradition is done in Mexico. It was very fun to be a part of!

Jon really feeling the music!

Le lo le lo le lo li! Le lo le lo le lo li!

Our excelent musicians made it a fun night! Happy parandaing to all and to all a good night! You do realize that from now on, whenever there is Christmas Caroling to be had in the states, Jon and I will be there with our drums, tambourines and whicharows!

New Paintings

Here is a new set of paintings that I did awhile ago. The three of them are hanging above our bed in our bed room.



The second picture is a picture of Jon in a small plaza in Old San Juan. After school on Tuesday, we decided to make a quick trip into San Juan and do a little Christmas shopping. We were getting anxious and couldn't wait until the weekend... okay, it was mostly me getting anxious and couldn't wait, but still. It was a fun trip and beautiful to see all of the streets and buildings lit up.

Thanksgiving and Bowling!

Well, you all know that we had a great start to our Thanksgiving break in Culebra, well, the end wasn’t that bad either. Once we go back to the main land, we had to begin the preparations for our first ever hosting Thanksgiving event. Jon and I were in charge of the turkey, crab dip, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Regardless of the many horror stories and repeated warnings, we still cooked the “giblets” in the bag, inside the turkey. I guess it was just harder to find than we thought. We figured maybe our turkey just didn’t have “giblets”. Guess not, we found them when it was too late. Ahhh, first-timers! J We had Mandi and Andrea (our neighbors), Andrea’s mom and sister from Chicago and Max (our Russian-American Postman) over for the holiday celebration. We had a nice table set up on our back porch where we could enjoy the cool breeze. And you know it, it wouldn’t be a Mudd event if there wasn’t a little Catch Phrase to wrap up the evening. We didn’t disappoint. Anyway, good times with good friends.

That next weekend, we were invited to go bowling in “Coto de Laurel” (a little piece of home every time I see that interstate sign). Anyway, we went with our Puerto Rican friends, Julio, Yesenia and of course their baby, Karla. It was a good time. Jon dominated, I think that even he was surprised at how well he did… I think that in the second game he got a 177 or something crazy like that. Ahh yes, and OF COURSE there was dancing during turns. Puerto Ricans, they will make a dance party out of anything! So, we watched Julio and Yesenia dance to the meringue and salsa while they waited for their turn. Fun stuff!!

Here is a shout out to Braden and Uncle Jim! Happy BIRTHDAY to you both! We love you and miss you! Have a great, special day! J