Feliz Navidad!

Happy Holidays to you and yours! I let Wil open a Christmas gift last night because he is so cute, and because I wanted to see the shirt on him. He is going to wear it for Christmas with his family on Christmas Eve. They have a huge potluck meal with a lot of relatives, hosted at his favorite aunt's house!

This is our little Christmas tree and stockings. We have had the tree up for several weeks now. Some people had their trees up when I arrived in October!

This will probably be my last post for awhile on this blog. I'm either in the air now, or sitting in the Atlanta airport for 15 hours. Good times, good times! HA!

I'm still dreaming of a white Christmas, just wishing that Wil was able to be with me in Montana like last year. But, I trust that we will spend many Christmases together in the future!

Peace!

Saying Goodbye to Wil's Mom and Dad

Today we spent some time doing a little last minute shopping in Wil's family's neighborhood. We also had lunch with his family.

After Wil went to work, Wil's parents were chatting with me a little. I thought it was pretty huge when his father told me that I was part of their family now. He also, twice, made sure that I understood with words and sign language that Wil would be crying when I left. It was really sweet and I was touched. Both of his parents hugged me. His mom told me that she cared about me a lot and wanted me to come back soon.

Michael escorted me back to the apartment and helped me carry some things. Then, I came to the internet place at the mall. On my way, I saw the sign below and decided to take a picture. Santa still says, "ho, ho, ho," here, it's just spelled a little differently!

Like my nickname to some, jojojo! Merry Christmas! They are literally sweeping up the internet cafe around me, so I better go!

Chenchen

Pronounced "chinchin," this is a treat that I first tasted at the 9th day funeral/wake celebration. It is a dense, moist cornbread or a polenta of sorts. It can be made as a sweet or savory dish. I have only tasted the savory version. Begin with cracked corn, like Jimmy... Anyway, do your best to find cracked corn or crushed corn, not corn meal, the pieces of corn are bigger.

Wil soaked about 2 cups of corn while he was assembling some of the other ingredients.

We grated the other half of the coconut and used it plus the 1/2 cup left over. Wil added some water to the coconut.

He then squeezed the coconut in his hands pouring the water into a large hot pan that had 2-3 T oil, 1/3 of a chopped onion, and 1 bouillion cube.

Wil then added more water to the coconut and squeezed it out again. He only added a little of the grated coconut to the pot. Wil then added about 3 cups of water to the pot.

Soaking the corn. Pretty exciting stuff! Wil added about 5 cups of water to the pan, plus 1/2 bouillion cube, and 1 t salt.

Wil then drained the corn.

Add the corn to the pan and stir. Wil ended up adding another cup of washed corn. He then covered the pot for about 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, he stirred and scraped the mixture.

Wil added another 1 1/2 cups of cold water to the pan.

Wil continued to stir and scrape every few minutes.

And stir and scrape!

Boil, boil, toil and trouble...

As the mixture begins to dry a bit, add 1 1/2 -2 cups of milk.

Stir the milk into the mixture.

Then sprinkle 1/2 cup of the finest corn meal (like flour) over and stir in.

Then add 3/4 cup of the finest corn meal and stir in. The only way that I can describe how Wil was stirring at this point is, "fast and sharp movements" in the center of the pot. add 1/3 cup butter (they call margarine butter here, so we used margarine) and again stir with the fast and sharp movements.

When the chenchen becomes thicker and is not boiling as much, place it in a hot oven (maybe 400-425) for up to 1 hour. He uncovered it after about 20 minutes.

It's beginning to look so golden!

Traditionally, and still at celebrations where they can cook outside, this dish is cooked over fire. So it usually has a browner top; this is served as a special treat. Because of our oven, our crispy brown treat was on the bottom of the pan.

We dug in to get the crust!

Chenchen is served with pork (or other meat) and beans poured right over the top. Sometimes it is also fried up quickly the next day and served under beans or meat.

Wil's Birthday Party

We celebrated Wil's 22nd birthday a little early. On Thursday, December 10, we spent the day with Wil's family. Wil did our laundry and we visited and I played dominoes with Michael. On the entertainment center and several of the walls there are plaques and certificates honoring Wil. I decided to finally get a picture of this adorable photo of Wil when he was 6. Yes, he was already a good student!

These are some of the many certificates Wil has earned over the years. And, a picture of his graduation from Mt. Hood last spring.

These next few pictures were taken outside the front door of Wil's family's home.

I didn't want to get too close to the people working next door. But, this view was quite different from the picture I posted a few weeks back. The neighbor had torn down their house and all of the cement blocks in the photo were placed in last Thursday. It was pretty amazing to watch them work.

I got a little closer.

Wil's mom wanted me to take pictures of the youngest boys in their school uniforms. This is Jolffi (yes, it's Jolffi and it's confusing when they say our names).

Jolffi and Yunedy (pronounced Junadey).

Yunedy struck quite a pose!

Wil's mom worked most of the afternoon making the delicious sancocho, a stew with pork, chicken, and vegetables.

Marinating the meats!

Later, the stew was bubbling in two large pots.

We moved down to Wil's aunt's house for the party. His aunt had invited some other aunts and cousins, so the party was bigger than we had thought it was going to be.

That explained why, eventually, there was enough sancocho to fill a five gallon bucket!!

Wil's parents, Maritza and Domingo. So, yes, his dad is Domingo Placido...

Wil's mom and two aunts enjoy a little Presidente beer.

Wil's brother, Fernando, asked me to take this picture of us.

I really wanted to get a family picture for Wil's parents for Christmas. This is the first attempt. Wil is saying, "get together!" and stamping his foot. His brother, Endry, has just fallen back onto the rest of the family.

What a beautiful family. I love Yunedy's senior picture pose with his chin on his hand!

One of Wil's cousins was good at getting people to dance!

I was teasing Wil's Aunt Morena because she often talks with her hands.

She loves Wil very much!

Wil poses by the cake that I made for him. Chocolate cake with white icing, his favorite!

The wonderful sancocho plated up!

After the non-immediate family members left, I gave the family their Christmas gifts from Montana. It was really fun to watch them open the presents. They were so appreciative.

We really had a great evening. For the first time ever I have included some videos. Enjoy!