Twas the Night Before Christmas

Temps dropping into the 30's on Christmas!

It was an unusual Florida Christmas Eve...the temperature was wintery....WTF? Nevertheless, we were not going to let frigid weather dictate our enjoyment of this holiday evening.

Emma had put up her little tree and we gave it a little love by taking its picture. Tis the season!

The Nochebuena meal was prepared by Emma and Nancy. They worked diligently during the day to create a traditional Puerto Rican dinner...it was a meal to remember! The centerpieces of this gastronomic endeavor were the pernil and the pasteles. Forbes had a really good, and very accurate, article about pernil - it's worth your read - click here.

One's plate might resemble this one below:

Clockwise: pernil, brussel sprout, avacado, pasteles, sweet potato, beans and rice.

And, dinner is never complete without dessert! We enjoyed a yummy rum cake garnished with strawberries and whipped cream.

This rum cake was excellent! In fact, one piece was not enough...

An evening constitutional commenced after eating - complete with coyote stick to fight them back should we encounter any along the way. And, no, we did not sight any wild four-legged creatures this night but we thought we heard them howling in the distance.

Christmas Eve is not complete in this Puerto Rican household without a game of dominoes. It was a surprisingly close game, though, our team did not prevail.

"Shuffling" the dominoes actually does require a bit of skill. Here Miriam takes over as my attempt caused pieces to overturn.

On the way home, we tuned in to NORAD to keep track of Santa's locations as he delivered presents to boys and girls across the world.

Merry Christmas or Feliz Navidad to all and to all a good night!