Christmas Eve with the Mora Fuentes Family....

We spent the majority of Christmas Eve with the Mora Fuentes family in San Marcos. It was nice to spend time with them and to learn more about the cultural traditions that are celebrated in Costa Rica during the holidays. Hermana Maria Mora, her sons Fabricio and Alex, and daughter-in-law Daniela. Alex and Daniela are great dancers and we had fun watching them dance the swing to Cumbia music. They danced for us a few months ago when we took them on a daytrip with us to San Carlos but it was fun to see them dancing on such a fun festive night in their own home.They served us chicharrones (fried pork chunks), boiled green bananas (similar to plantains), and homemade tamales. One of the jokes that Tico's like to tell during this time of year is about some Americans who were eating tamales (the tamales here are made with cooked masa and are wrapped in banana leaves). Someone asked the Americans how they like the tamales and one of them responded by saying, "The tamale was delicious but the cabbage was a little tough." They think it is hilarious because the man didnt realize that he was supposed to unwrap the tamale and only eat what was on the inside. We have heard various versions of the joke but we always get a good chuckle.

Little Maria (Alex and Daniela's daughter) was pretty excited about hanging out with Elder Munroe. She would sit real close to him and make cute smiles and faces at him periodically throughout the night.

Fabricio was excited to show us his birds and we all took turns holding them.