Christmas ends

When I was growing up we always kept our Christmas lights up through Three King's Day, the night of January 6. I was totally into this whole Three Kings thing, since it meant an extra day of presents, and what kid doesn't want that? The night of the 5th we'd go pull some grass and set out some water for the camels of the Three Kings, and in the morning they'd be gone, and we'd have presents instead.

I remember the year we stopped doing milk and cookies for Santa - the truth about him was out, so there wasn't really any point. But we kept doing the grass and water, I think because of the cultural connection we had to it. So now, as an adult, even though I don't get presents anymore, I'm still very aware of the fact that it's Three King's day, and what that means, both in the story of the nativity, and culturally.

I kept our lights up through last night, and actually spent some time sitting in the dark so that I could really enjoy them. And while I didn't really set out grass and water for the camels on the night of the 5th this year - it would have just made a mess that I would have taken way too long to clean up - I definitely considered it, and I know that once we have kids we'll have them do it as well. I still struggle with figuring out how to raise our future children so that they feel a connection to their Puerto Rican and Lebanese heritage - especially since they'll be an extra generation away from it, but I feel like that will be an easy step in the right direction.

And I figure that since it means they get extra presents, when they're kids, it won't be a hard sell.

Happy New Year

This New Year's was relatively quiet for us - I was on duty, so we cooked a nice dinner, and then went outside to watch the fireworks the marina and the rest of LA from the bluff.

There's a Puerto Rican tradition where you go pour out water in order to get rid of the bad luck from last year, so we did that early on the 1st (I'd filled up the glass the night before, but forgotten to pour it out because we were so tired.)

Happy New Year, and I hope that any ickiness that you experienced last year has been flushed out for a better 2010!

Advent Conspiracy

I'm a big fan of the message behind The Advent Conspiracy. Since we don't yet have kidlets I don't know how exactly Will and I will celebrate the holidays as a family, but I know that I want it to have a strong theme of giving to others, rather than just gifts, gifts, gifts! The we have so much more than the vast majority of the world and I think that's something that we need to remember all year around - but during Christmas it comes naturally with the message of the season.

If you've not seen the video before, it's below.

'Tis the season

So here we are 4 days to Christmas, but it didn't really start feeling like it until Sunday, when I went to Disneyland with a couple of friends. I couldn't find people to go with last year, but two years ago I'd gone and really enjoyed how Disney does Christmas, so we were excited to go again.

We did the Haunted Mansion, which turns into Nightmare Before Christmas Mansion, and It's a Small World, where we snarked our way around the world where every culture (represented by stereotypes) celebrated Christmas. But it was still fun. And we also watched the holiday fireworks, finishing with snow represented by tiny foam bubbles. Marci heads home to Ohio, and Sara to Montana, where they will get real snow, but since I head off to Austin tomorrow, that was the whitest Christmas that I'll get.

I'm also really excited because it's Will's first Christmas in Texas - two years ago he joined my family in Puerto Rico, but Christmas there is always a bit different, and even moreso last year since he and I stayed in a hotel instead of Abuela's house. But this Christmas we get the full deal - Midnight Mass at St. Theresa's and everyone getting to unwrap one present when we get home from Mass and mom's pernil (though we're doing it on Christmas instead of Christmas Eve this year.)

So I may have been wearing flip-flops the day before yesterday, but 'tis the season nonetheless. Best wishes to you and yours!