Baby's First Christmas!

We celebrated Eli's first Christmas in our native Puerto Rico! And what a wonderful time we had! I still believe there is no Christmas like the ones in Puerto Rico.

Castillo San Felipe del Morro, Old San Juan

The celebration started with our traditional dinner/party on Christmas Eve, or as we call it, Noche Buena. This year, the gathering was at my parents. We had a blast with family and friends, good food (arroz con gandules, pernil, potato salad, jamón con piña, and even tembleque) and coquito (a traditional Christmas drink made with cream of coconut).  At one point, we all gathered around the piano and started singing parrandas - Puerto Rican Christmas music- and playing instruments like maracas, pandereta, güiro and piano. Eli wore a beautiful red dress in which she looked absolutely stunning.

Eli in her amazing red dress for Noche Buena

After the party was over, my parents went to Misa de Gallo at 11:00 p.m. while we stayed at home waiting for them to come back. Our family's tradition is to open gifts after midnight in our pj's around the tree. But this year, I was so tired and my parents got home later than we expected, that I decided to go to bed as Eli had been sleeping for a while.

So, we opened gifts on Christmas morning before going to Church. I woke up at 8:00 a.m., fed Eli and made breakfast for the whole family. I looked up a recipe for French Toast Waffles, which turned out really yummy. After Church, Eli, or rather we helped her, opened her gifts. She got some cool toys, cute clothes and stuffed animals! It was great to see her expression when she saw her gifts. However, the greatest gift of all was spending her first Christmas with her, dh, sisters, my parents and my in-laws. I couldn't have asked for anything better!

 

 

But, I also remember the real meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus, our savior.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (KJB)

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The earth is shaking

Puerto Rico shook three times in less than 10 minutes last Saturday during the early morning hours, a little after 2:00 a.m.

The first seismic activity happened at 2:06 a.m. with an intensity of 5.1 on the scale. The center was on Western Puerto Rico, but it was felt all throughout the Island. Three minutes later, another quake shook the Island, with an intensity of 5.3.  And then, just five minutes later, the earth shook one more time, but at a lesser intensity. However, all three of the earthquakes were felt throughout the Island.

I was awake when the earthquakes happened as were my mom and my youngest sister. We were talking in the kitchen when all of a sudden I felt dizzy and my sister was feeling nauseous. I told my mom that it was a different kind of dizziness as I felt it coming in waves and not constant as when I have a hypoglycemia episode.  But we just ignored it. I went to the bathroom and my mom comes running and knocking on the door asking if I had felt it. My reaction was: felt what? My sister, who was white as a paper, said the earthquake. Honestly, I didn't feel it while I was in the bathroom, but just as I was processing what they were saying to me, the whole house started to shake and the things that my mom has on top of the piano, started moving. I looked past the piano and I could see the tree swaying and then it hit me! My mom and sister got scared again, Pokey (our African Grey parrot) got scared and Eli woke up and started crying. My reaction was to run to the room to grab her. Just then it stopped shaking, but honestly, I couldn't stop. All I could think about was if there have been two in a row, there must be a bigger one coming right behind.

I tried going to bed, but all I could think of was how to react if another one came; what to do with Eli; how DH was far away in NJ still; and what if there was a big one. These events made me realize that many Puerto Ricans are not ready to face an earthquake. There is conflicting information of what to do in case of one. Also, many of us do not have first aid kits and emergency provisions like medicines, water, food for animals, and canned foods. Here is a link of what to do before,during and after an earthquake.

The best thing to do is to STAY INFORMED!  

Heading home...

Eli and I headed home, back to Puerto Rico, for the Holidays last week.  Since DH still had some work left for school, we were traveling alone and we would fly later on. Needless to say, the days leading up to the plane ride had me nervous and scared that something would go wrong. Nonetheless, everything went well.

Our day started at 4 a.m. when I woke up to get ready. Our flight was schedule to leave at 7:40 a.m. plus the hour-long ride to the airport warranted such an early wake up time. I got everything ready, DH warmed the car, and minutes before heading down to the car, I woke up Eli so that she would stay asleep during the ride. That did not work. Halfway through we had to stop so I could feed her. Once she was happy, we renewed our trip. We arrived at the airport around 5:30 a.m.

Then, the worry was how do I get through security with a diaper bag, a stroller and a baby? (We had checked-in as luggage her car seat, thankfully) It went really smooth as we had watched a video of how to pass through security when traveling alone with a child. I think, the time and that there was not a lot of people, helped immensely. My biggest concern was with her baby food and water for formula, but after I declared that I had it on my bag and they scanned it, we had no problems. It took longer for them to scan the stroller as it did not fit through the security scanner belt. After that was all done, we were headed to the gate.

There we waited patiently for the boarding process. I knew I wanted to be one of the first ones in as I was alone with Eli. However, people started to gather around the gate door as soon as the flight was called making it really difficult to get in line. I have to say that is one of my biggest pet peeves: why can't people wait for their own turn???? Thankfully, after first class passengers were called, the airline's personnel were really strict with the boarding pattern and allowed passengers with children on board first. So, Eli and I headed to our seat.

After take-off, I was much more relaxed as Eli fell asleep on my arms and only woke up to eat and play for a while. She was so good, that she even wanted to look out the window during landing! How sweet was to look out the window with my daughter and see our beautiful island of Puerto Rico!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

At the F household! 

Family and friends who know me, know that I love Christmas. I love everything that it stands for: the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior; quality time with family; the happiness that can be felt in the environment; traditional Puerto Rican Christmas-time music; our Christmas dishes; and decorating the house and tree which brings that certain something to my every day.

So, finally today, after starting the day after Thanksgiving, I finished the decorations in our apartment up to the last wrapped present! Even though this year I have not been as excited, the change of color and seeing everything put up, brings a smile to my face.

Among the things I set up, I tackled a DIY wreath that I found on Pinterest. It took me a few days between working on the project and everything else that I have to take care of, but I think it came out beautifully and it looks gorgeous on our door.

What does everyone think? Apart from the time it took, it was fairly easy to make.

First, make circles out of felt. The tutorial I found here.

Then, fold the circles in half and then in half again forming little rosettes. Pin each rosette to a foam wreath circle or make your own from a foam tube found at the plumbing section at Lowe's or Home Depot. It will start to look something like this. 

And this is how it looked halfway through.  When I was done, I decided that I wanted to add a touch of Christmas, so I got really cheap poinsettias from Walmart and pinned them to the wreath, thus the finished product you saw above.

Along with the wreath, we also set up our mini tree, the little town we started creating last year and our dining table. Hope you enjoy the pics and get a little bit more into the Christmas Spirit! 

 Our tree! Now it looks more complete since it has the gifts around it.

 Doesn't the little town look great?

And our festive table. 

Happy Holidays!!!

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