January 2, 2008

Catching up.... 2008 so far.

I've finally decided to put some photos on this blog and track our lives here. I've been pretty lax about photos in general lately and one of my New Year's resolutions is to take a photo, every day, and track our progress. I thought about making a resolution to eat better, but I have a humongous bag of M&M's in the freezer and until I've eaten the last one, I'm not going to make any hasty decisions.

As for the photos, we got in December 18th and we had our first Christmas in Costa Rica a week later.
Next year I'll want to put up our big fake tree, but Tom swears we'll be camping at the beach. I truly hope the movers lose the camping equipment. Sleeping on the cold wet sand while zipped into a giant nylon bag doesn't sound like a happy holiday experience to me...but what do I know?
Anyway, India had a great time opening presents and the books and black nail polish were the biggest hits. She had daddy read all of the books to her. I got to take a nap. (yay!)
We didn't do much over the holiday. After being apart for so long, just hanging out together has been a real treat.
I found out that it'll take a bit longer to get my own cell phone than I'd initially thought. Whatever. It's not like I'm dying to have a cell attached to my ear 24/7 the way it was in Miami. I kind of like being "out of touch". For now. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough.
There was an earthquake around 4 am the day before Christmas. It woke me up. I just assumed that someone had dropped something or slammed a door upstairs. Now I'm wondering what to do when the next one happens. Is there some procedure for earthquakes or do you just stand there, panicked, waiting for it to end?
In any case, New Year's Eve came and Tom and I stood on the balcony and watched the fireworks across the valley. They went on for over an hour with a prolonged crescendo between 11:15 and 12:15. We drank our champagne and munched our 12 grapes at mid-night. Don't know if they do the grape thing here, but the Cubans do it and it's become our tradition as well. Tom thought it would be a nice idea to wake India so she could see the fireworks. He ran to get her before I could tell him not to. Once she's asleep you don't wake her. For ANY REASON. Sure enough, he brought her up a minute or two before mid-night and she proceeded to grumble about the noise and the cold. For such a generally sweet little kid, she's mean as a snake if you try to make her do something she doesn't want.
She was in much better spirits the next morning and had a virgin Mimosa in her "2008" flute. The glass was a hit. She drank her milk in it after dinner.
I didn't get out today, India had a bit of a cold, but I did begin the house hunt. Spoke to two real estate agents and looked on-line for homes available in this area. This should be an interesting search. I saw three very similar homes listed as being in the same general area and each had wildly different rental rates. I know I'm going to have to see dozens of places. If anyone has any suggestions about what I should ask or look out for, speak up, please. I could use all the help I can get.

I plan to post as often as I can. I'll at least have a photo a day. If I'm lucky, I'll have something to say too. If not, well, this place is lovely and that'll hopefully be enough.