Tropical Christmas (in Three Parts)

Well, school is back in session, which means our six weeks of Christmas vacation in Costa Rica is finally over.  Yes, you read that right: SIX weeks of obligation-free exploration in a place most people count themselves lucky to be able to visit for a week or two, as though to test whether a person or family could ever really have too much vacation.

In sum, it was awesome.  I have a lot to report, and a lot of pictures to help me do it--so much and so many, in fact, that I am going to break it all up into three different posts.  The first, this one, starts with Grandma Martha's arrival (--her second visit), and ends on the eve of the Foas' arrival (--the Foas, for those of you who don't know, are Suzy's sister's family).  The second post shares our adventures with the Foas, the conclusion of which sent both them and Grandma back to Colorado, and deposited us for a few days home alone on the farm.  Then completing our break in an equally memorable but totally unplanned way, Papa paid us a visit (--Papa is Suzy's father Tom, if you're wondering), which is the focus of my third and final Christmas post...

So, what do you say, shall we?

Part One: Here Comes Grandma Claus

The Marvelous Martha brought a huge sack of toys and goodies, the latter at mine and Suzy's request (peanut butter, pancake mix, real maple syrup, etc.), the former in sheer zeal of grandmotherhood at yuletide.

Incidentally, she also showed us a cheaper way to get back to Colorado, and she has given you all, with these pictures, some sense of what it was like to be a multiple inside Suzy's womb for 37 weeks (--call up Anne Geddes).

A few days before Santa set off to find us, though, we set off ourselves for what we called Grandma's Christmas gift: a jaunt with us to San Gerardo de Dota, Mike and Drea's number one recommendation from their year in Costa Rica.

You know the valley of the shadow of death from Psalms?  Well, after dropping almost vertically from the highway, and after almost losing our left rear tire doing so, we did at last find ourselves in quite the opposite valley, a beautiful place that lived up to the Rudolph's hype in every way.  In fact, my own best reference to it is a children's book with idyllic scenery called, "The Circus Ship."  Have you read it, or, more to the point, seen it?  If you like these pictures, you should check it out.

 

We loved it.  We hiked, we rode horses, we even went bird watching.

As I said, it was awesome (--bird watching being merely an excuse to loaf amid so much beauty).  This last bird, the Charlie Bird, was by far the best one we saw.

Oh, and we ate fresh trout twice a day, except for the one night Suzy insisted we eat something else, a meal that nearly killed all of us--I don't even know what it was called.  Man, was it terrible--I won't say evil, but even in that other valley, even if we lived at the seminary, rather than beside it, I still would have feared that dish.  Thanks a lot, Suzy.

Now, I know many of you are snowbound and freezing presently, feeling forlorn, and probably praying for eternal summer heat, however many icebergs it might melt.  Well, I want you to know we could sympathize in San Gerardo.  The mornings were crisp there--brrrr--we could see our own breath.  Each morning I even almost went back to the room to put on a jacket--almost.  Well, we wore our hats anyway.

Anyway, what little we had of cold proved a harbinger of Santa for displaced Coloradans like us, and so we loaded up, waited for a big bike race to pass, and returned to our home in enough time to set out the cookies, carrots and milk.

Christmas came and went, and then we spent our next few days playing, eating, calling home, and being rescued by our favorite superheroes.

Martha even let Suzy and I run off on our own--twice: first to literally run a half-marathon on a mountain path near Cartago--a crazy sloppy experience that the rain only enhanced; and then, going the opposite direction, to enjoy a couple of days at the beach, where we could play in the big waves, for once, actually together, hence the lack of pictures from the beach.

In lieu of more pictures from the beach, here's a funny story that Suzy really enjoys telling lately (--she probably has already told many of you):

We were waiting for our room by the pool at the hotel, and Suzy went off to the bathroom or car or something, leaving me listening to two young people in the pool making that awkward conversation of inexperience and fateful wistfulness.  I figured I would put on my sunscreen, and actually try not to listen.  But the conversation became utterly inane, and for all my focus on lathering up, I couldn't keep from paying close attention to it, quietly condescending even while humbly reflecting on how silly a thing I was before so much of my own life began. Shit, I'm still silly in love.  Anyway, there wasn't all that much sunscreen left in the tube, so I contented myself to squeeze every last sputtering, splattering drop of it into my hand in order to at least get full coverage of my legs and feet; and that's right about the same time, starting to wish the teenage lovers didn't speak English, or that they would have the decency to start making out and leave my ears out of it, that I noticed the sunscreen was a Costa Rican product.  Hmmm.  Suzy returned right then, and so I asked, "Where did you get this sunscreen?"  And she responded, "I didn't."  Ha!  I can't figure out whether it would have been better to have just gotten up and carried on with my day, or to have done what I did, finding out that, indeed, the sunscreen belonged to the two Canadians in the pool, and that they were cracking up silently, just talking about anything, and watching this furry creature putting their sunscreen all over himself.  Yea, I apologized and bought them a new tube of sunscreen, but I think it might have been funnier the other way.  As their own diffidence seemed to suggest, a good laugh is certainly worth more than a tube of sunscreen.

Yes, yes, very funny.  Anyway, after Suzy took another quick trip to the beach with Grandma and the kids, the New Year came, and with it, came the Foas...

We were eager for the arrival of more of our dear relatives, to be sure, but as this segment of our stay-cation ended, thanks to Grandma, Santa, our magnificent neighbors, and the Rudolphs' good taste, we also felt certain that nothing could keep this Christmas break from already being one of the best we could ever hope to have.