Christmas and Cannonballs

Tristan enjoyed a swashbuckling Christmas and is only separated from his sword when it is in time-out (which is too often). When Nonna asks him which song he wants before bedtime, he requests the pirate song from "The Pirates of the Caribbean".



And here we have Nonna with her Fancy Nancy princesses, of course. We could stuff a feather mattress with all that comes out of those boas every day. When I told my neighbor Mille that we call those neck adornments "boas" in English, she was appalled. I guess that name is scarier when one comes from a country where those lethal snakes are native. My neighbor saw a large one in our apartment complex last Christmas. The guard couldn't (or wouldn't) carry it, so he dragged it behind his truck and left it (alive) in a neighboring forest.



A couple of my handsome boys.



Walking through the botanical gardens, Landon showed us a cannonball tree. I love how the fruit hangs from the trunk of the tree like some kind of Dr. Seuss creation. I kept my distance, however, as I had a close encounter with a falling coconut a couple of months ago and learned my lesson.



I got this image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/zordroyd/370511420/

The fruits are as large, round and heavy as their namesakes. When the fruit ripens and falls, it usually bursts open with an explosive cracking sound and emits a foul smell to attract animals that spread the seeds.



My two gorgeous girls.



I think this photo captures a good likeness of everyone: Landon is pretending to look at the camera but is really searching for birds, Susan is caring for the kids, Joss is posing, Tristan is yelling, and Chloe is moving.



Waiting for the bus into Turrialba. The apartments behind us are a neighboring complex to ours.



Here we're hiking on the road behind our apartment buildings. We had to retreat after about 10 minutes because the mosquitoes were too excited about our visit. My crew is tough and was willing to press on, but seeing mosquitoes land on little, defenseless Logan was too much for me.



The light-up glasses were a big hit. We opened presents on Christmas Eve, as is the tradition here. The Ticos wait until midnight, so we saw a lot of sleepy families at church in the morning.

We've already gone through our second incidence of lice. This time Chloe was the host, having been infected from a friend. When I went to borrow the nit-comb from my neighbor a few weeks ago, I said something that confused him. I had to comb my hand through my hair until he understood. Later, Mille explained to me that the word for comb is "peine", NOT "pene". (For those of you who don't speak Spanish, just know I was WAY off.)