Cresche, Coconut candy and Christmas Party

 "Nacimiento"s or nativity scenes are a big deal here.  This is one of the "no touch" ones in a rich house.  Sometimes they hire people to come in and make them.  My favorite one was in a poor house where the children were allowed to play with it and rearrange it.

A closer view.

 In Puerto last Wednesday, Teofilo's mom was making their coconut Christmas candy.  She started with coconuts straight from the tree.

 This girl cracked the coconuts with the machete and then drained the milk into the pan.

 This is their grater -- they sit on it.  They can scrape the coconut out of the shell and don't not get much of the brown skin.  She says the brown skin floats in the process and so can be removed fairly easily.

 This is the beginning of another coconut palm if it were left intact.
I took half a coconut home and ate it that night.  It wasn't as mature as I have tasted in the States, and it was yummy.

This is our zone at the Christmas party in David Saturday afternoon.  We were asked to do some kind of a musical number.  I had song sheets from last Christmas with "Silent Night", Feliz Navidad, and We wish you a Merry Christmas.  We added a Spanish carol and I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, Bing Crosby style and "Presto".

I've put out some feelers for people who want to go Christmas Caroling.  I don't know if we'll make it happen.  We were thinking about it tonight, but Gaven called, then we talked to Aryl and his family, connected with Edyn and Audrey who had just arrived.   We enjoyed talking with them.  It's always fun to catch up.

Merry Christmas early.