My Big Fat Cuban Family: A Cuban-American Blog

This is a fine mess I've gotten myself into...

We're still living in a bit of chaos.

Our kitchen cabinets are now in the process of being painted and it's taking a few days. So now that I've got my shiny and beautiful new appliances installed, I am still unable to cook and the mess is starting to get to me. I have lost my mojo and am feeling out of sorts creatively.

I haven't even had the energy to bust out my real camera, so the following photos are ones I've taken to with just my iPhone to document our lives this past week.

So here's our life according to my iPhone photos...

(I'm kind of enjoying the toaster, butter dish, and honey vignette, but that's not important right now.)

My dining area is full of everything that was in these cabinets. This is what I was greeted with as I came down the stairs this morning:

We managed to get a meal on the table in our cramped little kitchen the other night and that made me happy.

And we even managed a date night in our front yard.

The very big and bright one is the moon, the other object seen below it is Venus. We also located Jupiter and used the high power lens to see 4 of the moons. (I know. Nerdy McGoober.)

And because I'm Cuban and I feel guilty if I'm not giving you something...

My friend Pam turned me on to the coolest free camera app for the iPhone. It's called Orange Camera and has a bizzillion fun effects.

Get it. Use it. Love it.

I'll be taking a break for a few days to try and find my mojo again.

I mean my creative-flow-type "moe-joe." My other, Cuban "mo-ho" is somewhere in one of those boxes.

Everything I wished for...

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know some of you are wondering what happened with the Dark Christmas Tree. 

Here's the story:

My son, Adam flew in from the Bay Area at the crack of dawn, landing at around 7:30 AM on Christmas eve. Lucy and Jonathan went to pick him up at the airport while Eric and I finished up the last minute touches around here. Or maybe we just slept in, but that's not important right now. ;-)

And they were all exhausted so they napped for most of the day which was fine by me. We had an amazing NocheBuena celebration at my sister, Alina's house. Everything was so beautiful and festive and everyone was so happy. (We also did a photobooth thing again which I'll share with you later.)

In short, a good time was had by all.

We didn't get home until about 11pm. It was then that we busted out the Créme de Vie and cranked up the Christmas music and decorated our own tree and put out the presents and set the table for breakfast.

Christmas morning felt pretty magical and I think we all felt it. (I made them put the lights on the tree in a swirling light pattern. You can see it if you squint. I kind of loved it. A lot.)

We had an absolute feast on Christmas morning that included quiche, fresh fruit, monkey bread and my best friend, Pam's Pamagranate Jelly.

Seriously, the house went from plain to spectacular fabulous magical (=D) overnight.

And as we leisurely had breakfast and opened gifts... (lots and lots of gifts. Thanks, guys!)

I felt absolutely content. We had a wonderful time together and all 6 of us were in the same area code. 

Which is all I really wanted for Christmas anyway. 

12 Days of Cucufate

Every year at Christmastime, I make it a point to find a really fun live show to enjoy with my girls. It's one of our favorite traditions and it has become kind of a big thing.

We start searching for shows and tickets early in the fall. And we fret and argue and try to choose a really fun show. This is what happened the year when Amy Kikita didn't believe she would enjoy the show I chose.

This year we were out-of-our skin delighted to find that our very favorite A capella group, Straight No Chaser was going to be in town. (Well, technically they were going to be playing in San Diego, and even if it's not in our area code it was on our coast, but that's not important right now.)

So we traveled down to San Diego to the Balboa Theater and were treated to the most wonderful evening of amazing music. They are super talented and hilarious.

This is a photo the guys took from the stage and posted on their Facebook wall and asked the audience to tag themselves. Isn't that genius? (You should totally go like them on Facebook.)

After the show they stayed to sign autographs and meet the audience. As if we didn't love them enough before....

We shook their hands and loved on them and they signed our CD and we were happy delirious.

And we listened to their Christmas CD all the way home.

Inspired by their awesomeness, and playing their Holiday Spirits Christmas CD non-stop, I chose their incredible version of The 12 Days of Christmas for the opening of our family Christmas video. 

The pictures I used were ones we took last year in our Nochebuena Photobooth. The word, "Cucufate" means a total screw up. Hence our name, Cucufate Pictures. ;-)

We will show the video on Saturday night at our annual Nochebuena Celebration. Here's a sneak peak....

Watch. And love.

Feliz Navidad to you all!

Classic.

My dad and most of the Verdés side of the family grew up playing multiple instruments. He loved, loved, loved any kind of music, but was an afficionado of classical and played both the piano and the cello.

As much as I love my salsa music, oldies, and classic rock, I love listening to classical when I'm working on an art project. I think it soothes the nerves and helps me relax enough to tap into my right-brain creative self.

