New Years, 2009

I just spent the most amazing New Year's ever! Learning new customs is always good, and I had such fun doing it. We went to Tocoa to my brother-in-law's house. The eating started the minute we walked in the door and didn‘t stop until tonight when we ate the tamales Magda sent home with us.

Magda

Magda made three kinds of tamales, each one the best, depending on which one you were eating when asked. These were served with carrots, onions, cauliflower and jalapeños steeped in vinegar. Then there was the barbequed chicken, and the sandwiches and the cakes.

There was also lots of loud music, drinks, joking around, and just plain good times. We were lucky to have three generations of family present. Magda’s father, Don Ramon, is almost 100 yrs old, and still getting around without much help. Javier, the youngest, is about 11.

Three generations of Ramirez men, L>R Maynor, Pablo, Don Miguel, Juan Carlos, 'Lito, Javier, and Juan

                    



Patty and Don Ramon











One really fun thing we did was to make a scarecrow out of old pants and a shirt. This scarecrow was stuffed the newspaper and 1000's of firecrackers. He was then labeled with all the bad things in 2009. He is set alight at midnight, and as he burns and explodes, he takes those bad things with him and leaves room for the good things to come. You can imagine the noise as these things go off all over town.
                                                                                                   
                                                                   

Giving El Muñeco his bang.  Yes, those are wads of firecrackers.

                                     

The short life and fiery death of El Muñeco, 2009

Of course we spent the night. I really did not want to come home today, but Chico was here by himself. The only sad part of this was that Princess Baby Girl and the rest of our American Family was not here. Maybe next year.

The street back to the highway