Feliz Navidad

Feliz=happy, Navidad= Christmas, hmm.... I might have to side with the Irish on this one on account of majority rules. Things have been pretty tranquil here. A lot of conversing, reading and trips to the doctors office and bonus: my cousin has a little puppy here and I play with it all the time when it´s not trying to bite me. We had a pretty laid back Christmas tambien with the five of us (2 aunts, 1 grandma, 1 cousin and me) and a late visit from my uncle, his wife and son followed by the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" in Spanish. When my cousin, Maria Paz, has her vacation time in January we have a lot more planned outside of the city but for now I´m liking the slow pace of things. It´s almost the New Year and what´s a new year without a countdown list, right? So here are 5 things I have enjoyed thus far:
#5 - They have a stuffed animal dog that´s dressed up in rain gear and when you press its foot it plays "Singing in the Rain" and dances. My aunt Ximenia thinks this is the funniest thing since number 1 on the countdown list and sporadically throughout the day I´ll hear it play and her singing along in English the best she can.
#4 -My aunts (sisters) said they can´t gossip in Spanish any more because I´m understanding a lot more than when I first landed here. It´s a good thing because my Spanish is getting better but I wonder what they were saying earlier.
#3 -Like in New York, they have random guys come on the bus to sell the riders something or other... "Watch out for hop-ons". The other day a guy came on to our bus to sell us clothes pins and sing us a short rap. By the 10th minute my cousin and I couldn´t hold in our laughter because it was false advertisement and every second he kept singing the harder it was to stop and he could most definitely hear and see us as he c-walked up and down the aisle.
#2 -When planning our vacation for La Serena, outside the city, my cousin told me they have to return by the 15th because it´s voting day and they need to "fulfill their obligation", their words. Civic duty must run in the Quezada blood.
And the number one thing that I have enjoyed thus far (or that I can remember right now) is:
#1 -Last night my aunt Cecilia brought the computer chair up to the dinner table and slipped out of it and fell on the floor. You can imagine me not being able to stop laughing for about 10 minutes. Even right now, a day later, I´m cracking up just typing it out.
So, I hope everyone is well and their Christmases were memorable. The first picture is my abuelita Juana, me, Tia Cecilia, Tia Ximenia and prima, Maria Paz, having Christmas dinner. The second is 3 daughters of 2 of my cousins. The two older ones, Valentina and Vania, are cousins with each other and daughters of 2 of my cousins who are sisters (make sense?). The little one, Florencia, is sisters with Vania. (Aissa: Vale is Maria Soledad´s, Vania and Flor are Paulina´s). The third pic is Maria Paz´s nameless pup that we call niña.