So you can imagine my delight when I received an invitation to visit the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to hear the LA Philharmonic (that's the LA Phil to us cool people) perform Mendelssohn's Mystical Landscapes. This concert is part of their Toyota Symphonies for Youth series at the hall.

The LA Phil advertises this family-friendly series as one that makes symphonic music come alive for kids.

From the LA Phil website:

When the young Felix Mendelssohn sets out on his first adventure to Scotland, his beloved sister Fanny is heartbroken that she has to stay home. Fanny breathlessly awaits Felix's letters, which sometimes include lines of new music. And through his music -- inspired by crumbling castles, lively bagpipes, violent ocean waves, and the enchanted Fingal's Cave -- Fanny is transported to her brother's side. If we really listen, we get to go to these mystical lands, too.

The ultimate family event, combining fun and fantasy, makes the LA Phil part of your child’s wonderful world. Led by the LA Phil’s Dudamel Conducting Fellows and directed by theater artists, this series of captivating orchestral concerts will give your children (ages 5-11) the opportunity to create memories they’ll never forget.

My "youths" are 15 and 18, but they were completely delighted (as I was) with the entire program.

Before the concert there were art, dance, craft, and storytelling workshops.

But our hands-down (hands-on?) favorite was the Instrument Petting Zoo where the kids were encouraged to touch and play (Hey! That works on two levels!) with the musical instruments.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall is that crazy, space-age, jaw-droppingly-beautiful building in Downtown Los Angeles.

It would be worth a trip to LA just to experience the magic and majesty of the place.

But the music. Ah, the music...

My kids were definitely the two oldest at this event, but they're both musicians so they were able to appreciate the beauty of it all. They were captivated by the program, by the hall, and of course, by the Instrument Petting Zoo. ;-)

Could this boy look any happier?

Mendelssohn's Mystical Landscapes will be performed again this coming Saturday, November 12th, 2011. Click here for details and tickets.

We are already making plans to return for other events at the hall - Hello, Handel's Messiah Sing-along (!) Extra coolness points - the concerts are awesomely affordable for families.

And the exposure to such beautiful music in such an amazing setting definitely impacted us personally.

Jonathan: "Mom, I might need to get a violin."

See what I mean?

{A special thank you to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil, the Toyota Symphonies for Youth, and alPunto Advertising for the wonderful musical memories.}

No "El Tri-co-tri" for you!

My mom calls.

"Van a ir al tri-co-tri?" She's asking if the kids are going out and Trick or Treating.

El Tri-co-tri. You have to say it phonetically, TREE-COH-TREE. It's what Trick or Treat sounds like with a Cuban accent. The "El" is just to make it grammatically correct. 

El Tri-co-tri. Noun. (Or verb?) The act of dressing up and begging for candy from your neighbors. (Must be a verb.)

No, I sigh. I think they're too old for El Tri-co-tri.

But I love the decorations and I love a good party. And one of them suggested a Nightmare Before Christmas Theme and then it kind of took on a life of its own.

I was in charge of food and decorations, because that's what I do best, but that's not important right now.

I decided to do it all in Tim-Burtony-inspired black and white.

I created the Nightmare Before Christmas silouettes as Photoshop Brushes and pasted them onto paper plates. I think they look very cool if you don't get too close.

I went to a local thrift store and grabbed some black picture frames which made me happy because I was feeling lazier than usual and didn't feel like painting them. (I know. Shut up.)

Then I made the Halloween Subway Art in Photoshop and just printed it out to fit the 8 x 10 frame.

And I messed with a photo of our black cat, Bastet. I really like the look in her eyes.

I painted some pumpkins with black acrylic paint, because again, I was too lazy to carve them. (Don't judge me.)

And voila! Insta-Halloween decorations! *takes bow* 

Here's Jonathan explaining what they decided to do instead of El Tri-co-tri.

It makes me happy to see them all dressed up and having fun.  

Sally and Jack Skellington:

Amy Kikita as a Golden Goddess. Here she is in her Divine Form:

The Mayor and the Corpse Bride:

Edward Scissorhands (pretty awesome, no?):

Lock, Shock, and Barrel:

Victoria (the live bride from the Corpse Bride):

Here they all are in all their black and white glory:

So, a good time was had by all, and even if they didn't get to go do "El Tri-co-tri..."

They did get to enjoy some fabulous Cuban food. ;-)

Japi Jalouin! Have fun with El Tri-co-tri!

 

A lesson in Male vs. Female problem solving

We have had some seriously schizophrenic weather here in the O.C. in the past week.

First there was a string of really ridiculously surface-of-the-sun type hot days in the 100+ range.

