OUR SECOND CHRISTMAS IN CUENCA

Our Second Christmas in Ecuador has been a bit different than last. First of all, I spent Thanksgiving way and returned to Ecuador just 10 days before Christmas. I did not put up the "fake" tree before I left, so when I returned and there was no tree, I just looked at Randy, and he shrugged and said, "Hey thats your thing, I just bought it for you"... so it did not get put up.. and ya know, I didn't really miss it. 

The second thing that was different about this year is that we went to the parade on Christmas Eve.
Our day began very slowly, and about noon I yelled downstairs to Randy, Hey you want to go to the Parade... silence.. "not really, you know I really don't care about parades.." Then a bit later.. maybe 10 minutes ( he has been thinking furiously about what is the right thing to do in this situation), he yells upstairs to me.. " Yeah, lets go to the parade..",  I at this point said .. Nah.. I don't want to go now.. so this puts him into overdrive convincing me that I really do want to go and that he REALLY wants to go.. ( I am such a sneaky devil).. so we went.. and we had fun.. honest.. he did enjoy it! Here are some pics of what we saw.

There were so many wonderful floats, with hours and hours of their time preparing for this event. The Paseo de Ninos is the largest parade in South America, so I have been told. These poor kids wait HOURS in line to get to the start of the parade, and it was hot.. these photos are of those children.. it is 1 in the afternoon and they have not even gotten to the start of the parade.

As we were walking back home we saw a Santa throwing bags of animal crackers to the kids and even adults yelling, Papa Noel.. Papa, aqui!

Then there was the fellow who decided that if he had to wait hours and hours, he was going to really enjoy himself.. he was high up on a huge truck.. singing and dancing... with a little liquid refreshment..

We had a nice time and I took way too many photos for this blog, but if you ever come to Cuenca around this time of year, you need to be sure to put this on the TO DO list.
The Third thing that was different about our Christmas season, is that we did not host any dinners.... we went to a Christmas Eve dinner at Joe & Josephs http://jardinsecreto.webs.com/, We had the traditional Seven Fishes dinner.. oh yum..

This is only 3 of the fish on this plate, The other four were 2 appetizers, soup and salad.. all made with some kind of fish or shell fish.. We were so stuffed, but we managed to do this plate proud.. oh then there was dessert.. Here are some of the others who enjoyed this wonderful feast!

Thanks to Dan Bissette, I got into a photo here with Randy.

On Christmas day we were invited to two fellow expats homes for buffet brunches.. wow, we hit one in the morning and the other at 1 later that day.. it was a wonderful day..

Kitchen one.. at the Watsons... everyone chiping in to help with the brunch... then next door, at their friends house who was out of town, was the other crew...

This is what these two kitchens came up  with... of course I had to try a bit of everything.. well not the Chorizo...sorry Randy...

We were off to our next function at 12:30...we ate there at about 2... yea, just a few hours later..

We had a great Christmas day. We are stuffed and ready to put our feet up and relax..and we hear that there are plans for two New Years day get togethers as well...oh dear...

MY TRIP TO OREGON TO CELEBRATE MOM'S 90TH BIRTHDAY



 I was so happy to be able to return to Oregon to celebrate with my mom, siblings and other relatives, it was a great occasion, and we all were thrilled to see each other. Some traveling from California and Washington. I won the who came the farthest award though..


 My mom has recently moved into a manufactured home that she bought... for a $1. I know.. sounds pretty incredible, but these things do happen. Here's some photos I took while there.

It got real cold and foggy while I was there, so I started snapping photos of all the frosty stuff!



this is a photo of the sun... it was very dense fog.


I could not resist a photo of the moon. We dont see it very often in Cuenca.
Mom and I had a great time hitting all the Goodwill, Salvation Army and Thrift shops within a 20 mile radius
of her home, but also while we were out and about we stopped at a Pier 1... just to look. I could not resist taking a photo of this little guy. It would have made a perfect gift for my friend Karen Stephenson, but she is just going to have to do with the photo..

My brother put on Thanksgiving dinner at mom's house. He delivered all the goodies and then cooked it all.. we had a great time and of course I had to take a picture of the chef with the turkey, or is that the turkey chef ?

My kids, Adam and Kelsey were able to come down for the party so we got some pictures of them,as well as Kelsey's pup.. Nilly.

I had a wonderful time with my family and visiting with my mom. She whipped my rear almost every nite at scrabble, cribbage and even when I tried to throw off her game with a new one of Rummykub.. she still beat me.. I bow to her craftiness..

Merry Christmas Mom!