Life in Costa Rica: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all who read this.

It has been a busy few weeks getting ready for the Holidays and for Heather and Kent who arrive on January 1st. I had started baking and putting things in the freezer and refrigerator. Spritz cookies, cocoa Krispie bars, Mounds bars, Fudge with raisins and almonds, Snickerdoodle cookies, Chocolate Crinkle cookies, marshmallows dipped in caramel and Krispies, Corn Flake Wreaths, white and milk chocolate dipped pretzels, Chocolate Chip sticks (like biscotti) and my failure Cranberry white chocolate cookies. Because of the altitude things bake up different here. Most of the recipes are adjusted for high altitude but that one wasn’t. They turned out flat and fell apart after a day. A shame. They tasted good. Everything else turned out good.

My intention was to bake to give out goodies at the pizza shop Christmas Eve and then to my neighbors Christmas Day. I have done the pizza shop before and it was lots of fun. People were very surprised and it added to the happiness of the evening. Then an added event turned up. A local group planned to bring gifts to 4 low income families last Sunday. They posted on Wednesday or Thursday that they only had enough for 2 families. I offered to help and I am sure others did too and they reached their goal. 21 people altogether in the families. José picked me and what I had to give up on Saturday so we could deliver everything to the home of the man in charge. He was then combining and packaging and dividing everything evenly among the families.

Tuesday evening José picked me up again and took me and all my goodies to the pizza shop. I was set up at a table in front. Close enough to Emilio for him to translate for me if necessary but they were quite busy. Mainly with take out. I would ask how many people and would give them one or two containers of assorted treats. Ligia came and spent most of the evening with me and that worked great. She knew lots of the people and would explain who I was and about what our Chicas Buenas group does. And what good things I make. It was a fun time. Her son came and got us and brought me home. She also told me she is on the last few rows of the blanket and she will bring it to me on Monday. She told Emilio a story that he translated to me. The blanket is so big and heavy that she has to lay it out on her bed to work on it. Then when she wants to go to bed she has to fold it up and share her bed with it. Remember it is for a king size bed. It is like when I made a quilt for my friend Judi. Their bed was a California king and she wanted it to hang down the sides so she only needed a dust ruffle. It was enormous and so heavy and there weren’t many places big enough to lay it out and work on it. Thank heavens I had the conference center at The Grotto. Heather will take the blanket back with her and mail it to Roz. I can’t wait to see it. We will also make pillow covers to match but that will be later.

Yesterday afternoon I packed up a big bag of plastic containers and headed out for a walk. There were some neighbors outside and I was able to give them treats and wish them Feliz Navidad. The people across the road who have given me rides to Orosi. The basket weaver where I have bought several baskets. A couple driving by stopped and asked me for directions. ME! In Spanish! A little spanish and sign language is great. I gave them cookies too and wished them Feliz Navidad. Hopefully they found Orosi.

Today I went out again to my next door neighbor as they weren’t home yesterday. He was working on a car and he showed me his absolutely black hands and then showed me a safe spot to put the containers.

I have almost no goodies left, which is good because I like them. I will have to do some baking to get ready for Heather. She called me when I was at the pizza shop because she was making another batch of toffee. I told her I couldn’t stay on the phone the whole time so this time she did it alone. Turned out perfect.