Christmas is almost over, or at least it feels so as O has gone back to work and it is a normal working day in Puerto Rico. However, there is still el día de Reyes (Epiphany or Trettondagen) in January when most Spanish and Puertorican children get their presents.*
We have just had some left overs for lunch – turkey, herring salad without herring (I just love the name of this dish) and arroz con leche (rice pudding / risgrynsgröt). It feels like we have eaten a lot this Christmas, as usual, but maybe not as much or as unhealthy as other years – or is that just wishful thinking? The Spanish lamb and patatas a lo pobre (poor people’s potatoes, fried potatoes with onions and then put under the roasting lamb/turkey in the oven) were finally served at around 23.30 on Christmas Eve while we played Trivial Pursuit! A great combination actually for a midnight snack 🙂 Playing TP is a holiday tradition in our family.
Yesterday O and I finally took the family to visit Old San Juan for the first time. We had a nice walk around the city and the old fortress, El Morro together with other locals and tourists. It was a little more quiet than usual, which was nice – the main street Calle de Fortaleza is usually jam-packed with cars.
When we came back home, it was time to prepare the turkey for the oven – it was stuffed with dried mango slices (so yummy!), apples, lime, and fresh coriander. A team effort by my parents and O who made his poor people’s potatoes once again. I stirred the arroz con leche while reading a new book (Digging to America by Anne Tyler – very good)… it would have been too boring otherwise.
O surprised us with the starter: he had cut up some jamón, lomo embuchado (cured loin of pork), Manchego cheese, pickled calamar, fried gambas, spread a mix of boiled eggs, prawns and mayonnaise as well as some tapenade on crackers – we were almost too full for the turkey! Needless to say that the family likes Spanish tapas!
The evening was finished off with Pirates of the Caribbean, when we had finally concluded that no, ABC Family is not ABC and yes, we have the normal ABC channel as well!! I was the only one who had never seen any of the Pirates-films and frankly, I didn’t really like the film that much so when O tucked in for the night (as he had to get up for work this morning), I followed him and skipped the end of the film.
This morning I took a power walk in the sunshine, while the rest of the family was still sleeping. Unfortunately I can’t walk along the beach as there is no beach walk, but I start and end with the sea, as well as at my turning point half way. It was hot at 8.45 even though I had brought a bottle of water – this is why I don’t run if I don’t manage to get up earlier… I don’t want to run with a bottle of water and it’s just too hot for running anyway, even if you see lots of people jogging in the middle of the day here, crazy I say!
If O comes home early enough tonight, we might venture out to one of the outlet malls for some good old mellandagsrea, i.e post-Christmas sale (mellandagar must be such a Swedish expression, the in-between-days refers to the days between Christmas and New Year)…
*) The celebration of the 3 kings / wise men on 6th January, includes presents to the children in some catholic countries, just like baby Jesus received gifts from his far away visitors.
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