Then, poof! The hot weather disappeared and there was a thunder-lightning-downpour with a nice cool breeze. 

All that to say that when the weather changes in these crazy ways, we usually get ants in the house. Which I hate. (I usually spray them with Windex, which kills them and then I can just wipe the counters down and that doesn't seem as toxic as ant spray, but they seem to keep coming back for a while, but that's not important right now.)

So, I've been spraying and cleaning and moving food away from the pantry and onto the kitchen table because I figure that's more of a challenge to the ant colony.

I've been checking the kitchen every few hours, making sure every dish was clean and that there was no sign of food anywhere on the counters (which is a challenge because I'm a super messy cook, but that's not important right now, either).

The ants would return and I would spray and clean and so it went. 

Eric, however, is not as patient as I am, so when I said, "I think they're coming from behind that outlet," he took matters into his own hands.

My hero. *sigh* 

What do you do when (if?) you get ants? Tell me.

Da life.

We just returned from an amazing cruise vacation in the Caribbean. 

And while our bodies are physically back home, our brains are still here:

Me & Eric in Barbados. (I think he looks like a mad scientist in his swim goggles, but that's not important right now.)

I swear, I haven't got one original thought in my head right now. I'll tell you all about it in a day or so.

Getting back to reality after being in such beautiful and relaxing surroundings is kind of hard for me. Not to mention that I've got mountains of laundry to tackle.

So, I'll just be taking my time sorting through photos and reliving the magic to the sound of the spin cycle on my dryer. ;-)

Did you take a vacation this summer? Staycation? Tell me.

Back-to-(Home)School

Jonathan started his sophomore year of high school today.
The beauty of homeschooling is that we can "do school" anywhere that has WI-FI, amazing food....and tiny dinosaurs. ;-)

Happy First Day of School!

The Summer House

My friend, Jana blogs over at The Summer House. It's called the Summer House because she loves the simplicity of living in a summer beach rental-type atmosphere where everything is clean, decluttered, and ready for fun.

She lives out her philosophy of simple living beautifully. And I'm always impressed and inspired by her. 

Internets, meet Jana...

I, of course, am just the opposite. My house is messy and cluttery in an artistic-A.D.D.-hyper-collector sort of way.

In spite of those differences, we are great friends and we manage to carve out a couple of hours for coffee at least once a week throughout the year and a once-a-week beach day through the summer. 

Meanwhile, back at the Summer House......

I started this post telling you about Jana, because we rent a beach house for a long, relaxing week every summer. Because of her inspiration, we have taken to calling it The Summer House. (Don't sue me, please, my friend. Thanks.) 

The house itself is bright and airy, with a big kitchen and lots of couches for lounging and a big patio that's perfect for cookouts and surfboards or in our case drying beach towels.

Our Summer House is only about an hour's drive south from us, in San Diego county. A mere 238 steps to the beach. With the best sand imaginable for sand castle building.

Or expressing ourselves artistically. This is Art.... ;-)

Even though the house is pretty roomy, and we have space for lots of people to hang out, we don't have as many comfortable sleeping surfaces. So we invited friends to come and be with us and just scheduled their visits on different days.

It worked out quite nicely for the first few days, with friends popping in for a morning or afternoon.

And the sun cooperated on some days, but not on others.

Still it was relaxing and fun to just “be” with whoever was available for the day.

I loved the quiet moments in between visitors when I could just sit and read and watch my kids playing in the sand. (Much like I did when they were little. Go figure.)

The ocean was soothing and oh, so healing. And we all were so in need of a rest and the respite that comes from serious playing.

Or just doing nothing. We did a lot of nothing. As often as possible.

Some of our young friends came to celebrate Lucy's 18th birthday, which meant there were more mouths to feed.

For breakfast:

Lunch:

And dinner:

And I appreciate that all of her and Jon's friends are fun and easy to be with.

And are always ready to cooperate with me when I have a camera in my hand, which is most of the time, but that's not important right now. ("Quick, put on these disguises!")

Our time spent in the Summer House also reminds me of my childhood summers in Cuba, which were spent in Varadero, always with a houseful of friends and family. We would get to the beach as early as possible and put off eating because of the 3-Hour Rule (that's me on the right with the mop of uber-curly hair standing behind my trusty Duck Life-saver).

I hope my kids have the same happy memories that I do of the Limited Communal Summer Living Experience (LCSLE?).

It pleases me to think that they will indeed.

 

P.S. Thanks, Jana, for the Summer House inspiration. =D 

19 Years.

On August 8th, 1992, we said, “I do.” And I'm so glad “we did.”

I've been happily kissing this face ever since.

(I don't think I'll get tired of doing that any time soon, but that's not important right now.)

Happy 19th anniversary, Honey. I love you MORE.